CompTIA Certification Renewal Policy

Discussion in 'News' started by Kitkatninja, Jan 13, 2010.

  1. Kitkatninja
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    CompTIA Certification Renewal Policy



    CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+ certifications are now valid for three years from the date the candidate is certified. The change brings the CompTIA certifications in line with the practice of other major providers of certifications for IT professionals, such as Cisco, Microsoft and Oracle.

    The renewal policy also is required for these three certifications to maintain their accreditation and compliance with internationally accepted standards for assessing personnel certification programs (ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024). CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ and CompTIA Security+ certifications earned the ISO 17024 accreditation from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 2008. ISO requires that individuals have a way to renew the currency of their certification on a regular basis. In CompTIA’s case, renewal will occur every three years.

    The new certification renewal policy is applicable to all individuals who hold CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+ certifications, regardless of the date they were certified. Other CompTIA certifications are not affected at this time.

    Read the rest of the article here, the FAQ are here.

    -Ken
     
    Certifications: MSc, PGDip, PGCert, BSc, HNC, LCGI, MBCS CITP, MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCE, A+, N+, S+, Server+
    WIP: MSc Cyber Security
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Comments

    1. Sparky
    2. Fergal1982
      Fergal1982
      Sounds like a crock to me. Glad I never bothered my arse.

      Here's the plan: I'll start a new company providing vendor neutral certifications - CompTits

      For a small fee (£10 - hey, I gotta eat!) anyone with a CompTIA cert from the last 20 years will be automagically certified in my equivalent certification (A^2, N^2, Sec^2). A certification guaranteed to be for life, or your money back.

      Job done!

      Question, does this now mean that the official stance of CF is no longer to recommend certification from CompTIA? Also, I would suggest someone document this into a sticky and place it on each of the CompTIA forums.
    3. soundian
      soundian
      CF don't have an official stance.
    4. Bluerinse
      Bluerinse
      I don't believe CertForums have ever had an official stance on recommending CompTIA products. The forum has always tried to remain neutral on such things.

      Having said that, this decision to change their rules to comply with some airy fairy standardisation program, is bordering on ridiculous.

      They have shot themselves in the foot :wink:
    5. Josiahb
      Josiahb
      Think its worse than that, they've blown their entire leg off.
    6. westernkings
      westernkings
      This.

      I am all for no longer recommending any Comptia Certifications with the renewal policy and sticky this thread or something with the contents of this in.
    7. michael78
      michael78
      I had an interesting telephone call to CompTIA and the guys reasoning was that MS make you renew your MCSA which I pointed out no they don't. You are an MCSA for life at that Windows Server version you sat it at. I told him to look at IT forums and cert forums including here to see how cheesed off and let down people are. I also told him I would be keeping my certs on my CV regardless of CompTIA's wishes and he might want to consider brushing up on his CV as CompTIA will be going down the pan.
    8. derkit
      derkit
      And his reaction was .........?
    9. derkit
      derkit
    10. JonnyMX
    11. itskillsguy
    12. Boycie
      Boycie
    13. danielno8
      danielno8
      haha haven't been able to read yet but glad they know how pissed off everyone is

      EDIT: ok nevermind lol
      Last edited: Jan 15, 2010
    14. itskillsguy
      itskillsguy
      Funny how they CompTIA are a non-profit organisation.

      Just to confirm, a non-profit organisation is an organisation that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals. CompTIA's goal is to Advance the Global IT industry and certifications are only 1 piece to the ever growing benefits that they are launching.
    15. dmarsh
      dmarsh
      In theory yes, but many charities pursue profit making agendas even though its not in their mandate. They like to grow, they want more money, managers want more subordinates, status etc, its human nature...

      Some animal charities have multi million pound bank balances, enough to feed all the stray dogs, but they still advertise to generate more funds...

      So it may not be recorded as 'profit', but the end effect is very similar.

      CompTia effectively want to win government contracts to make more money and they want to charge their existing user base more. Thats also probably why they experimented with the bridging exams. Most large cert vendors have toyed with re-cert because to them it is the golden goose.

      Unfortunatey these decisions often are made by accountants who fail to realise that, under too much strain the goose can die. One accountancy software firm apparently wrote an app that predicted sacking 100% of the workforce would make the most profit, it had no rules to say manpower was required to generate profit.

      Not everything of value can be given a price, CompTia have failed to respect their core customer base, instead prefering to favour the US DoD, that to me massively decreases my opinion of them.

      Many CompTia cert holders are not US nationals, they will likely never get a greencard or work in the US, they are even less likely to work for the US DoD, why should they be affected ?

      If the US DoD wants to force their employees to recert let them put it into their employment contracts and leave the cert industry alone.

      Then I would say they are out of touch with their customers and possibly their goals are either wrong or misaligned.

