Tuesday, 28 August 2012

CompTIA and Other Computer Technician Certifications

By Charles Wheeler


Many people have opened up the cover of their computer and either added new parts or tried to fix existing parts. This is not a difficult task as most components in a personal computer are built to identical standards and are completely interchangeable. After becoming familiar with the basic structure inside a computer, some have offered to fix computers of friends or even co-workers and may even charge them for doing so.

This is what also happens with basic network administration. Although working on network administration is somewhat more difficult than fixing simple computer problems, it is still possible to teach yourself the basic skills. Once these basic skills are learned, some have offered to help others. It is possible to learn enough in this manner to be able to charge others for your time.

It becomes necessary, at some point, to be able to measure the skills of the computer technician. For example, if the self-instructed network administrator wishes to work on computers in a health-related industry, liability concerns may force the customer to look for some credentials from the people working on their networks. In the example of the health industry, there may also be privacy concerns, which may demand some kind of specific certification.

Fortunately, there exists several possibilities for certifying one's ability to fix computers. Some forms of certification are provided by hardware and software manufacturers, and others are provided by computer associations, such as CompTIA, or Computer Technology Industry Association.

The certifications provided by CompTIA tend to be broader in scope and cover more basic subject areas that those provided by individual manufacturers. However, the basic certifications demonstrate a measurement that the individual can present to potential customers that gives them an advantage over those who are not certified.

As an example, a very basic certification is in learning the computer technology vocabulary. This certification is useful for salespeople in the computer field. The first basic technical benchmark is known as the A+ rating. This covers the basic hardware and software knowledge for trouble-shooting.

An example of a manufacturer provided course is the MCSE training made available by Microsoft. This training assures that the recipient has gone through enough training to understand the intended use of the software, and the associated tools that are used with this type of software.

An example of hardware courses provided by a manufacturer are those provided by the large supplier of network equipment, Cisco. Their CCNA training courses instruct their students in the proper installation of the hardware, as well as the proper knowledge needed to configure the hardware in a network environment. Depending on the need, there are many options for obtaining certifications in many areas of the computing industry.




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