Professional certifications are already viewed by hiring managers as a high-value validation of IT skills. The CompTIA study suggests certifications will grow in importance as organizations seek to fill tech jobs. Eight in ten human resources (HR) professionals surveyed believe IT certifications will grow in usefulness and importance over the next two years. But employers also expressed concerns about some aspects of using IT certifications in the hiring process. There is a perception among some hiring IT managers that the HR department does not have a solid understanding of IT certifications. Some firms also said verifying a job candidate’s credentials can be a challenge due to the time involved and effort required.

Experience, track record and accomplishments rank as the most important factors when evaluating job candidates, according to the study. But education and credentials such as certifications also rank high. For example, 86 percent of hiring managers indicate IT certifications are a high or medium priority during the candidate evaluation process.

The study suggests that certifications will become even more important as employers struggle to find individuals to fill job openings. Despite a virtual buyer’s market for hiring, roughly eight in ten HR executives in the United States said it’s challenging to find the right candidate with the right skill set to fill their openings. Many IT managers in the study share a similar view. Tim Herbert, vice president, research, CompTIA notes, “In an environment of needing to do more with less, organizations cannot afford the time and cost of bringing on a new employee who cannot contribute immediately.”

The CompTIA study Employer Perception of IT Training and Certification is the result of two separate online surveys: to 1,385 business and IT executives that made a recent IT hiring decision in the United States, United Kingdom and South Africa; and to 300 HR professionals in the U.S.

PrepLogic offers training for over a hundred different certifications, including CompTIA certifications, Cisco certifications and MCITP certifications. Visit http://www.preplogic.com to learn more about advancing your career with affordable IT skills training.

The deadline to nominate an individual or group for the IT Hall of Fame Class of 2011 is Tuesday, February 1st. Only 6 days away!

The IT Hall of Fame consists of two wings: the IT Channel Wing for individuals who have made outstanding contributions or provided outstanding service to the IT channel; and the IT Innovators Wing, recognizing individuals responsible for outstanding technology innovations.

Any individual, living or deceased, who has pioneered or uniquely helped the IT channel flourish or who is responsible for a major IT innovation, is eligible for induction.

Criteria for election to the IT Channel Wing include:

• Significant experience in the IT channel
• Innovative product/service or marketing introductions
• Service in an important capacity in or related to the IT channel (e.g. volunteer board position)
• An unimpeachable record of integrity and respect in the channel
• A prominent role in promoting the public’s awareness of the IT channel as a significant and responsible member of the business community

For the IT Innovator Wing, nominee criteria include:

• Creator of a major innovation in IT
• An unimpeachable record of integrity and respect in the industry

All nominees will be considered and voted on by an independent Hall of Fame selection committee. Between two and six individuals or groups will be selected for induction. Inductees for 2011 will be honored at the CompTIA Annual Member Meeting April 7, 2011 in Chicago.

This information was found at http://www.comptia.org/news

To inquire about CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+ and many other CompTIA certifications please give one of our account representatives a call at 1-800- 418-6789.

If you are one of the many techies who earned a “lifetime” CompTIA certification prior to January 1, 2011, you have not been bamboozled. The new renewal policy does not affect those individuals who were certified prior to 2011. All individuals certified on or before December 31, 2010 will retain their “certified for life” status. So what’s the catch? There is no catch…per say. But there is a difference between a person’s certificate who certified before 2011 and a person who certifies now, in 2011.

Anyone certified before 2011 will have no valid through date on their certificate or certificate holder CompTIA ID card. Anyone certified on or after January 1, 2011 will receive a certificate and certificate holder CompTIA ID card with an expiration date, along with a “ce” notation.  The ce notation denotes the new CompTIA Continuing Education (CE) Program associated with the renewal program and signifies that the certification will expire three years from the date certified.

If you are planning on getting CompTIA A+, Network+ or Security+ certified, there is an alternative to taking a new exam every three years. The certification renewal policy includes the continuing education component that allows certified individuals to renew their certifications by earning continuing education units, opposed to retaking the most current version of the CompTIA A+, Network+ or Security+ every three years.  CompTIA.org reports, “The CompTIA Continuing Education (CE) Program has been designed to allow individuals a cost-effective method for keeping certifications current through the completion of variety of activities that demonstrate relevant industry knowledge.” (Look for more on CompTIA’s Continuing Education Program in a future blog).

What’s the reason for this policy change? Why are CompTIA certifications no longer “good for life?”  CompTIA’s Continuing Education Program and Certification Renewal Policy cites:

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), an international body which standardizes the procedures used by personnel certification bodies, requires that individuals have a way to renew the currency of their certification on a regular basis. In CompTIA’s case, that renewal will occur every three years.

