Misconceptions about Security+ Renewal Policy

flatworld

This is all you need to read:

CompTIA Certification Renewal Policy

To Our Customers,

I am very appreciative of the honest feedback you have provided us regarding our recent announcement concerning CompTIA certifications. We’ve listened to what you have told us and we’ve changed the policy announced on January 11, 2010.

CompTIA will not require recertification for any current holders of CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+ certification. You are not required to retest to maintain your valid CompTIA certification. Regardless of when you became certified in CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+, you are certified for life.

For candidates currently preparing to sit for a CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+ exam, if you pass an exam and become certified by December 31, 2010, you too will have a lifetime certification with no requirements for recertification or retesting.

Effective January 1, 2011, all new CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+ certifications will be valid for three years from the date the candidate is certified. After three years, the certification must be renewed. This can be done by passing the most current exam for a respective certification or by participating in CompTIA’s upcoming new continuing education program, which will allow individuals to keep their skills current and their certification up to date without retesting.

We’ve worked hard to balance the interests of our current and future customers first and foremost, with the stringent requirements to maintain our ISO 17024 accreditation for CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ and CompTIA Security+. Our ISO accreditation is extremely important to us because of the global credibility it carries. Equally important is the trust our certificate holders placed in us when they became certified. We believe our new plan accomplishes both goals.

We encourage you to continue to visit CompTIA Certification Renewal Policy and CompTIA Connect ? Information Technology Discussion, Insights & Perspectives for information and updates. We value your input.

Best Regards,

Todd Thibodeaux
President and CEO
CompTIA

CompTIA Certification Renewal Policy



There people. If you were certified before the policy went into effect, you are certified for life. Existing certification holders are grandfathered into the lifetime clause, newcomers who are not yet certified will have to get certified every three years. Case Closed.

janmike

Thank you so much!

But this issue was settle on 1/26/10 in the following thread,
http://www.techexams.net/forums/general-certification/50425-comptia-backs-down-certs-life.html

And, I was notified by email by CompTIA of the revision of their proposed policy change on January 26th as well.

GeeLo

Thanks for posting.. I just logged on to do the the same! LOL.

I got my Security+ certificate last December, and in the lower right hand corner it has "this certification is vaild until April 2002". I am in the process of trying to get CompTIA to send me another certificate without this "date" as I was told before I took the test from CompTIA that it was good for life, and now this statement.

I understand about ISO, and why they will be doing this, but I think in the long run, CompTIA is going to see a decrease in people taking their certification tests.

Darril

flatworld wrote: »

For candidates currently preparing to sit for a CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+ exam, if you pass an exam and become certified by December 31, 2010, you too will have a lifetime certification with no requirements for recertification or retesting.

...

There people. If you were certified before the policy went into effect, you are certified for life. Existing certification holders are grandfathered into the lifetime clause, newcomers who are not yet certified will have to get certified every three years. Case Closed.

For clarification, newcomers have until December 31, 2010 to also get a lifetime certification. Anyone that gets their certification any time this year is also grandfathered into the lifetime clause.

Darril Gibson
Author: CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead
ISBN: 1439236364
Security+ Blog

twodogs62

I'm thinking too that this story is not over yet.
Seems Comptia may still need to modify their requirements and renewal policy.

It was nice to have an entry-level cert where you could take a class and pass one test to get a certification which you could keep on resume. Just like your highschool or college degrees, etc....

There are still questions if this is a good change for Comptia.

I guess we could just treat Comptia as we always have, just know that certs will only be good for 3 years and by then we've moved on to more advanced stuff.

The annual fee to Comptia is what is a concern to me. That is taking money away from ones pocket that could have been used to by a new book on different material.
I doubt the continuing education will be a problem for most people. Unless if other certs and free webinars or free conferences don't count. Or user groups don't count.

416_guy

GeeLo wrote: »

Thanks for posting.. I just logged on to do the the same! LOL.

I got my Security+ certificate last December, and in the lower right hand corner it has "this certification is vaild until April 2002". I am in the process of trying to get CompTIA to send me another certificate without this "date" as I was told before I took the test from CompTIA that it was good for life, and now this statement.

I understand about ISO, and why they will be doing this, but I think in the long run, CompTIA is going to see a decrease in people taking their certification tests.

Who did you email about getting your Security+ certificate resent to you without that date? I got my Network+ back in Feb 2008 and I too have that date on my Network+ certificate and I also want to get it replaced if possible.

Are they asking you to pay them? I hope not =\

GeeLo

416_guy wrote: »

Who did you email about getting your Security+ certificate resent to you without that date? I got my Network+ back in Feb 2008 and I too have that date on my Network+ certificate and I also want to get it replaced if possible.

Are they asking you to pay them? I hope not =\

I've been in contact with a "Senior" member of the company. With respect to You and others here.. I'm not going to post his name and / or email address here on the boards, as I respect his privacy and he was nice enough to email me on the matter at hand. Also I believe he respects my position, and who I am, and what I do on a daily basis. I will mention Your requests as well as any other concerns that anyone has here.. But please let me first maintain the professional courtesy and dialog that I have at the moment with the undisclosed said individual.

The other note that I would to make.. is I've been working in computers for almost 20 years now.. a lot of people think that CompTIA certifications are "entry level" certs.. and are easy to obtain. However, I have seen multiple times the most "highest level" Administrators in different companies missing basic skills that CompTIA A+ , Network+ and Security+ certificate holders have, mainly because said individuals have thumb their noses up, on these "one time certs". If a tree does not have a strong root.. it falls. CompTIA gives you that strong root for life.

416_guy

GeeLo wrote: »

I've been in contact with a "Senior" member of the company. With respect to You and others here.. I'm not going to post his name and / or email address here on the boards, as I respect his privacy and he was nice enough to email me on the matter at hand. Also I believe he respects my position, and who I am, and what I do on a daily basis. I will mention Your requests as well as any other concerns that anyone has here.. But please let me first maintain the professional courtesy and dialog that I have at the moment with the undisclosed said individual.

The other note that I would to make.. is I've been working in computers for almost 20 years now.. a lot of people think that CompTIA certifications are "entry level" certs.. and are easy to obtain. However, I have seen multiple times the most "highest level" Administrators in different companies missing basic skills that CompTIA A+ , Network+ and Security+ certificate holders have, mainly because said individuals have thumb their noses up, on these "one time certs". If a tree does not have a strong root.. it falls. CompTIA gives you that strong root for life.

Looking forward to see what they say

GeeLo

Alcon,

This is what was emailed back to me. CompTIA said it ok to pass this along to everyone:

Just so you know we are going to be re-issuing anyone who received a certificate with the “valid through” dates on their certificates this week. Please allow 4 – 6 weeks for the postal service to deliver your new certificate to reach you (without the date on it)..

Also if you do not see your certificate after that time frame send a email to questions@comptia.org

That's a good end, for a not so great Monday..

Could a Moderator or Administrator sticky this in the different CompTIA forums? Thank You.

GeeLo

416_guy

GeeLo wrote: »

Alcon,

This is what I was emailed back to me. CompTIA said it ok to pass this along to everyone:



Also if you do not see your certificate after that time frame send a email to questions@comptia.org

That's a good end, for a not so great Monday..

Could a Moderator or Administrator sticky this in the different CompTIA forums? Thank You.

GeeLo

Awsome!