New Trends in IT Certification Training

The world of IT certification training is changing. It's becoming faster, more agile, more convenient and more effective. The new era of IT certification training and preparation is fueled by new online training options and the emerging concept of "knowledge subscription."

It's not at all unusual to hear certification mavens, pundits, and prognosticators natter on about lifelong learning. It's more unusual to see a complete change in the way that training and skills development works, and the tools available. We are at the start of such a change, and it can't help but be good for all of us. The key to this change is online training, and a new model for its development, purchase and use. Read: 13 Best IT Training and Certification Resources

Those of you who follow my work here at Tom's IT Pro may or may not recognize the name of one of my frequent co-writers: Mary Kyle. I just happened to bop over to GoCertify.com this morning, and found a very interesting article from her entitled CertMaster, MeasureUp, and the Trend in Online Certification Training. The basic point of her story is that students learn in many different ways, and the more and better we can support what works to facilitate their learning, the better the resulting educational outcomes will be. Not only that, she also makes the valid and telling point that "The adoption of an attitude of life-long learning is a must for those seeking to retain peak skills and remain at the top of their profession." I couldn't agree more, but have to observe further that the pace of change in certification has sped up to the point where conventional, old-fashioned information delivery systems -- especially books for study guides, exam prep, and so forth -- have trouble keeping up.

Let me illustrate with a particularly fresh and compelling example. Microsoft released Windows 8 to manufacturing (RTM) on August 1, 2012, and for general availability (GA) on October 26, 2012. Windows 8.1 followed on October 17, 2013, and Windows 8.1 Update 1 went live on April 8, 2014. At the moment, rumor has it that Windows 8.1 Update 2 will go live on Patch Tuesday this coming August (8/12) or September (9/9). Unbeknownst to many IT pros, publishers have been struggling mightily to keep up with this new "rapid update cadence" with their cert prep materials. I was hired to provide a tech edit on a Windows 8 book by a major cert title publisher I've worked for over the years, and found the original Windows 8 title supplanted by a Windows 8.1 title (coming out this month, in fact) before the first set of deadlines for the original book came and went. I can only imagine what the upcoming release of Windows 8.1 Updates 1 and 2 this year will do to the Windows 8 exams, and the materials that address them. I don't have to own a genuine crystal ball to foresee that old-fashioned, paper-based publications and processes simply can't cut the cadence any more!