Navigating CompTIA Continuing Education: Keeping Your Certifications Current

The IT landscape is constantly evolving, making continuous professional development crucial. Certifications like CompTIA A+, Security+, PenTest+, and Cloud+ are valid for three years, requiring renewal through Continuing Education (CE) to ensure skills remain current and relevant. This article provides a comprehensive guide to understanding and meeting CompTIA's Continuing Education (CE) requirements.

Why Renew Your CompTIA Certification?

The dynamics of IT demand continuous learning to stay current. Renewing your CompTIA certification ensures your skills remain up-to-date, enhancing your professional growth and career security. Failing to renew results in an inactive certification status.

Understanding the CompTIA Continuing Education (CE) Program

The CompTIA Continuing Education (CE) Program ensures longevity in your IT career by requiring certificate holders to stay current with their skills. It offers various renewal options, allowing you to choose a path that aligns with your time, cost considerations, and long-term career goals.

Earning Continuing Education Units (CEUs)

Earning Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) is essential for maintaining your certifications. Generally, 1 training hour equates to 1 CEU for most courses. The number of CEUs required varies depending on the certification. You can accumulate CEUs through various activities:

Attending training courses
Participating in webinars
Obtaining additional certifications
Engaging in industry work experience

Accepted Activities and CEU Allocation

CompTIA outlines specific requirements for different certifications regarding the number of CEUs needed. Remember that at least 50% of the content must relate back to the CompTIA Security+ exam objectives to be considered a qualifying activity. Here's a breakdown of accepted activities and their maximum CEU allocation per three-year cycle:

Earn a non-CompTIA Certification: No Max - full credits earned may be used
Complete a CompTIA Certification Training Course: 50 CEUs Max
Complete a non-CompTIA Training Course: 50 CEUs Max
Complete a College Course: 40 CEUs Max
Teach a Course: 20 CEUs Max
Complete an American Council on Education (ACE) Accredited Course: 40 CEUs Max
Create Instructional Materials: 20 CEUs Max
Attend a Live Webinar: 10 CEUs Max
Attend a Conference: 10 CEUs Max
Complete a CompTIA Exam Development Workshop: 30 CEUs Max
Active IT Board/Chapter Participant: 9 CEUs Max
Active Member of an IT Association: 6 CEUs Max
Work Experience: 9 CEUs Max
Publish a Relevant Industry Article, White Paper, or Blog Post: 16 CEUs Max
Publish a Relevant Industry Book: 40 CEUs Max

Strategic Approaches to Earning CEUs

Renewing a CompTIA Security+ certification shouldn’t be a big obstacle if you’re staying on top of your game.

Earning a Non-CompTIA Certification

The quickest and most practical way to renew your Security+ certification would be to earn another security-related certification that meets the full CEU requirements within a three-year period. This process can act as a catalyst to continue education, earn higher-level certification, and progress in your career. Several certifications earn 50 CEUs, meeting all renewal requirements for CompTIA Security+. These certifications include:

CySA+
CASP+
CEH
CHFI
ECSA
CISACISM
CAP
CISSP
ISSAP
ISSEP
ISSM
GSLC
GSNA
Other certifications that earn CEUs

Numerous non-CompTIA certifications can earn CEUs for Security+, but not the full 50 required for full renewal. You may immediately recognize a few certifications that may make sense as you progress in your cyber security career, such as:

(RHCE) Red Hat Certified Engineer - 40 CEUs
(RHCSA) Red Hat Certified Systems Administrator - 38 CEUs
(OCSP) Offensive Security Certified Professional - 40 CEUs
(CCSP) Certified Cloud Security Professional - 37 CEUs

Cost-Effective CEU Acquisition Strategies

If you need to renew your Security+ certification but can’t afford to take off for a week of training or commit the time to prepare for another exam, here is my suggestion for an inexpensive list of renewal activities.

