The international market for certification
Certification in the United States has had its ups
and downs in recent years. In the early part of the decade, there
was a widespread industry battle between those who said
certification had no value and those who were convinced that it
did.
The latter group won - new certs crop up regularly, old certs are
retooled to fit technology's ever-changing needs and more IT
professionals have turned to certification as one way to prove
they're skilled, capable and deserving of coveted jobs in a tough
employment market.
The international certification space, in particular, is drawing a
lot of attention. Although most agree the United States has the
biggest certification market, determining who the other major
players are, and why they're busily getting certified, depends on
whom you ask. Industry experts agree, however, that hiring managers
need to see not only technical competence, which certifications can
demonstrate, but also business capabilities.
Therefore, IT professionals worldwide should think outside the
siloed world of IT and expand their knowledge into business.
Who are the Players?
Cushing Anderson, program director at research company IDC, said
the U.S. IT market and the resulting spending are four times the
size of the next-largest country, Japan. There is a correlation
between countries with the greatest IT spending and certification
activity, Anderson said.
"Certifications are adopted by individuals who are interested in
gaining employment in regions, and increased IT spending suggests
there are more job opportunities. Therefore, people get certified,"
Anderson explained. "The fastest-growing IT environments, in order,
are India, Russia, Mexico and Turkey. India and Russia are about
the same size. Compared to the U.S., they are dramatically
smaller, but their IT growth rates are triple the more developed
countries."
Explosive growth rates imply there is a faster-growing
certification market, although that does not necessarily translate
to larger numbers of certified professionals - at least, not yet.
For example, India's certified population is growing much faster
than in the United States.
Much of India's increased interest in certification is the result
of its use as an offshore resource, Anderson said. Whether
multinational companies are setting up service centers in India, or
Indian
firms are setting up offshore locations so they can service their
clients globally, companies are investing money in IT
infrastructures, which require skilled individuals to run
efficiently.
"The same is probably true for Russia," Anderson said. "The most
rapid growth of IT spending is probably the result of service
centers and IT support centers being opened up in Russia to service
other countries. The reason why is that you have an intelligent,
well-educated workforce that is a relatively inexpensive labor
base."
India is near the top of the heap in production of software and
high-end servers as far as growth, so Anderson said you can assume
certifications related to applications development will be in
demand, as well as application deployment for things such as
service-oriented architecture (SOA), middleware and systems
infrastructure software, management software and security.
"High-end servers are high-growth, but they're a very, very small
market," Anderson said. "We go to other markets such as personal
computers (the computer of choice in a lot of different
build-outs), contact centers, office buildings, whatever - there's
big growth in India," Anderson said. "Russia has fast growth in
packaged software and applications software, so certifications
related to specific software packages are probably going to do very
well, and that means vendor-specific to applications like ERP
(enterprise resource planning), CRM (customer relationship
management) or finance systems. You're going to be certified to
deploy or customize or even run ERP systems, etc."
Why do International Countries Care About
Certification?
Neill Hopkins, CompTIA vice president of skills development, agreed
the United States has the biggest IT market, and by association,
certification market. He named European countries a close second,
however, and said Asian countries such as India and China are
catching up quickly.
"I would rank China as one of the most exciting ones for IT
implementation, but it comes with a bit of
a challenge," Hopkins said. "The Chinese authorities are not
necessarily going to follow the standards that have been set by the
West. More particularly, they're not very good followers of
intellectual property."
As the market in China evolves, the country likely will set new
standards, and Hopkins said it will be interesting to see whether
that significant market share affects the West.
Further, he said the Chinese government very strictly controls
which certs IT professionals can pursue and/or earn. Often, if a
certification is not government-endorsed, it won't get the traction
it might in another environment - IT certifications that do well in
China usually are supported by a government-controlled group.
"We've worked with many organizations in China, and it's a very
tough market to get into," Hopkins said. "I'm not talking
specifically IT certification. People often think it's the biggest
IT market in the world, therefore, you're going to sell hundreds of
thousands of certifications. That's not necessarily true.
"However, that doesn't mean they're not interested in
certifications - they are. You just have to go about it in such a
way that it becomes attractive to the individual so that they are
interested in having industry recognition and certifications that
are world-recognized, not just Chinese
government-recognized."
Internationally, individuals and organizations deploy technology
products and services that primarily come from the West, which
creates a market for IT certifications the West accepts.
