by
Janet Pinkerton
| Sep 14, 2011
If you are enrolled in CompTIA’s Continuing Education (CE) program, are you doing the right things to ensure your certification renewal? Read the CompTIA Continuing Education Program FAQs and the CE Activity Chart online to verify that your continuing education activity will renew your CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+ certifications.
Managers and employers should forward these links to all employees enrolled in CompTIA’s continuing education program and require that the employees read and understand the program’s requirements.
Understanding the CE program requirements is crucial because CompTIA randomly audits participants’ CE records. In addition, all higher-level certifications submitted for full CE credits are automatically audited. If an audit finds CE activity that does not meet the program criteria in content or timing, a participant risks non-renewal of their certification.
Since CompTIA’s CE program began on January 1, 2011, CompTIA staff have encountered a handful of common problems that stem from participants not reading the program’s requirements and/or managers not communicating the CE program’s requirements to their employees in the program.
Common problems to avoid include:
Timing of CE Activity Submitted: Make sure the activities you want to count towards Continuing Education Units (CEUs) were completed at the right time to meet the CE program requirements.
If you are certified in CompTIA A+, Network+ or Security+ on or after Jan 1, 2011, you are considered CE certified, and your certification has an expiration date three years from the date it was earned. You have three years from the date earned to complete CE activities to meet renewal requirements of your certification. All CE Activity submitted for the CE program must be completed within that three-year window. Activities completed before the certification date will not be counted towards CEUs.
There is one exception to this three-year window: CE program participants who hold “good for life” (GFL) CompTIA A+, Network+ or Security+ credentials (awarded on or before Dec. 31, 2010) can submit activities completed within a 90-day window before their certification date, in addition to CE activities completed within the three-year renewal cycle.
Content of CE Activity Submitted: Use the CE Activity Chart to verify that your CE activity will count as a CEU to renew your certification. You should follow two guidelines to help ensure that a selected activity will count toward CEUs for renewing your CompTIA certification or that of your employees:
1) The activity must be relevant to the level of certification that you are seeking to renew: it must build upon or exceed the objective levels of the original certification.
AND
2) The information submitted must meet the submission requirements for that activity.
Visit the CompTIA Support page for additional resources on the Continuing Education Program. If you don’t find an answer to your CE Program question through this page, you can submit a help desk ticket and a CompTIA support rep will contact you.