      How does CompTIA advance global IT industry ? I would say their influence on global IT is minimal to say the least.

      They are most well known for their A+ certification above all else which this move impacts.

      I see very few benefits and only drawbacks to this move, I shall not be taking anymore CompTia certifications unless the policy is reversed. I will also not pay CompTia or its associates to maintain my certs. I will not jump through bureaucracy and have my personal development judged as worthy / unworthy by some nameless and probably clueless CompTia official.
      Last edited: Jan 17, 2010
    16. dmarsh
      dmarsh
      Here is directive 8570.1 :-

      http://www.ittrainingblog.com/2009/07/department-of-defense-directive-8570.html
      http://www.slideshare.net/gtslearning/comptia-certifications-approved-for-directive-85701
      http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/857001m.pdf

      Many Microsoft certifications have have ANSI/ISO accreditation even though they do not expire. (Ok so it is end of life, in reality this can be 10+ years if you look at things like W2K and XP. Microsoft also did not make retrospective changes, its old certs are still for life. Microsoft never actively marketed its certs as for life and typically charges 50% less than CompTia.) Microsoft listened to it's user base, well done Microsoft ! :)

      http://www.redorbit.com/news/techno...o_personnel_certification_programs/index.html

      Wikipedia has CompTia ANSI accredited from 2007. (ok unreliable source...)

      So here is CompTia ANSI accredited from 2008 :-

      https://www.ansica.org/wwwversion2/...ails.asp?menuID=2&prgID=201&orgID=93&status=4

      The ISO accreditation process appears to date back to 2003, so they had between 2-7 years to tell us they wanted to change ! Even 8570.01-M goes back to 2005 !

      So why the sudden change now ? Why retrospective ? Why no forward notice to CompTia certified individuals ?

      Could it be they saw an opportunity to cash in on a new 8570.01-M ammendment and also extract more funds from existing members, but wanted to slip it in under the radar so as not to spook existing cert holders ?

      ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024 Guidelines here.

      From what I can tell it would be down to CompTia to make their case for or against re-certification, I guess they chose an 8570.1 amendment as an argument for.
      Last edited: Jan 17, 2010
    17. michael78
      michael78
      It was the UK office I called as I was wanting to get some replacement certs to put into a frame on my wall but there aint any point now. To be honest the guy just said they were all trying to get their head around the changes. He kept saying they needed to do this change for ISO and said about MS doing the same and needing people to recertify every 3 years in which I pointed out they don't. I just got the impression they weren't really ready to explain the changes.

      What I asked was whether compTIA can do this and he didn't know. I wouldn't mind delving into this as I think they are on shaky ground on the legalities of this change.
    18. gurusapprentice
      gurusapprentice
      Ok lets get some of this in perspective £162 for N+ ( no second shot etc) £88 for each of INCD1 + 2 or £88 for 802 to get CCNA £88 for each MS exam unless a student then it is £44 plus 2nd shot voucher. Most employers WILL prefer MCP or MCTS to an A+ or N+ any day of the week and if its on the server /networking side most will bite your hand off if you wave a CCNA/CCNP @ them. The other thing of note is ( this may already have been said) CISCO have ALWAYS insisted on retraining after 3 yrs but there are many good reasons for that. MS have NEVER required retraining to remained qualified i.e if your MCSE 2000 or 2003 or an MCSA as was then your still an MCSE/MCSA though most like myself will update taking either 1 or 2 exams as required. That however is the individual choice if I never sit an exam for 15 yrs I will still be qualified as an MCSA 2003, where as if you hold A+ from 5 yrs ago your know no longer qualified. Alternatively take security+ then according to them you have all 3. MONEY MAKING Scheme by the most unnessercary and over priced outfit. IMVHO
    19. miflandia
      miflandia
      Money making scheme.:)
      It has to be. I think ISO never tells you to do this or do that. Iso (as far as i know) ask you to set up rules and regulations what you have follow. And they come to check (audit) this. But even if i wrong about that. How comes this:
      We have to re-take only the higher cert. So if i have a+ n+ i have to re-take only the n+,
      but if you think about it the 15-20% of the a+ about the networking. The rest of the domains has nothing to do with networking. That means you are not updating your It technician skills at all(20%). So if the ISO really require this re-take, or they really worry about the comtia certified people has to be up to date, then we should re-take all.
      So it is all about the money making.(non profit organization,:oops:)
      But i still hope this certs going to help me get in the IT industry.:blink
    20. reverb
      reverb
      I intended to do the A+ last year but I put that on hold instead to do the MCDST (I didn't really like reading the A+ book,lost motivation). Anyways, I had planned to do the A+ and N+ straight after the MCDST but no chance now unless they reduce the prices. I don't see the point of taking the exams for some entry level certs that will cost £300+ and then expire. Besides as mentioned already, in the UK CompTIA is not that recognised!

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