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Michael Schmitz · Aug 19, 2025

Bruce Weaver said:
I kick myself for not getting this having been a CompTIA trainer for so long! I believe CompTIA is used to the big numbers that A+ Net+ Security+ and the like pull in, but I also really hope CompTIA sees the value in being the primary source of having a certification showing more than just technical knowledge is required for good student/classroom management.

Sure, the quantity of testers will be vastly lower than your "average" certification, but that is not surprising considering there are far fewer instructors then there are students in the world. The only other option I find is the Modern Classroom Certified Trainer® (MCCT) (Exam MCC-210) and I would MUCH rather have something like this from CompTIA.

It was long before announced to retire. A lot here took the chance to try to pass one or both.
I think the Effort was to cost intensiv for granting the certification and there was no need to Update the Content.
Other Vendors offer still ways to certify your educational qualification for technical content..

Complaining about that in 2025/07, when it retired in 12/2023 is a little late...

Michael Schmitz · Aug 19, 2025

did not see one..
Past the Exam today... ;-)

Michael Schmitz · Aug 19, 2025

Passed CNX-001 today.. ;-)

Bruce Weaver · Aug 19, 2025

It no longer shows "Academic" next to your name but after it gets sorted out with the CompTIA rep, you should see academic pricing. I guess I was one of the lucky ones who never had this problem. Academic pricing is definitely working for myself and our Director of Education....but not our curriculum developer.

Rick Butler · Aug 19, 2025

Leslie said:
Now, I always encourage my students, most of whom are working toward their associate degrees, to get certifications in addition to their degree. This combination gives them a significant competitive advantage when they start looking for jobs. It shows potential employers that they have both a strong foundational education and specialized, practical skills.

I go back to my previous statement - "there are no silver bullets". There is no *one thing* that you can do that will write you a golden ticket to the chocolate factory. No cert, no degree, not a single one is your Ticket to Ride. It's always going to be an amalgam of certificates, certifications, degrees, diplomas, and the like, coupled with the real world experience that a professional accumulates that brings a person to even having a chance at success.

There are also those very important soft skills that can lock a person out of the field, no matter if they are a doctor with a CCIE - if they are a quintessential jerk, well, their chances at job hire or retention is going to suffer.

I think the most important thing a person can do is network - network with other people with the same or different cert. Interestingly, I met a chap in the gym where I work out that is also a SecurityX and working on his doctorate. Sharp guy. But I never would have met him if he didn't see my CompTIA CIN water bottle that I picked up from Partner Summit '23.

/r

Rick Butler · Aug 19, 2025

I doubt we'll see a "ProjectX" - mostly because it would collide heavily with the PMI certs. People might assume it's on par with the PMP.

I know Server+ has teetered on the edge of "stay or go". Basically, it's there to fill in that role for on-prem environments - maybe dipping its toes in the private cloud space.

Rick Butler · Aug 19, 2025

Is this just for live-stream or will it be available on the rewind?

baylis · Aug 19, 2025

Leslie said:
Having spent many years in the IT field myself, I can tell you that my journey was a bit unconventional. I started out with no degrees or certifications, relying instead on my passion for learning and a willingness to dive in and gain hands-on experience. I learned so much from my colleagues and through self-study, and it served me well for a long time.

Later, when I was at a company that offered tuition assistance, I decided to go back to school. I ended up earning two associate degrees, two bachelor's degrees, and four master's degrees! The real value of all that schooling wasn't just the credentials, but how it exposed me to new topics I hadn't encountered in my work. It also really sharpened my critical thinking skills.

Eventually, I got the opportunity to teach database and data classes at my local community college. As a teacher, I felt it was important to lead by example, so I pursued certifications in the subjects I was teaching.

Now, I always encourage my students, most of whom are working toward their associate degrees, to get certifications in addition to their degree. This combination gives them a significant competitive advantage when they start looking for jobs. It shows potential employers that they have both a strong foundational education and specialized, practical skills.

