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H.I.G. Capital and Thoma Bravo to Acquire CompTIA Brand and Products

jasoneckert
BrianFord said:
I heard this too but truth be told I was standing next to Rick at the time.
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I think it depends on the content.

Some content producers focus on creating shorter, certification-focused content and study aids such as practice questions. Those will directly compete with CertMaster and CompTIA training materials.

However, larger publishers (e.g., Wiley/Sybex, McGraw Hill, Pearson, Cengage) create academic-focused content that focus on the educational needs of a course and program first and foremost, but will also cover the objectives on an associated CompTIA certification exam as an added student benefit. These products don't directly compete with CertMaster and CompTIA training materials. And if the new CompTIA wants to shift direction to do so, they've got some steep competition in that area - in that case, it would be wise to strike an authoring agreement with a major publisher.

Disclaimer: I'm an author of several books related to certification. And I can confidently say that the publishers I've written for have never regarded CertMaster and CompTIA training materials as competing products.
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H.I.G. Capital and Thoma Bravo to Acquire CompTIA Brand and Products

BrianFord
Rick Butler said:
A concern though is that if there is MORE funding available now to buttress CertMaster and CompTIA's training, that will make it tougher for the other content producers, either independent or affiliated with a publisher to compete. I heard this complaint during Summit from a few of them that I spoke with - that earned their living on making content, only now feeling like they are in full on competition with CompTIA now. I personally don't have a dog in that fight - as I am part of a college, so we just consume the products which make sense for our school. But I'm not ignorant to that dynamic, for sure, as I believe that good competition creates better training products.
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I heard this too but truth be told I was standing next to Rick at the time.
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On steering students' learning

BrianFord
In Reddit terms, I'd say you're NTA.

That forum is (unfortunately) full of people looking for a shortcut. In my opinion, you are exactly right when you point at the exam objectives and how the topics are weighted and say, 'Look, there it is!'. Your B is looking for you to disclose something they should be learning so that they don't have to actually learn it.
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On steering students' learning

Tess Sluijter
I've been avoiding an online bickering with someone on Reddit. Thought I'd put it to my co-teachers instead.

The gist of it:
  • Person A asks "I have read the exam objectives, but what takes priority based off of the older exam?"
  • I respond that we cannot divulge such information due to our NDAs; we cannot say what the exam focuses on or covers.
  • Person A responds that they're not looking for dumps or cheat sheets, just for guidance on which topics to focus study on.
  • I counter again that this is still contrary to our NDAs: everything on the objectives is fair game and the objectives provide weighting per objective.
  • Person B chastises me, saying "Instructors and fellow learners can absolutely make suggestions on topics that should be focused on, like Linux file permissions".
That's where I cut out and decide not to continue.

Me personally I hard disagree with B, because that would still be using my inside knowledge to steer someone's learning. I know exactly which topics were focused on in the exams I took, but I'm not going to tell because that laser focuses the students the "the right" parts of the exam. Sure the exam objectives are supposed to be evenly used, but from experience I know certain topics will get priority.

So what's your take on this?
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H.I.G. Capital and Thoma Bravo to Acquire CompTIA Brand and Products

Tess Sluijter
Ooohhh, a thought just struck me.

All the Academic and Delivery Partners are tied to the training-part of CompTIA. I assume this means that our partnerships will all need to be rewritten with a new contract, since the organisation with whom the contract was made is no longer the org exercising the partnerships.

But then there's also the Partners network, which is part of the trade association part of the current CompTIA.

This will become interesting.
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XK-006 is coming in the future

Tess Sluijter
I've already warned my school that if XK0-006 turns out the way it looks right now, I'm advising we move to a competing examination for our annual Linux classes. We need to stay on-focus.

I can't listen to your MP3 right now... is it this one? -> https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/29/linus_torvalds_ai_hype/

'cause yeah.. to me AI is the new blockchain :(
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Network+ voucher

jdmurray
I have also not received notification of my Net+ voucher at either my work or personal email addresses. I have verified that I received full attendance credit for all ten sessions of the TTT N10-009 series. I have a feeling my CIN membership may still be under my personal gmail.com email rather than my work email and this removes me from consideration for receiving exam vouchers.
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XK-006 is coming in the future

jasoneckert
Tess Sluijter said:
Oh I don't mean that it's too much for a 5-day class (which it is too!!).

I mean that a number of additions just don't make sense. Linux+ is a Linux systems administration certification. Yes, container platforms and infrastructure as code are generally important to Linux admins, which is why I applauded the conceptual stuff they added to 005. But what they're doing now is either going WAY overboard (by wanting every student to know actual workings of Kubernetes, Docker/Podman, Docker Swarm, OpenTofu, Ansible and Puppet), OR their objectives are just a lie and they pumped up the content to look good.

Plus, AI in a Linux admin exam? I'm against it.
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Exactly, the scope is daunting at best.

By focusing on Linux usage (including Git), administration, core network administration, containers, and security, the Linux+ 005 exam had a strong topic base that made it perfect for Linux admins, those looking to move into Cyber, and first-year developers.

Anything beyond that should be separated into a separate exam (and course). Automation, CM, orchestration and the SRE topics you mentioned should really be part of a cloud or devops/SRE certification only.

As for AI, I think Linus Torvalds echos most of us when he said the following a few weeks ago: https://triosdevelopers.com/~jason.eckert/stuff/linusAI.mp4
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