If you’re looking for a broad-based education, where you learn a little about a lot of different subjects, college is the way to go. But if you know that you want to specialize in one specific area, with the goal of getting a job in that field once you complete your training, certification provides definite advantages over college.
If you’re working in the IT industry, for instance, employers will first and foremost want to know that you have the skills necessary to do a job, be it programming in a certain language or securing a network. Knowing theory and having a degree shows an aptitude for learning, but IT is more about the doing. Certification is a direct measure of your ability to do – it’s contingent on the mastery of skills you’ll need to excel in a specific job.
Certification also creates a universal measure of acquiring skills. A university in the United States can be very different from one in Europe, Africa, or Asia, and potential employers and clients may not be aware of how certain schools measure up. But certification provides a gold standard that’s the same everywhere.
When our students get Microsoft certification, they must demonstrate expert-level knowledge of a particular aspect of Microsoft products and software, often focused on one of four categories: server, desktop, database, or developer. They then pass a standardized exam authorized by Microsoft at a satellite testing location. In other words, the preparation we give students prepares them for a universal Microsoft certification that comes, in part, from Microsoft itself.
And when you pursue certification instead of a degree, all of your focus goes to the field of study you want to pursue. Taking college courses means that some of your time, money, and energy goes to mastering content you may never use in your career. Certification allows you to concentrate on what you want to learn, rather than what you have to learn.
If you want to know more about our IT certification programs—including the Network Engineer program that wraps six related certification programs into one 38 week-program (https://cybertex.edu/network-