This change in policy is in line with the practice of other major providers of certifications for IT professionals. In today’s IT environment it’s important for IT professionals to demonstrate that their knowledge and skills are current. CompTIA’s new renewal program is a way to assist those individuals who would like to take advantage of it. Our certification renewal program includes a continuing education component that gives eligible certification holders a range of ways to keep their CompTIA certifications current without necessarily having to take a new exam.

As we all know, technology is ever-evolving and constantly changing. And in order for your certifications to stay relevant in this fast-paced technological world, those certs must reflect that your IT skills have evolved along with technology. And with CompTIA’s A+, Network+ and Security+ continually being updated with new content developed in conjunction  with the latest must-know subject matter, having to renew your certifications will demonstrate to employers that your IT knowledge is up-to-date and pertinent.

As a web-based IT training company, PrepLogic provides high level skills training and IT certification exam preparation to people all over the world. They offer computer-based and interactive training for such IT skills as system administration, networking, security, voice technologies and project management. Individuals and companies can choose from a wide array of well-respected IT certification vendors, including Cisco training, MCITP training and CompTIA training. PrepLogic has helped thousands of people earn IT certifications in their twelve year history.

PrepLogic’s $5,000 contribution will fund five “Big” and “Little” matches. “We are really excited and proud to take part in such a great organization,” said PrepLogic’s President Jay Gandee. “Big Brothers Big Sisters has really made a difference in the lives of children here in Tampa Bay. We are thrilled to be a part of that and help out however we can.”

“The lingering impact of the recession has affected children living with families at or below the poverty level the most,” said Stephen Koch, Big Brothers Big Sisters President and CEO.  “PrepLogic’s investment in services for kids who need it the most is an inspiring example of corporate philanthropy at its best.  We know from our documented outcomes that providing these children with a properly screened and trained volunteer will change their perspectives on life and consequently, change their lives forever.  We applaud PrepLogic for their generosity and focus on the future……our children.”

To find out more about the 2nd Annual Golf Fore Kids’ Sake Scramble, call 813-769-3600 or visit the Big Brothers Big Sisters website.

For more information about PrepLogic, call PrepLogic at 1-800-418-6789 or visit http://www.preplogic.com/.

ALL LearnSmart Video Training $300* Off
Learn from world renown IT instructors right from your living room! Our LearnSmart video instruction is not only informative and effective, but also entertaining!  We’ve completely updated our online LearnSmart Video Training experience with integrated, downloadable study guide and audio training content and our industry-first LearnSmart Personal Trainer system.  Choose from over 100 interactive video titles now and save $300* instantly. (Max discount 40%)

$39 Printables
Study for your MCITP certification, A+ certification  or Cisco certification anywhere with these easy-to-print practice exam questions. Each PrepLogic Printables exam gives you hundreds of genuine practice questions with detailed answers and explanations plus a quick-reference answer key.  Now you can use Printables on your Kindle, iPad, Nook or smartphone.  Right now, save $70!

$3 Mega Guides
PrepLogic’s Mega Guides are condensed PDF study guides that teach you all the the essential knowledge you need to pass your exam. Why lug around heavy, superfluous texts books when you can use a 100 page Mega Guide that contains the same key material, but in a light weight, concise format.  Save over $30 on dozens of titles, including: CompTIA A+, CompTIA Security+, Microsoft SharePoint, Windows XP Professional and tons more!

ALL Practice Exams just $47
To get you accustomed to the real exam, Preplogic Practice Exam questions are presented in the same style as the real exam.  Expert authors create a large selection of realistic, challenging questions for each exam to ensure you are fully prepared for test day.  This week, you’ll save up to $180 on our whole selection of Practice Exams.

ALL Quiz Me & Lecture Series Audio Training Only $18
Master the CCNA, Network+, A+ and over 50 other IT certification titles anywhere you can listen to headphones! PrepLogic’s audio training allows you to learn while driving to work, waiting for a dentist’s appointment or lying on your couch! Listen and learn with our audio lectures and audio practice exams and you’ll be ready to take that MCITP certification exam in no time.

If you want to be competitive in 2011, you need to have certifications like A+, CCNA and MCITP on your resume. PrepLogic will help you do that with our affordable training products that help you learn faster and smarter.  Don’t miss out on this unbelievable sale. Check out our homepage or call 1-800-418-6789 to start your training today!

LearnSmart Video Training

LearnSmart Video Training provides start-to-finish instruction from experts with years of training experience. LearnSmart is a video based training product created, written and developed by IT and vocational skills expert trainers. Each course contains complete instruction sufficient for certification exams from universally respected certification bodies, such as Microsoft, CompTIA, VMWare and Cisco. LearnSmart Video Training features elegant, studio quality presentation with full color video, graphics, screenshots and demos.