Perfectly worded ! Its important learn, validate your skills and keep moving forward

Leslie · Aug 19, 2025

Having spent many years in the IT field myself, I can tell you that my journey was a bit unconventional. I started out with no degrees or certifications, relying instead on my passion for learning and a willingness to dive in and gain hands-on experience. I learned so much from my colleagues and through self-study, and it served me well for a long time.

Later, when I was at a company that offered tuition assistance, I decided to go back to school. I ended up earning two associate degrees, two bachelor's degrees, and four master's degrees! The real value of all that schooling wasn't just the credentials, but how it exposed me to new topics I hadn't encountered in my work. It also really sharpened my critical thinking skills.

Eventually, I got the opportunity to teach database and data classes at my local community college. As a teacher, I felt it was important to lead by example, so I pursued certifications in the subjects I was teaching.

Now, I always encourage my students, most of whom are working toward their associate degrees, to get certifications in addition to their degree. This combination gives them a significant competitive advantage when they start looking for jobs. It shows potential employers that they have both a strong foundational education and specialized, practical skills.

Stephen Schneiter · Aug 19, 2025

Join us for this Special event, livestreamed from the AFCEA TechNet Augusta conference.

The cybersecurity viability trifecta: Visibility, observability, and properly-trained AI

It’s no secret that cybersecurity professionals struggle to reduce cost, increase scale, and improve their ability to actively profile every element and characteristic of their organization’s attack surface.

For the CompTIA Learning event at TechNet Augusta, join us as we welcome Vectra AI, Keysight, and Cribl. Together, we’ll investigate how organizations manage vulnerabilities and respond to incidents by taking a more data-driven approach. We’ll discuss how organizations are using techniques and technologies such as proactive systems analysis, AI-driven analysis, packet decryption, and packet brokers to enable visibility and observability. Our panelists will regale you with stories about how organizations overcame implementation challenges. They’ll outline how organizations increased their ability to anticipate issues and threats, even as their attack surface morphed more quickly than they ever thought possible. Discussion points will include:

Discovering and analyzing today’s tech footprint: Traditional and AI-based approaches
Data collection and the attack lifecycle in today’s hybrid environments: The place of AI
The practical use of various visibility and observability techniques, architectures, and tools
Meeting today’s challenges, including changing attack surfaces and increased regulatory compliance pressures.

This session is valid for two (2) hours of CE credits for:

CompTIA A+
CompTIA DataSys+
CompTIA Network+
CompTIA Security+
CompTIA Linux+
CompTIA Cloud+

What: Live Streamed Event
When: Wednesday, August 20, 2025, 1:00-4:00 PM, (2-hour webinar)
Who: James Stanger, CompTIA
Where: ON24
Register Here

baylis · Aug 19, 2025

Tangobro said:
The Wall Street Journal recently posted an article, based on research from the Burning Glass Institute, questioning the value of certs. The WSJ title was "Skill Certificates Rarely Pay Off."
Seems they did not clearly distinguish certificates from certifications.

This tool shows some interesting findings:

BGI - The Credential Value Index

navigator.credentialvalueindex.org

Another "negative Nancy" posting nonsense. I doesn't matter whether you pursue a PhD or earn 1000 certifications . This industry is about constant learning and becoming knowable .

Keith Consol · Aug 19, 2025

I don't know all the behind scenes stuff. I did learn there is student pricing and academic pricing. Some things appear with academic pricing, other items are not. If academic pricing does not show up, you can reach out to your CompTIA contact and they can create an invoice. We've had to do this a few times. There is such thing as Academic pricing and you can get it. Just need to jump through a few hoops.

Michael Schmitz · Aug 19, 2025

Rick Butler said:
I never saw any e-mails on that either. But I would not be surprised by the move. I can see a CE requirement for Project+, as things tend to shift in the world of PM. Server+...well, perhaps not as pervasive unless we wanted to focus more on virtual server technology, rather than on-prem servers. But then, that would cross over into Cloud+, which is a CE cert already.

