{"id":352384,"date":"2025-03-20T19:13:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T13:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/?p=352384"},"modified":"2025-03-20T19:13:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T13:43:06","slug":"digital-fluency-industry-recognized-certifications-viewed-as-difference-makers-in-the-job-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/digital-fluency-industry-recognized-certifications-viewed-as-difference-makers-in-the-job-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital fluency, industry-recognized certifications viewed as difference makers in the job market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Community college students embrace skills validation to raise their career readiness, new CompTIA research reveals<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill.\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Community college students believe combining an academic degree with an industry-recognized certification expands their employment options, according to new research from\u00a0CompTIA, Inc., the leading global provider of vendor-neutral information technology (IT) training and certification products.<\/p>\n

The transition from the classroom to the job market creates anxiety on several fronts, CompTIA\u2019s \u201cCommunity College Student Trends\u201d report finds. Identifying the right career path, concerns about a lack of work experience and worries about gaps in their academics and skills all weigh on students\u2019 minds.<\/p>\n

To ease their concerns, a solid majority of community college students have turned to industry-recognized certifications and additional skills-building efforts to better prepare themselves for the world of work.<\/p>\n

On the certification front, community college students believe that industry recognized credentials provide value; by validating skills are relevant and current (83%), providing a steppingstone to career advancement (81%) and expanding employment opportunities and opening doors with hiring employers (78%).<\/p>\n

\u201cEmployers take notice when a candidate has enhanced classroom learning with a certification that\u2019s highly relevant to the job they are seeking,\u201d said Kirk Smallwood, vice president, key accounts and industry engagement, CompTIA.<\/strong> \u201cThis is particularly true in technology, where successful IT professionals keep their skills current and relevant as the pace of innovation accelerates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students also believe building or expanding skillsets is important to early career success. Skills rated as most important regardless of career field include:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leadership, teamwork & communications\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a088%<\/p>\n

Digital fluency\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a082%<\/p>\n

Data and analytics\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 79%<\/p>\n

Project management & operations\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a077%<\/p>\n

The potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on jobs and careers is also on the mind of community college students. Just under half (48%) have mixed feelings about AI, 26% are generally positive and 17% generally negative. Regardless of their feelings, students are preparing, with a net 70% taking some action to improve their AI career readiness.<\/p>\n

Health, medical and dental programs are the most popular field of study among survey respondents (21%). Other fields of interest include business (18%), engineering, science or math (13%), art, music or theater (11%) and information technology (10%). A persistent confidence gap, where students feel they don\u2019t have what it takes to succeed, continues to hold down students\u2019 interest in technology as a career option.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Community college students embrace skills validation to raise their career readiness, new CompTIA research reveals DOWNERS GROVE, Ill.\u00a0\u2013 Community college students believe combining an academic degree with an industry-recognized certification expands their employment options, according to new research from\u00a0CompTIA, Inc., the leading global provider of vendor-neutral information technology (IT) training and certification products. The transition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-352384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-careers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}