Certification statistics?

[Hemlock]

I'm wondering if there are publicly available statistics (or graphs) on CompTIA certifications taken, say in North America (or world wide) over the last few years. We are re-vamping our Technology program at our college and will be designing new courses that will align in parallel with CompTIA certifications. To further promote this program and get this through our education council, it would be nice to have some stats that show the popularity of certifications.
For example: Something like, in 2020 there were 10,000 A+ exams taken, 7000 Network+ exams taken in the United States.
Or perhaps there are stats that show something along the lines of... 85% of all IT employers favor a certification from CompTIA.
Is there any such info out there?
Basically, we are looking for any info that would help promote our program that is in alignment with CompTIA certifications.
Thanks!

 

[Rick Butler]

Hey Hemlock - CompTIA doesn't publish any metrics, pass rates, or the like for any of its certifications. Obviously, they have this information, but they do not share it outside of a privileged few.

The best way I've found to promote your program being in alignment with CompTIA is to become a CompTIA Authorized Partner (CAPP) academic member.

/r

 

[Hemlock]

Thanks Rick.
Yes, we are already a CAPP member. I was just hoping for more "ammo" to help promote our program and it's alignment with CompTIA's certifications. I'll dig around the tubes and see if I can find any other articles promoting the case for graduates to earn credentials from the likes of CompTIA, Cisco and other organizations.

 

[Rick Butler]

Well, the best things I can tell you about promoting your program won't lie in how pervasive CompTIA's certifications are, but rather, what makes YOUR school different from everyone else. While I don't know where your school is or what your competition is, I've seen schools that basically do the same as the school down the street.

Getting certs is nice. We are all about that here in the CIN. But if you want to really sell your program, I would suggest you focus on these things:

1. What does your school do to promote hands-on....REAL hands on, not simulations done by tools like Testout.?
2. How does your school help students, whatever level they come in, be successful, in the classroom and with employers at graduation? Really successful, not just "shut up and do your homework an you'll pass the class", rather than actually LEARNING those skills that are in hot demand?
3. What do employers say about your graduates? Do you have any notable employers that can say anything good about your program.

But your biggest selling points will be your graduates. What do they say? Do they get jobs in the field, fully qualified to meet those challenges or are they just "graduates" - people who passed the classes, maybe they have the certs, maybe they don't. But they have the skills and got that job they wouldn't otherwise have gotten.

If you want to sell your school to the student who is vacillating between institutions, it needs to start....and end...with the student feeling just as good and trusting about your school the day they walk in as they day they walk out. And I dare say, none of that has to do with how many certs the CompTIA is producing year over year.

/r

 

[Hemlock]

Well said.
We are doing most (if not all) of those things already with our current technology based programs. We are located in the middle of British Columbia, Canada.
We definitely push hands-on and our students have access to real world equipment.
We have a full 20 station computer lab with a rack of Cisco equipment for each station, and we just recently put in a 20 station rack server (mini data center) into another lab so each student can touch and have dedicated access to their own poweredge rack server.
Our college has a public PearsonVUE test center, and we have a private one of our own too.

We could definitely improve on seeing how our grads are doing and asking "How are you? And what are you doing now?", but we've heard good things that students graduating are getting into the tech field all across Western Canada.
It appears that students that continue on to earn a cert during their studies, or shortly after graduation have a better chance to get a job.
We have an active Advisory Committee for our community too and so we do rely on that group to help us stay relevant.