How to Choose the Right Industry Certification for Your Goals

November 14, 2024

Earning industry certifications is one of the most productive ways you can work towards a career in IT, cloud, or cybersecurity. Certifications validate your skills and experience, so you can expand your career opportunities, have better job security, and earn more money.

With our new test prep skill paths, we’re making it easier for Codecademy learners to get ready to ace certification exams and break into this lucrative area of tech. There over 15 new test prep skill paths that ladder up to leading industry certifications, and they’re all included in your Codecademy membership.

Not sure where to start? Like choosing a programming language, you should have an idea of what you’d like to do before selecting a certification or skill path. Ahead we’ll break down what you should look for in a certification, the best ones for beginners, and the skill paths to take now.

Research providers and vendors

The names of industry certifications can be confusing to decipher without context (even for someone who can read complicated computer code). Often, you’ll see the provider or platform, level, specialization, and alphanumeric exam code baked into the certification name. Take a look at some examples of industry certifications

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate SAA-C03
CompTIA Security+ SY0-701
CompTIA IT Fundamentals+ FC0-U61

Before you dive into a skill path or certification, consider which platform or provider is the most relevant to your goals, career, or industry. For example, the big three cloud providers, Amazon Web Services, Azure, and Google, all offer their own certifications. If your organization primarily uses Azure, that’s a good reason to choose to specialize in Azure. Or say you’re looking for a job in finance — you may want to focus on AWS, which tends to be a popular choice for banks and financial institutions.

Some other credentialing organizations that you’ll come across in our catalog include CompTIA (the Computing Technology Industry Association), a non-profit trade association that provides vendor-neutral IT certifications, and Cisco, which is known for its networking hardware like routers and switches, as well as cybersecurity solutions.

Do a little research to determine which route is right for your goals. Our new skill paths align with industry certifications, so once you choose a cert, it’s easy to tell where to start.

Evaluate your level

There’s a huge range of levels when it comes to industry certifications — from absolute beginner to expert. When you’re just starting out, you’ll want to focus on foundational certifications before doubling down on a specific topic or technology.

As with all areas of tech, you’re never really done learning in IT. Just like you gradually learn more programming languages or frameworks throughout your coding career, you’ll also pick up more certifications and skills. Some certifications, like the AWS Certified Solutions Architect, are intended for people who have a couple years of hands-on experience working with cloud architecture.

Even seasoned technologists have to stay on top of current technologies and skills and continue earning certifications. For instance, Google Cloud’s Professional Cloud Architect certification is one of the highest-paying IT certifications in the US. The average certification-holder has 9 certifications, according to data from Skillsoft’s IT Skills & Salary Report, one of the largest studies of IT salaries, skills, and certifications.

Consider the salary potential

Certifications boost your qualifications for higher-paying jobs. They validate your skills, making you more productive and valuable to employers, who see certified employees as key to reducing troubleshooting time and closing skills gaps within the organization.

Depending on where you are in your career, the earning potential of specific certifications might be a big factor in which certification you decide to pursue next. The highest-paying certifications that we offer test prep skill paths for are Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+). To put the value of these certifications in perspective, the average CISSP holder in the US has a salary of $168,060, according to the 2024 IT Skills & Salary report.

Remember: IT professionals usually have multiple certifications that contribute to their compensation. There are also other factors that impact salaries beyond credentials, like your geographic location, industry, job tasks, and your individual performance.

Start pursuing industry certifications

If you’re starting from scratch, our beginner-friendly test prep skill paths [link to landing page] are a solid way to kick off your learning journey. Here’s what you need to know about the entry-level certifications, the types of jobs you can get with the certs, and the test prep skill paths to take:

CompTIA IT Fundamentals+ (FC0-U61)

CompTIA IT Fundamentals+ (FC0-U61): Specifically designed for beginners and career switchers, this certification validates your understanding of basic IT concepts, including computer hardware, software applications, networking basics, and cybersecurity principles. If you want to see if IT is right for you, start with this skill path. It’s also a great option for people in tech-adjacent roles who want to upskill.

Best for: Anyone interested in IT as well as tech-adjacent upskillers and students.

CompTIA A+ Core 1 (220-1101)

CompTIA A+ Core 1 (220-1101): This is the industry-standard entry-level certification for people who want to break into IT. Our skill path prepares you for CompTIA A+ certification with expert training in hardware, OS, networking, security, and troubleshooting to help you get in the door in IT.

Best for: Job seekers looking for a role as a Technical Support Specialist, IT Support Technician, or Field Service Technician.

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02): Get up to speed on AWS Cloud, services, and terminologies with this introductory-level certification. Master AWS Cloud fundamentals, security, and migration strategies. This skill path prepares you for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam (CLF-C02). Good to know: This is the most widely held AWS certification, according to new data from the IT Skills & Salary Report.

Best for: Cloud curious people and upskillers who want to improve their cloud literacy.

Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900):

Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900): Get introduced to cloud services and how they’re provided with Microsoft Azure. Explore cloud concepts, core Azure Services, Azure pricing and support, and the fundamentals of cloud security, privacy, compliance, and trust. This skill path prepares you for the AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification exam.

Best for: Tech professionals (like Software Developers or Database Managers) who want to learn cloud concepts and gain Azure experience.

Taking the first step toward industry certifications can open doors to exciting and rewarding career opportunities. By following these beginner-friendly test prep skill paths, you’ll gain the foundational knowledge and confidence needed to advance in the IT field. Don’t forget to check out our full catalog of IT, cybersecurity, and cloud courses that can complement your learning journey. Embrace these learning opportunities to build a strong base for your future professional endeavors.

World’s Top Notch ISO 9001, ISO 45001, ISO 14001 Courses, Now Available in Spanish

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November 14, 2024

World’s Top Notch ISO 9001, ISO 45001, ISO 14001 Courses, Now Available in Spanish

Exciting news for Spanish-speaking professionals around the globe: Alison is now offering its highly acclaimed ISO 9001, ISO 45001, and ISO 14001 courses in Spanish. Led by expert instructor S.M. Waqas Imam, these courses have already attracted over 550,000 learners in their English versions. The Spanish translations aim to break language barriers, making high-quality education in quality management, occupational health and safety, and environmental management more accessible than ever to Spanish-speaking communities.

Why ISO Certifications Matter

ISO certifications are globally recognised standards that help organisations ensure their products and services meet customer and regulatory requirements. These standards improve management systems and enhance operational efficiency. Let’s take a closer look at the three key certifications now available in Spanish on Alison:

1. ISO 9001 (Quality Management)

Overview: ISO 9001 is the world’s most popular quality management standard. It helps organizations consistently meet customer expectations and regulatory requirements while focusing on improving overall efficiency.
Course Features: Alison’s popular ISO 9001 course, designed by expert S.M. Waqas Imam, delves into the core principles of quality management, including the process approach and the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle. What sets this course apart is its focus on demystifying complex concepts like risk-based thinking and organisational knowledge alongside essential QMS (Quality Management System) topics. By enrolling, learners will gain a comprehensive understanding of the steps necessary to implement and sustain a robust quality management system.
Enrollment Impact: With over 190,000 enrollments in English and now expanding to the Spanish version, the total impact of this course is set to grow significantly. The Spanish version aims to reach and empower even more professionals worldwide.

2. ISO 45001 (Occupational Health and Safety)

Overview: ISO 45001 sets the standard for occupational health and safety management systems. It helps organizations improve employee safety, reduce workplace risks, and create better, safer working conditions.
Course Features: This course, thoughtfully designed by S.M. Waqas Imam, guides learners through essential concepts of occupational health and safety, including risk assessment and hazard identification. Moreover, it comprehensively covers all aspects necessary to understand and implement effective occupational health and safety management systems.
Enrollment Impact: With over 250,000 enrollments in its English version, this course has made a unique impact worldwide. Now available in Spanish, it is set to further benefit Spanish-speaking audiences by significantly contributing to the creation of safer workplaces across the globe.

3. ISO 14001 (Environmental Management)

Overview: ISO 14001 focuses on environmental management systems. It enables organizations to minimize their environmental impact and comply with relevant regulations.
Course Features: Alison’s ISO 14001 course, led by S.M. Waqas Imam, offers an in-depth exploration of environmental management principles with a strong emphasis on sustainability. The course also covers the steps to implement an effective environmental management system. Learners will gain valuable skills to identify and manage environmental risks and opportunities.
Enrollment Impact: With over 110,000 enrollments in its English version, the release of the Spanish edition presents an excellent opportunity for Spanish-speaking learners. It will deepen the understanding of thousands, fostering the adoption of sustainable practices across diverse industries.

Why Choose Alison?

Alison is a trusted name in online education and offers free and accessible courses to millions of learners worldwide. Alison’s ISO courses are designed by industry experts like S.M. Waqas Imam and provide practical knowledge. The skills gained through this course can be applied in real-world scenarios.

Here why you should choose Alison for your ISO certification training:

Expertly Designed Courses: Each course is crafted by professionals with extensive experience in their respective fields, ensuring you receive the most relevant and up-to-date information.
Flexible Learning: Study at your own pace and access the courses anytime, anywhere. This flexibility makes it easier for working professionals to enhance their skills without disrupting their schedules.
Free Access: Alison offers these courses for free, making high-quality education accessible to everyone without any financial risk. Optional certification is available for a fee, allowing learners to showcase their achievements to employers and peers. If you decide the coursework isn’t for you, simply enjoy the learning experience without any obligation to purchase a certificate.

Expanding Opportunities for Spanish-Speakers

Making these ISO courses available in Spanish marks a significant step towards inclusivity and global reach. Spanish-speaking professionals can now access Alison’s world-class ISO certification training for free, gaining essential knowledge and credentials in the top three ISO management system standards. This valuable training empowers them to excel in their careers and drive success within their organisations.