I am ok with that. Maybe there will be a ProjectX Cert or Server+ will run out, as others before..

Michael Schmitz · Aug 19, 2025

Jzol said:
still very very new and sorry for asking. How do we check or find the requirements? I feel I need the "I am very new and need more training on the CIN headline" lol

Listen to the Intro of Stephen in each first Session of a TTT, there it will be explained:
- You need to attend a min. Number of Sessions (live or recorded) based on the Number of Sessions (maybe 10 out of 12)
- You need to watch them afterwards in a graceperiod after the last Session (maybe 2 weeks)
- Need to be a Member of CIN before starting to watch

That are the most important ones.
That may change for future TTT, as CompTIA changes in the Moment. So we will see what rules will apply for new TTT.

Jzol · Aug 19, 2025

Michael Schmitz said:
Via Email when the Attendance Record are checked, Requirements are fullfilled and Stephan S. has recieved the Vouchers. Then he will send them out via Email to your CIN Adress (which should be the one used for the TTT as well). Asking will not speed up the Process.

still very very new and sorry for asking. How do we check or find the requirements? I feel I need the "I am very new and need more training on the CIN headline" lol

Michael Schmitz · Aug 19, 2025

Jzol said:
How do we get the vouchers? I'm new to the instructor network and have been reading and teaching CompTIA classes for some time but hopefully catching this early

Via Email when the Attendance Record are checked, Requirements are fullfilled and Stephan S. has recieved the Vouchers. Then he will send them out via Email to your CIN Adress (which should be the one used for the TTT as well). Asking will not speed up the Process.

Jzol · Aug 19, 2025

Mike Leih said:
I am attempting to purchase exam vouchers for my students, and it appears that with the new website store, academic pricing is not available. Is anyone else experiencing this issue? Does anyone know how to purchase vouchers for students at the academic price now that PearsonVue no longer sells CompTIA vouchers and the new CompTIA store is not supporting academic pricing?

maybe one day PearsonVue can stop proctoring as well too...ugh...but everything is going SSO. It's all still changing and moving and I also need to check how I merge all my things because I teach the classes and have certs. But the vouchers should still work fine? Any good updates?

Jzol · Aug 19, 2025

How do we get the vouchers? I'm new to the instructor network and have been reading and teaching CompTIA classes for some time but hopefully catching this early

Jzol · Aug 18, 2025

Tangobro said:
Just got notified that the A+ class that I was supposed to start teaching next week was cancelled because the the cost of core 1 & 2 student material now exceeds the budget of $180 per student. Does anyone have a copy of the Academic Partner price list? Maybe I can cobble together something on the cheap, or at least verify that they are looking at Academic Partner pricing. I've been teaching this class for this institution for 2 years, 1st time with this problem.

Since everything is merging and moving around at my college, our bookstore is cheaper. It all depends on the reps. It is sad to see the whole website change. For individuals if they want to buy something off of the website there are different types of courses so Certmaster perform is the top tier and then they have labs, learn, etc. and are dividing everything. I had to confirm from my rep that the price sticks even at the academic rate when my students confirm their student ID, it is still expensive

Rick Butler · Aug 18, 2025

The pendulum always swings.

Every few years, we see articles like these that poo-poo on this certification or that credential. Whether it's someone in the education sector that is trying to accentuate the importance of secondary education (as a means to get more students to take out phat student loans), or the certification crowd saying, "see, you don't REALLY need a degree to do the job", while there are hordes of students who are trying to find that ever changing magic formula that's going to get them hired for big bucks into that dream job.

Indeed and Reddit are the worst when it comes to all that.

At the end of the day, I think the best advice I'd ever give someone coming up is to be an expert in the material - whether through a degree or cert and let that carry you into that first interview. There are no silver bullets in any of this - it's all about the right combination of credential when a job swings around.

As to the BGI tool - well, I wonder if it has enough real data to substantiate.

Rick Butler · Aug 18, 2025

I have a new shirt for you, Jason...

(another reason why I don't do apple products...btw...)

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