I’m holding an IT Certification but is it still relevant?
It’s a digital world and Information Technology (IT) has become embedded into nearly every aspect of our business and personal lives. Like the physical IT infrastructure, the IT organization must be well prepared and the workforce appropriately skilled. This is where IT certifications show their value; they help the workforce validate relevant capabilities and competencies.
IT organizations should seek to maximize the skills of their employees by leveraging a robust training and development program (including IT certification).
According to the CompTIA 2015 International Technology Adoption and Workforce Trends Study, the TOP 5 areas where businesses should focus to minimize the Skills Gap are:
- Infrastructure and Networks
- Information Management and Database
- Storage and Data Backup
- DataCenter and Server Management
- Data Analytics and Business Intelligence
The Study states that certification helps build a more loyal workforce, citing that
84% of certified workers remain with their current employer.
Major reasons to become certified include:
- Improving employment opportunities
- Building new skills/knowledge
- Career advancement opportunities (raise/promotion)
- Preparing for a career or job role change
Another CompTIA research study cites additional facts that make it hard to ignore the need for certification.
- 96 percent of HR managers use IT certifications during recruitment for screening or hiring criteria.
- 72 percent of employers use IT certifications as a requirement for specific job roles.
- 66 percent of employers find IT certifications valuable.
- 65 percent of employers use IT certifications to differentiate between candidates that are equally qualified.
- 60 percent of employers tend to use IT certifications to confirm a job candidate’s expertise or subject matter knowledge
EMC Proven Professional Certification
Established over 12 years ago, the EMC Proven Professional Program is a comprehensive education and certification program. It develops and validates skills required to plan, deploy, manage, and leverage the information infrastructure. EMC’s own workforce as well as its Partners and Customers sign up for exams that are delivered globally at PearsonVUE Test Centers.
There are 72 certification options and three main levels of EMC Proven Professional: Associate, Specialist and Expert.
Certified EMC Proven Professionals enjoy several benefits. Along with use of the program logo and program acronym on business cards, there is also Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Maintenance.
Knowledge Sharing is a platform for EMC Proven Professionals to share expertise, unique deployments, best practices, or any relevant topic of interest through articles submitted to the annual Knowledge Sharing Competition. Written exclusively by EMC Proven Professionals, articles selected for publication reach a broad IT audience. Anyone can learn from these Knowledge Sharing articles.
Knowledge Maintenance (KM) is an exclusive benefit for EMC Proven Professional Specialists and Experts who hold the most recent version of the certification aligned to their technical speciality. The KM benefit provides free and proactive training updates.
Keeping current on EMC’s rapidly changing technologies helps sustain the value of your EMC Proven Professional certification.
