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CompTIA Listens and Adjusts Certification Renewal Policy
Since the announcement of the new Certification Renewal Policy earlier this month, CompTIA has received some serious criticism from certification holders.
The new policy stated that the A+, Network+ and Security+ certifications will no longer be lifetime certifications. Instead, the certs would expire three years from the date they’re issued, at which point candidates would have to renew the certs in order to remain certified.
The kicker in the deal was that the new policy applied to everyone — individuals who obtained the certifications in the past along with those who were planing on completing them in the future.
This did not go over well. Take a look at some of the comments we’re received about the issue — people were honestly upset about this, especially those who have been certified for years.
And CompTIA listened.
Changes to CompTIA’s Certification Renewal Policy
Today, CompTIA released a statement clarifying the policy:
“Current certificate holders remain certified for life; renewal requirement applies only to certifications earned on or after January 1, 2011″
Which means that lifetime certifications for A+, Network+ and Security+ certs will remain valid, but only if you certify before the end of this year.
Furthermore, Todd Thibodeaux, CompTIA president and CEO, stated:
“We do not wish to disenfranchise any of the individuals who have supported our certification program. The right thing to do is to honor our past commitment to those certified under our original ‘certified for life’ policy.”
This is great news for a lot of people, but what I still don’t get is why they didn’t say this from the beginning. Why didn’t they try to avoid this situation in the first place? I guess it’s better late than never.
You can read the rest of the press release here
Last Chance to Get Lifetime A+, Network+ and Security+ Certs
So now here is your chance to get A+, Net+ and Security+ certified for life. Wait … let me clarify that, here is your last chance to get these lifetime certs.
If you pass your exams before December 31st, 2010 you can still get your hands on a lifetime A+, Network+ and Security+ certification.
Related Posts:
- CompTIA A+, Net+, Security+: No Longer Lifetime Certifications
- CompTIA A+ 2009 Certification Information
- My First IT Certification! Part 10: CompTIA A+
- My First IT Certification! Part 18: CompTIA A+
- My First IT Certification! Part 9: CompTIA A+
- CompTIA Network+ 2009 Certification Information
- My First IT Certification! Part 12: CompTIA A+
6 Responses to “CompTIA Listens and Adjusts Certification Renewal Policy”
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David Says:
January 27th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
This is great news. I’m glad CompTIA realized their mistake, listened to their cert holders, and changed the policy to honor their previous commitment. Its good to see they chose to act with integrity.
But I wish they still offered some sort a lifetime “base” cert of some kind; I work at a school, and we’d talked about offering A+ study materials/cert vouchers for our student workers, but now if we certified a freshman, their cert would expire before they graduate. And if we certified a junior in the fall, when they got their first job, they’d need to recertify almost immediately, in addition to all the chaos of getting out on their own.
Kasia Grabowska Says:
January 28th, 2010 at 11:28 am
I completely agree with you David. Although there are good intentions for the new policy it changes things for a lot of people. What I wish CompTIA would do instead of putting an expiration date on the certs is date them so there is still some incentive to re-certifying but that it’s not a requirement for everyone. Honestly, I don’t think a lot of people will want to spend the extra time and money updating their entry level certs. But I’ll guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens…
Eric Says:
January 28th, 2010 at 11:45 am
I feel a lot of people are ignoring the fact that continuing education units will count towards renewing your certification. You’re not required to re-certify if you attend conferences, volunteer, or perform other activities. If A+ holders don’t want to have their certs expire, I know if I were hiring for a position I would ask which year you received your A+. Because someone certified in 1997 may not have as much up-to-date knowledge as someone certified in 2007.
Kasia Grabowska Says:
January 28th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
That’s a good point Eric, you don’t have to retake the exams in order to re-certify. In theory, the entire policy makes a lot of sense and as I mentioned before, I can see how this will benefit IT professionals. What will it do to CompTIA’s popularity in 2011 — that’s another story.
Brad Says:
February 18th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
This is a major mistake on CompTIA’s part. The original cert for life meant nothing. Someone who certified 5 or 6 years ago and hasn’t stayed current, knows very little about Networks, PCs. or Security. The whole idea about recertification or maintenance of the cert is to stay current in the technology that you are bragging about being certified in.
The original cert meant about the same thing as the original Microsoft certs., they were paper and worthless. You may as well have taken the Brainbench tests. CompTIA made a mistake here and it WILL come back to bite them when the cert is marinalized to the point of having to ask when someone obtained it to judge relevancy.
Gareth Says:
February 19th, 2010 at 5:23 am
“SHOW ME THE MONEY” thats what CompTia are shouting now nothing to do with education recertifying etc. like Microsoft & Cisco CompTia have realised that they can gain a bit of revenue from this its aload of BS if you ask me.