Whether you aim to enhance your quality management skills with ISO 9001, improve workplace safety with ISO 45001, or adopt sustainable practices with ISO 14001, Alison’s newly translated courses in Spanish, led by S.M. Waqas Imam, present an invaluable opportunity. With impressive enrolment numbers already, the addition of these Spanish versions is set to expand their impact even further. Take the first step towards achieving excellence in your field—join the growing community of ISO-certified professionals today.

Visit Alison.com to enroll in these courses and start your journey towards professional growth and success.

3 GenAI prompting methods worth trying

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November 12, 2024

In our past few issues, we’ve been highlighting specific career areas, namely business management, data analytics, and cybersecurity. This week, we’re going to zoom out and return to a more widely applicable topic, AI skills.

At first glance, AI skills may seem highly technical. The name alone can bring to mind mechanical and robotic imagery. And, truthfully, some aspects of AI are highly technical. For example, if you’re aspiring to become an AI engineer, you’ll become intimately familiar with words like Python and LangChain. (Sidenote: If this sounds like your dream scenario, read our interview with Isaac Ke, an AI engineer at IBM. He reflects on his journey and top skills, plus offers detailed advice for entering the field.)

For the rest of us, however, AI skills have less to do with building pipelines and more to do with practical applications, like using Google Gemini to create a chore tracker. The more comfortable you get with your practical AI skills and using GenAI tools, the better equipped you are to capture AI’s time-saving benefits. According to a report from Visier, professionals using GenAI to augment their skills are saving 1.75 hours per day.

The trick to maximizing your efficiency with GenAI? Good communication.

How to prompt LLMs

If you’ve spent any time chatting with a large language model (LLM), you’ll notice that it responds to almost any type of question, or input. These tools are designed to be conversational, meaning now matter how you phrase your input, you’ll likely get a response, or output. But just like in human-to-human conversation, there are more and less effective ways to communicate with the tool.

Generally, the quality of your output reflects the quality of your input. Fortunately, there are guidelines for writing high-quality inputs that are more likely to generate high-quality outputs. This practice describes prompting, and an input that instructs the LLM on the kind of output you’re looking for is a prompt.

There are several prompting methods that are worth trying as you practice using LLMs. Here are some of the methods described in the course Google AI Essentials:

1. Zero-shot prompting is a simple prompt that provides no example to guide the output. Here, you provide a sentence or two instructing the LLM.

Example: Draft an email to my physician’s office requesting to schedule an appointment for my annual check-up on October 14.

2. One-shot prompting includes one example of the type of output you’re seeking. Similarly, few-shot prompting includes two or more examples of the type of output you’re seeking. This helps to instruct the LLM on the format and tone you’d like to achieve. Here, you provide your instruction, an instruction to review the example(s), your labeled example(s), and an open label for your request.

Example: Write a short, fun phrase to open a social media caption about my beach vacation. Review the examples provided and write in the same style.

Hike: Climbing to the top!

Game day: Rolling the dice!

Beach vacation:

3. Chain-of-thought prompting asks the AI to explain the reasoning for the output. This helps to ensure accuracy for logic and problem-solving questions. Here, you provide the context, an example, and your request. If you don’t have an answer to provide, you can alternatively instruct the LLM to “Solve the problem in a step-by-step manner.”

Example: My household eats 3 bags of frozen spinach per week, and I typically go grocery shopping one time per week. I purchase 3 bags of frozen spinach during each grocery trip (3 bags/week * 1 week = 3 bags). I can only buy whole bags of frozen spinach. Explain the steps involved in determining how many bags of spinach I should buy during each shopping scenario.

Question: I will be unable to go to the grocery store for 1.5 weeks. How many bags of frozen spinach should I buy?

Answer: 5 bags. To determine this, multiply 3 bags/week by 1.5 weeks (3 bags/week * 1.5 weeks = 4.5) , then round up to the nearest whole number (5).

Question: I will be unable to go to the grocery store for 2.5 weeks. How many bags of spinach should I buy?

Answer:

With any of these methods, if you aren’t satisfied with the output, you can (and should) try different ways of phrasing your prompt. Iteration describes an approach where you write a prompt, see the output, and refine your prompt to get a more exact output.

Keep learning

If you enjoyed learning about these prompting methods, check out Google AI Essentials. This 9-hour introductory course goes into more detail about these methods and more.

For even more prompting techniques, explore Vanderbilt University’s Prompt Engineering Specialization.

For hands-on practice using GenAI tools, try the course Use Generative AI as Your Thought Partner from Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera CEO.

Finally, to learn about incorporating AI into your career, we’ve compiled all of our top GenAI recommendations.

That’s all for this week.

Can You Place These Children’s Books on the World Map?

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November 12, 2024

Can You Place These Children’s Books on the World Map?

A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz celebrates popular children’s books and stories from cultures around the world. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. Links to the books will be listed at the end of the quiz if you’d like to do further reading.

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World’s Top Notch ISO 9001, ISO 45001, ISO 14001 Courses, Now Available in Spanish