How should academia handle the IT Certification Explosion?

I'd like some educated opinions about this topic. There are literally dozens of certifications like the MCSE, MCSD, CCNA, A+, etc.... It's a big $$$$ industry and there is no regulation/accredation (maybe this the wrong phrase) but people are looking to enter the IT Industry with these without an IT type of degree. The IT industry is huge, with many faucets for a potential newly trained person. There is alot of abuse and gouging but the potential for grads of programs like the top-of-the-line certifications-for example, the top Cisco Networking hardware technicians make along the lines of $100k. Granted, this takes alot of education and nearly a Mech E. degree to do, but huge potential is still there and even decent jobs for all the AS/AA students out there.

My question is, how would you, academics standardize this training? Would it be best served by some kind of Continuing Ed type plan? By having Uncle Whiskers laying down regulations, or by private company agreement to standards, along the lines of Comptia (A+, Network+, I-net+, etc...) I think this will be a HUGE area that academia will be involved in soon. The thing is, do we let the gougers run the show?

Dr. Bear, I'd love to hear your opinion on this.

 

<uneducated opinion>

Certs will continue to be independent because that best serves the vendor who created and controls the certifications. Higher Ed continues to deal with the theory and not the application which is both their strength and their limitation. Certs are actually of little value unless one has specific work experience that relates to it.

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Best Regards,
Dave Hayden

 

Jim - there is one kind of regulation. Many of these programs have credit equivalency through ACE (American Council on Education). They establish a college credit equivalency for a number of these certifications and a large number of training programs that don't result in certification. This isn't perfect, but it is somewhat useful.

Given the explosion of products in the IT space, these sort of certifications are somewhat useful. A number of local companies I know provide rewards for folks that earn them. There are ways, however, of passing the test without really having hands on experience.

I don't find certification to be a direct competitor of academic education. There is a place for both. I advice my students to work on both academic courses and industry training/certifcation to be well rounded.

Thanks - Andy

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Andy Borchers, DBA
NSU (1996)

 

Let's say a person holds MS in Computer Science. He did his MS almost 10 years before. What is the relevance of his degree in today's computing market which is changing so fast that many professionals are finding hard to keep abreast with the growing technology?

Technology that he may have learned but may not be relevant AT ALL in today's market. This AT ALL may very well work particularly in Information Technology profession. What should be the standard then? I think this is where the certification and hands on experience come into play rather than degree.

If we have to reform then we should reform the credit granting for certifications that very well fits with the today's market. It doesn't make a sense to grant credit for MS-DOS or something which is outdated or have no relevance in today's market. I am making this point just for the sake of argument.

I was told that AED grants credit for Novell and ICCP examinations and not for Microsoft or let's say the famous Sun Java Certification.

You may say why should AED cares????

I personally think Excelsior College has taken the right direction on their own to identify the certifications for granting credits.