"Microsoft sells certification to this market, Cisco's in the
market, Oracle's in the market," Hopkins said. "We are also in the
market, and we're finding it not as simple as going into a country
and saying, 'Let us help you deploy the industry standard,'
certainly not in the Chinese market or, to a lesser degree,
in the Indian market. Those are the two rapidly growing
economies."
Hopkins said the Latin American IT market, particularly that in
Brazil, is a sleeping giant and most likely will play a role in the
world economy in the next five to 10 years as it deploys a lot of
IT equipment and infrastructure.
He also highlighted Korea and Japan, both of which are
well-established economically and in terms of
IT infrastructure.
"The Korean market is probably way ahead of the U.S. market when it
comes to broadband implementation," he said. "They are very, very
interested in certification. In fact, these are 'certification
junkie' countries - they would like their kids to get as many
certifications, credentials and degrees as possible before they
leave their postsecondary education. They value the certificate and
the credential, and they use it as part of their hiring
criteria."
But don't discount the United States, which is still No. 1 for
certifications around the world and probably will remain so at
least for the next three to five years, Hopkins said.
During that time, the IT certification market likely will grow, as
more certification providers deploy
more job role-based certifications. The United States will adopt
these, and other countries will follow suit. Europe will become a
major market for IT certifications, as well, Hopkins said.
Roughly 35 percent to 40 percent of all CompTIA certifications are
taken outside the United States, and that is a greater percentage
than last year. The A+ certification, in particular, is growing
internationally, while it has flat-lined slightly in the United
States. Hopkins said some international certification growth can be
attributed to the fact that many individuals would like to work
in
the United States.
"In the Asian and Middle Eastern countries, there's a big demand to
get that international certification and recognition so that they
can get employment outside their own country in places like the
U.S.,"
he said. "That has declined over the years, but when we look at the
number of H-1B visas being issued, I'd say 90 percent are used so
that people with technical abilities can come into the U.S.
and do the work that they can't find the U.S. person to do."
The United States also is looking for skilled workers, of course,
and IT certifications are one measurement of competency. Other
countries such as Australia and Japan use IT certifications to
gauge whether an immigrant can get in to work, Hopkins said.
"If you want to get a job in Japan, and you can speak Japanese,
credentials are a key part of getting into the Japanese market and
economy," he said. "Having globally recognized credentials is
certainly beneficial at the employer level in India and China.
They're still deploying Western-made infrastructures, a lot of
which are made there but under Western technology. They need
to
understand it, and they need to use it effectively.
"Therefore, credentials the IT industry has developed are
applicable and relevant. IT credentials offered today are still
extremely relevant and used by employers as a means to get a good
position,
no matter where you're located - they cross boundaries and
borders."
What Certification Markets are Hot?
Dr. James Stanger, Prosoft Learning chief certification architect
and vice president of certification,
said open-source technology is driving the growth of the
organization's Web-based Certified Internet Web Professional (CIW)
certification in China and the Middle East.
There's also a great interest in the Linux Professional Institute
and its LPI certification program because Stanger said open source
is perceived to be less expensive and quite robust, and it allows
people to think outside the box and adopt new technology without
paying a lot of licensing fees.
"In developing countries, certification becomes a proxy for
education - people want to make sure they've received skills that
are perceived as important," he said. "If you tie certification
into education into a meaningful way, some sort of university
endorsement or high corporate endorsement, then certification
becomes very valuable. In the IT field, you tend to hear
certification has a whole lot less value in general, but a lot of
those same folks will say that college doesn't mean much
either.
The question becomes, 'How do you learn this stuff?'"
The older model of sitting at the feet of gurus and waiting for
pearls of wisdom to fall from their lips
is not scalable for the third world, developing countries or North
America, Stanger said.
"There are a lot of newer ways to get people information, and
certification is one way to do it," he said. "As long as it's tied
to a meaningful program, to people who really know what's going on
in the industry, then certification takes the place of that mentor
model in many ways.
"In China, a lot of people are matriculating out of universities or
training programs of various types
into a negative job market right now. That's going to reflect
negatively on the value of certification in general. The burden on
an education or certification program is to make sure that there
are internship programs and things of that nature to make up for
that problem. Problem-solving skills, project management - that's
what people are looking for internationally, and certification, if
it's done right,
can give you all of that."
This Article Reprinted Courtesy of http://www.certmag.com/