The new PrepLogic LearnSmart Video Training features improved video controls, where you can adjust screen size and start, stop and rewind video at your leisure. This allows you to work at a speed that is the most conducive to your pace of learning, and thus the most effective. We’ve also added the ability to toggle video from the main window to the smaller, brand new Content Reader. The Reader delivers study guide material related to your video segments in an easy to navigate window.

Log In

Accessing your personal PrepLogic Learning System account is now easier than ever with our new and improved log in process. You can access your individualized Online LearnSmart Video Training by logging into your account through the PrepLogic homepage. Once you have logged in, you simply click on the “Online LearnSmart Video Training Icon” where you will then be prompted to your personal video course catalog, containing all of the certification training courses you have purchased. PrepLogic offers a wide variety of IT certification exam training, such as CompTIA A+, Microsoft MCITP Enterprise Administrator and Server Administrator, CCNA certification training and more.

Video Index

The Video Index feature functions as a table of contents for the course. The Video Index lists every segment of the course, allowing you to click on different segments and watch each segment’s corresponding video as you choose. You can watch specific segments repeatedly, in the case of more difficult material, or even skip over segments that you are already familiar with. Each video segment in the Video Index lists the length of time in that particular segment and becomes highlighted in the Index after the segment has been viewed. The Video Index organizes the course study in an easy to navigate, easy to read fashion, in which you, the student, are in control of the course and can keep track of your progress as you make your way through the material.

PrepLogic has greatly improved the functionality of the Video Index. You can now shrink and expand the streamlined Index to your preferred size. We’ve also improved the visibility and usability of the Index, which helps keep you organized through out your training by clearly showing, in a syllabus type format, the order of the videos in your training course, as well as keeping track of which videos you have watched in previous sessions.

Starred Training

Another new facet of the Video Index is the “Starred Training” feature. To the left of each segment listed in the Index, there is the option to click on a white star, which becomes yellow when clicked, marking that segment “starred” and categorizing it in your “My Starred Items” folder. This feature allows you to mark those segments you find the most important or critical to your course of study. Clicking on the “Starred Training” icon above the Video Index changes the Video Index to show only the items you starred, letting you focus on those starred videos. Choosing specific videos you want to watch, through the Starred Training feature, allows you to create your own custom course, where you can focus specifically, on what you need to be learning.

Content Reader

New Feature! The PrepLogic Learning System now includes a smart content reader that delivers “wiki-style” study guide content related to your video into an easy to use window labeled “Reader” below the Video Index. You can follow along in the Reader while watching video, enlarge the Reader content to the main screen, switching the video to the smaller screen, or email yourself the content in the Reader, creating your own PDF study guide that you can use on the go. The Reader works in conjunction with the video training for a truly comprehensive exam training experience.

IT Glossary

Recently added to the PrepLogic Learning System is the IT Glossary. This tool enables users to look up key IT terms and their definitions. Along with the definition of a term, the glossary provides related tags to that term. There are thousands of essential technical terms in the glossary, relating to fields such as networking, security, data base management and project management. The glossary is a quick and easy tool that makes sure you are familiar and knowledgeable with the language of popular certification exams like CISSP, Oracle, PMP, Microsoft MCITP, and Microsoft MCSE.

Download Extras

The Download Extras feature allows you to download custom study guides and audio training. PrepLogic is committed to making your IT certification training extremely accessible, so while you can download the PDF’s instantly to your computer you can also send the content to your mobile device, Kindle, iPad, Blackberry, Barnes and Noble Nook and many more devices. Now you can study for your IT certification exam virtually anywhere!

Audio Training

The audio segments are set up just like the Video Index, but in their own “Audio Index”, and can be played on your computer, just like the Video Lecture Series. When listening to the Audio Training Series on your computer, in your PrepLogic Learning System, glossary terms appear on the video screen to enhance your learning experience.

You can now enjoy your Lecture Series audio training online, or download it for use on your MP3 player, iPhone, iPod or any other device that plays audio. You can study in your car, at the gym or even walking the dog! Audio training helps improve memory retention so learning can occur more quickly and training can be completed faster. With the ability to listen to your certification training program on any portable audio device you will be confident and ready to take that CCNA certification exam or CompTIA Network+ certification exam in no time!

Most Recent Training Sessions

Below the video screen, you will find an index of your most recent training sessions. Re-live recent training sessions with a single click. You can also see what date you engaged in that session, as well as the time and duration. This tool serves as an excellent reminder of what you studied in previous sessions, and is a super-convenient way to recap your prior lessons.

Personal Trainer

PrepLogic developed the Personal Trainer tool to help you not only create a realistic study plan, but more importantly, help keep you on track with that study plan. When you begin your PrepLogic Learning System training, the Personal Trainer prompts you to set an exact date (referred to as the target completion date) of when you want to be finished with the training and fully ready to take the desired certification exam, along with the number of days per week you will be training. The Personal Trainer then calculates how many hours per week you should train in order meet that completion date.

