“Indian defence forces are training officers on Comp TIA certification programs”
Deniss Kwork, Vice President, Asia Pacific, CompTIA shares the key initiatives and CompTIA’s mission and vision for India
What are the key objectives of CompTIA?
CompTIA (Computing Technology Industry Association) is an IT industry trade association headquartered in Chicago USA and having international offices in UK, South Africa, Japan and India. Since its inception in 1982 CompTIA has represented the global IT industry through advocacy, public policy and workforce development. CompTIA has more than 2000 enterprise level members and 3000+ academic and commercial training partners.
One of the key initiatives that CompTIA drives is around workforce skill development through a dynamic set of skill certification and learning programs. These programs help individuals across the world to enter and progress inInformation Technology careers. CompTIA develops all these certifications and learning programs through a collaborative effort with the IT industry and therefore the skill outcomes of these programs mirror the actual requirements from organizations. CompTIA has certified more than 2.5 Million individuals across the globe. CompTIA certifications cover an entry to expert career pathway in relevant domains such as IT Infrastructure, Cloud Computing, network technology and cybersecurity among others. To provide an end to end solution for individuals, CompTIA has now invested substantially in developing top of the line self-paced and classroom training material for certifications under the banner of CompTIA Official Content.
What has been your achievments on the Indian market?
During the past few years since starting its operations in India, CompTIA has focused on the mostly on the career seeker segment. This segment is of utmost importance as a lack of skills among multitude of students leads to a huge skills gap that plagues the industry. Much has been written on this issue as organizations were forced to invest huge amount of resources to re-train these students post hiring. In association with academic and commercial B2C training partners, CompTIA has certified a large number of students, especially in Tier 2 and 3 towns to earn a rewarding career in IT. Many of these students went on to get jobs in large MNC’s and IT
CompTIA has represented the global IT industry through advocacy, public policy and workforce development. CompTIA has more than 2000 enterprise level members and 3000+ academic and commercial training partners.
services companies. In terms of certification adoption and skill enhancements for new hire and current employees, almost all leading IT companies prefer multiple CompTIA certifications. Some of these organizations are global leaders such as Dell, HP, Accenture, IBM, Apple, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Cap Gemini among many others.
Are you involved in the government projects?
We are currently in discussions with multiple central and state Government agencies involved in mass skill development of Indian students. While the Government has identified the challenge and has some great initiatives in place, it will take some time to completely integrate these programs with international industry bodies and certification providers such as ours. However, there are many Government bodies, especially the defense forces that have recently found value in CompTIA cybersecurity certification programs and has successfully trained and certified some officers with our programs.
Globally CompTIA is exceptionally strong it its alliance with the Government. Our largest sponsor across the world is The US Department of Defense, which mandates IT staff to be CompTIA certified to execute their respective job roles. Another recent example of Government collaboration is the mass skill development program in Thailand, under which the Thai Government has endorsed CompTIA certification to be part of their engineering curriculum. Similar programs are run by various other Governments in Singapore, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
What are the specific training programs included in the CompTIA portfolio?
CompTIA has a portfolio of thirteen certification programs. These range from fundamentals of IT right up to a master level program in Cybersecurity. These certifications cover the core IT domains of IT Infrastructure, network technology, Linux administration, Cloud Computing, server – storage and cybersecurity. Apart from these CompTIA also has programs in project management and trainer capabilities.
CompTIA has identified two distinct tracks of IT skills – one in Infrastructure domain that includes CompTIA programs such as IT Fundamentals, A+, Network+, Linux+, Server+ and Cloud+. The other track is related to Cybersecurity and contains Security+, CySA+ (CyberSecurity Analyst), PenTest+ (Penetration testing) and CASP (CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner).
Individuals can select a relevant certification based on their skill levels and aspirations and engage in either self-paced learning or classroom training with one of CompTIA Authorized training delivery partners. CompTIA has created an interactive website which guides IT professionals or students who wish to enter the IT industry on what kind of training and certification is required.
What is CompTIA Future roadmap for India?
CompTIA will continue to work with all the three segments in India – individuals which comprise students and working professionals, enterprise organizations and academic institutions to promote the adoption of CompTIA training and certification programs. The success of industry will be defined by how fast we can close the skill gap and CompTIA is committed to add value to this ecosystem through their leading- edge training and certification program. The latest program that CompTIA is launching this month is CompTIA PenTest+. This is a practical hand on training and certification program that teaches penetration testing technology, which is crucial for organizations to safeguard from cyberattacks. Through the relationship with academic institutions and training delivery partners, CompTIA will enhance their geographical footprint so that a student in the remotest corner can access and gather the relevant skills by getting CompTIA certified, thereby earning a rewarding and more paying career.