Blogging

You can easily earn 1 CEU for every blog post you write and keep writing til you hit the 16 CEU max! For the sake of keeping things simple, I suggest going the blog post route over an article or white paper because blog posts are much shorter in length and you don’t need to take the time finding a place to post it, we’ll do it for you. We’ve worked with excellent cyber security professional, who published very intriguing articles. If you achieve the max CEUs for this category, you are at 16/50 for CEUs needed and at a $0 investment.

Read also: Network+ Certification Study Guide

Attend Free Happy Hour Social and Tech Discussions

May organizations offer a free Social that is open to the public. Many are held in a happy hour style offering a wide assortment of beer, wine, and various appetizers while learning in an hour long tech session. As long as the sessions match the Security+ exam objectives, you earn 1 CEU per hour spent in a conference session. Over a three year period you can attend 12 Socials and use 10 of those CEUs in this category. If you attend all 12 sessions and record the max of 10 CEUs for this category, you now at 26/50; half way there and still at a $0 investment!

Watch a Live Webinar

Make your hour lunch even more productive by watching a live webinar. ISACA offers a number of live webinars every month and they are already approved as CE bearing. You can earn up to 10 CEUs for this category. You are still at $0 invested but closer to your goal with 36/50 CEUs!

Record Your Work Experience

All you have to do is submit, on company letterhead, your current job title, the year work experience is being submitted for, the specific tasks performed during the year which qualifies this experience as CEUs with your supervisor’s signature. You can do this each year and earn 3 CEUs per year. 3 years at 3 CEUs each, you’re now at 45/50 and $0 down.

Take Advantage of Free Training Opportunities

When you can take advantage of a free training session. You can earn up to 50 CEUs in this category. I recommend starting at meetup.com to find the tech communities near you and if an upcoming topic is geared towards IT Security training, ask the moderator if it’s CE bearing.

Annual Maintenance Fee

Yes, there is an annual maintenance fee for the CompTIA Continuing Education Program. The fee helps cover administrative costs and ensures that you have access to all necessary renewal resources.

Read also: Network+ Voucher Guide

Transitioning and Maintaining Multiple Certifications

CompTIA transitioned from lifelong certifications to requiring your certification to be renewed every three years. If you know about the original CompTIA program, you also know that they transitioned to their current Continuing Education program a few years ago, which I elected to join. If you hold many certifications, the CPE renewal process can be challenging and overwhelming at times.

For CompTIA, you have the following options. You can either retake your exam if you want to relive the fun or do any of the following to earn CEUs.

Earn Non-CompTIA IT industry certifications
Complete training and higher education
Participate in IT industry activities
Publish a relevant article, white paper, blog post, or book
Gain related work experience

One pro tip I always like to share if you are like me and hold multiple certifications is choosing courses that can apply to multiple exams. Look at your most advanced credential and choose CPEs for that one, and those same training hours can be used for your lower credentials.

Login to your CompTIA account and submit your CPEs. You simply submit the course details and proof of completion. Whether you are looking for training for your team or yourself, we offer an easy solution that takes the stress away from finding the training you need for all CompTIA credentials. This keeps your team from having to search for and locate training on their own independently.

Skillsoft's Role in Simplifying the Renewal Process

From a learners perspective finding the time and a good source of content is always a challenge. If you are looking to keep a team with updated credentials, you want to make sure you can provide them with a reliable source.

CompTIA does a great job at outlining the requirements for their different certifications in terms of the number of CPEs required for each credential.
Once you understand your requirements, Skillsoft can help you with either retaking your exam or we have endless courses that can be leveraged for CPEs. For example, not only do we offer CompTIA training, but our role-based security journeys could be used to help maintain your credentials.
One of the significant advantages a company like Skillsoft provides is that it makes the CompTIA certification renewal process easy with virtually unlimited options. Providing one source for learners to work on both certification prep and also training credits.

Regardless of the path, learning methods such as courses, Bootcamps, labs, TestPreps, books, and mentoring can help earn your credits. Skillsoft helps take the pressure off while keeping things interesting for you by providing seemingly fewer options.

tags: #comptia #continuing #education #requirements