Providing career pathways and rewarding achievements through CM Connect™ Standings module
“Customers, students, and IT pros looking to advance their careers often find it helpful to consider different pathways to new opportunities. They are looking for ways to upskill, to learn more about the technology skills that employers are seeking. We wanted to offer a way to illustrate how certifications can roll up and open doors to fresh possibilities,” stated Teresa Sears, Senior Director, Certification Product Management at CompTIA., one of the IT industry’s top trade associations, responded by adding CompTIA Stackable Certifications to its globally-recognized, vendor-neutral certification program.
“By grouping multiple certifications in ways that make sense given skills requirements for different types of jobs, these stackable certifications help provide that needed pathway an advantage many candidates require in order to promote their careers,” explained Sears. CompTIA currently provides stackable certifications within two CompTIA Career Pathways: the CompTIA Infrastructure Career Pathway and CompTIA Cybersecurity Career Pathway.
Stackable certifications are offered at Specialist, Professional, and Expert levels within each pathway. For example, candidates who earn the A+, Network+, and Security+ certifications – nicknamed the “CompTIA trifecta” by candidates – are now recognized with the CompTIA Secure Infrastructure Specialist (CSIS) stackable certification, which is part of the CompTIA Cybersecurity Career Pathway. On the other hand, candidates who earn A+ and Network+ without Security+ are recognized with the CompTIA IT Operations Specialist (CIOS) stackable certification.
By simply logging into their certification accounts, candidates who have earned ‘stackables’ can easily download stackable certification logos as well as a PDF version of their stackable certification(s). Not only the candidates benefit from stackable certifications. According to Sears, “The career paths and ‘stackables’ help academic and delivery partners who want to build programs. It gives them a core concept around which to build programs in ways that are responsive to industry needs”
Stackable certifications also help with launching new certification products. “When we are launching a product,” explained Sears, “having a stackable certification gives us another opportunity to communicate who our target audience is. We can then pair up that product nicely and stack them with others to promote advancement of skills.” For example, the recently introduced CySA+ and PenTest+ products are incorporated into multiple stackable certifications within the CompTIA Cybersecurity Career Path.
Stackable certifications are facilitated via the Standings module in CM Connect, CompTIA’s candidate management solution provided by Alpine Testing Solutions, Inc. “We discovered by incorporating the Standings module, we could automate the process of identifying candidates who met the requirements for one or more stackable certifications and realize a noticeable lift in the number of candidates pursuing subsequent certifications” said Sears.
Interested in learning more about CM Connect and the Standings Module? Contact support@alpinetesting.com or, if you are a CM Connect user, contact your Alpine Technical Program Manager for a tour of the CM Connect Standings Module and start providing additional benefits to your credentialed candidates! For more information on the CM Connect Standings Module, click here.