CompTIA fills UK skills hole

Convergence+ course designed to educate channel and end users

Matthew Poyiadgi: Vendor courses can never be truly independent.

Trade body CompTIA is aiming to plug a skills gap in the channel with its new convergence certification.

Training provider Q6 is the first UK firm to offer CompTIA’s Convergence+ course and will educate resellers, vendors and end users on issues around the convergence of telephony, networking, hardware, software, security management and monitoring.

Courses will take place once a month for the next six months, with the objective of preparing people for the Convergence+ exam.

Matthew Poyiadgi, EMEA vice president for CompTIA, said: “CompTIA certifications are only developed when a significant number of our 23,000 members identify a skills gap that needs to be plugged and where nothing exists that can already do the job. Vendor courses can never be truly independent and this can sometimes affect the scope of the training.”

Paul Sibley, technical director of Q6, claimed the certification could be a real differentiator for smaller VARs.

“If you do a vendor-specific course, it is typically just going to cover the technologies and the aspects of the market in which the vendor is strong,” he said. “Their courses tend to lack a full understanding of what is going on underneath.”