At the recent EMEA Conference, CompTIA announced some very interesting results & statistics.
Several new surveys have shown that IT certification has yet again proved to be a highly sought-after commodity amongst employers in the UK and around the world.
With today’s economic challenges, businesses everywhere are looking to cut-costs, get more efficient and try to squeeze more productivity and profit out of their current operations. IT is very often the way to do this.
IT systems can signinficantly streamline any business, and the need for qualified personnel to maintain these systems is paramount. Common points raised were:
- The IT Skills gap was identified and commented upon in almost every survey of senior management. We have an acknowledged worldwide shortage of qualified IT people.
- IT Managers report the most important IT skills requirements were: Security, General Networking, Networking Infrastructure and Operating Systems.
- There were significant skills gaps also raised in Project Management and vendor-neutral server technology.
- The skillset expected to experience the most growth over the next 5 years is around Wireless/Wi-Fi technology.
- Business highlighted the need for verifiable and transferable certifications and credentials. Proper certification is becoming a pre-requisite of most IT employment now.
Surveyed businesses also commented on IT Certification itself, saying:
- Team skill was directly responsible for organisational performance.
- Concentration of certifications in a team was clearly linked to their capability and performance.
- Maximising the use of technology in business requires a well-skilled IT team.
- Business experiences higher productivity, higher customer satisfaction, better inter-communication and more insightful problem solving with a skilled IT team.
Of the many IT professionals that were surveyed:
- A massive 90% of them chose certification for career and professional development
- An incredible 74% of them expressed HIGH satisfaction with their job
(How many career-tracks can claim that three quarters of qualified people experience high levels of job satisfaction!) - 82% said that certification material was directly relevant to their job.
- 47% (almost half) claimed that their problem-solving capabilites were enhanced through certification.
All of these facts are further proof of what we already know: IT Certification is becoming increasingly important in today’s business market.
Can any of us really imagine a world where IT is going to become LESS important! Society’s reliance on IT becomes more ingrained every day.
For the vast majority of us, that means IT will play a key part in our work skill-set. The conclusion is therefore obvious: IT Certification needs to be planned sooner rather that later.
As our economy recovers over the next couple of years, will you be ready to maximise your income, career and and professional development? Or will you be one of the crowd who sat around waiting for the world to improve around them – only to find they missed the boat.
Request an information pack if you’d like to discover more, or talk to one of our independent professional career advisors. (Just click on the orange star button at the top-right of the page.)
Jason Kendall
