CompTIA Breakaway: What's Coming In 2012?

CEO and president of CompTIA, Todd Thibodeaux, took center stage Tuesday morning at CompTIA's annual conference, Breakaway 2011, which kicked off Aug. 1, and continues through this week. He unveiled the philosophy for CompTIA for the coming year — a set of four goals the organization calls ECAP — educate the IT channel, certify the IT workforce, advocate on behalf of the IT industry, and give back through philanthropy. To explain each goal, Thibodeaux welcomed CompTIA staff to the stage.

The attendees, nearly 1,000 in number, listened as Nancy Hammervik, SVP of industry relations, explained education initiatives for the next year. She reminded the members that Breakaway is not just for attendees to learn, but also for feedback — an opportunity to share with CompTIA what is needed in the channel. "We are constantly working on channel training, and we truly depend on input from our communities to guide us to what they need," explains Hammervik. The organization has refreshed its healthcare IT training as well as launching a cloud IT education track, and members should watch for new offerings focused on government IT, legal IT, mobility, social media, and more.

Following Hammervik, Terry Erdle, EVP of skills certifications, discussed the ongoing availability of IT jobs, and CompTIA's efforts to support its members by training and certifying reliable, skilled workers through its certification program. "There are 400,000 IT jobs available, but we lack enough people with skills and awareness to fill those openings," explains Erdle. He unveiled new certification programs open to members, including training around cloud, data storage, healthcare IT, and security.

Last, but not least, the CompTIA leadership offered insight into its advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill and creation of job resources and opportunities for veterans and others through its Creating IT Futures Foundation.