The Personal Trainer keeps track of your progress in the course and lets you know, at the current rate you are training, if you are on pace to finish by your goal date. If you are not, the Personal Trainer tells you the expected date you will be finished if you keep at the current pace and how many hours behind your target pace you actually are. The “Stay on Pace!” reminder tells you which video to begin training with that day and which video to continue training through in order to keep your original pace. The Personal Trainer also keeps a calendar, tracking what days you trained and for how long. The calendar color codes your training into three categories: “On Pace”, “Behind Target Pace” and “Goal at Risk”. This serves as a motivational tool, and makes it clear to you how you are progressing.

The Personal Trainer Preview, conveniently located at the bottom of the screen, keeps a constant tab on your progression through the program, continuously showing you, percentage wise, how much training you have completed, how many days left remaining until your target completion date and how many hours per week you should be training in order to obtain that goal. The Personal Trainer, in combination with the Video Index, provides the much desired structure and direction of a classroom syllabus, but is actually designed by you, which allows for the flexibility you need, at a speed you can handle.

The innovative PrepLogic Learning System was designed with you in mind. The PrepLogic Learning System helps you learn faster and train smarter. The combination of Online LearnSmart Video Training, Audio Training, customizable study guides, flexible training schedules, and many more unique features make IT certification training with PrepLogic simple and enjoyable.

If you would like to inquire further about the PrepLogic Learning System or have any questions, please call 1-800-418-6789. Thank you for your interest and good luck with your IT certification training!

For years, one of our most popular practice exams is for the CCNA certification. The Cisco CCNA Certification is still one of the most important credentials a technician can earn. PrepLogic’s Practice Exams give you the most practical and reliable training you can get for this exam with 6 complete practice test modules. You’ll have the option of using simulation mode, which is a straight up simulation of your exam, or learning mode which gives you the opportunity to customize and randomize the exam for your own needs. There’s over 340 questions available in this practice exam, which will give you plenty of experience answering questions before test day. Want to test your skills now? Check out this sample question from our CCNA Practice Exam:

Question
You have two routers within your network, and you need to enable RIP as your routing protocol. The routers are connected by the 192.168.1.0/24 network. Router A also has an interface in the 10.1.1.0/24 network. Router B has an interface in the 172.16.0.0/16 network. What are all the commands necessary to enable RIP on router B, and ensure all connected networks are reachable by router A?

Select the best answer.

A. router rip
B. router rip network 192.168.1.0
C. enable router rip network 10.0.0.0 network 192.168.1.0
D. router rip network 172.16.0.0 network 192.168.1.0

Exhibit:

The correct answer is D

Explanations
Answer A is incorrect because this command would just activate the routing protocol.

Answer B is incorrect. In order to ensure that router A learns all the connected networks on router B, you must use the network command for each interface, and directly connnected interfaces.

Answer C is incorrect because “enable router rip” is not a correct command.

Answer D is the correct choice. The “router rip” command activates RIP as the routing protocol. The “network” command then activates RIP processing for interfaces associated with the networks. In order for router B to propagate and receive information, both the 192.168.1.0 and 172.16.0.0 network statements must be present.

PrepLogic’s CCNA Practice Exam also provides advanced scoring and testing features to help increase your learning speed, as well as integration with Lecture Series audio training to give you audio coaching along the way. The everyday price for the CCNA practice exam is over $100, so now is a great time to pick it up for just $59. All of our practice exams will be discounted from now through August 31. If you have any questions about the CCNA Practice Exam (or any of our other exams for Microsoft MCITP certification, CompTIA A+ certification, Cisco certification and many more) give our guys a call at 1-800-418-6789. Thanks and good luck on your exam.

Convergence+ is a credential for technicians who specialize in unified communications. Passing the exam illustrates a technician’s ability to design, implement and manage both data and voice networking.

The Convergence+ LearnSmart Video Training course goes into detail about why VoIP really matters. Expert Tom Carpenter discusses the origins of telephony and the series of technological advances that have brought us into this era. In addition to Convergence+, the material in this video can prepare you to earn your CCNA Voice certification.  Some of the topics Tom covers include:

• Understanding Traditional Telephony
• VOIP Fundamentals
• Unified Communications
• Working with Gateways
• Configuring Dial Peers
• Quality of Service
• Gatekeepers
• Troubleshooting

The 13 hour Convergence+ LearnSmart Video Training course takes you step-by-step through the process of implementing IP address schemes and IP services to meet network requirements in a medium-size enterprise branch office network. In addition, this course will show you how to design and implement full featured switched networks that converge efficiently. To help get you familiar with the course, PrepLogic has put up a free 30-minute preview of Convergence+ LearnSmart Video Training. Check it out today.