Cross-Vendor
Chauncey is NOT a big name in the IT industry. In fact, Chauncey is not an IT company at all. A subsidiary of Educational Testing Service, it specializes in providing various educational and testing services.
Its certifications belong on this web site however because its Certified Technical Trainer (CTT) is well known in the IT industry, and is widely accepted as proof that you are a competent instructor.
For instance, if you want to be a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) for a certain Microsoft subject, you must pass the actual class and certification yourself, and you must prove you are a competent teacher. To do that, you can take Microsoft's classes on how to teach, or you can show them your Chauncey CTT certificate.
The same with Novell and other such companies. Therefore, if you plan to have a serious career as an IT teacher, the Chauncey CTT is for you.
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Standard disclaimer: Whether or not any certification is "worth it" is an individual decision. You alone must decide what your career goals and needs are. Look at certifications from a cost/benefit or Return On Investment (ROI) basis. If they help you get a better paying job or make more money at your current job, they are obviously "worth it." The problem is, there is no real way of measuring how much you can expect your income to go up as a result of any given certification. It also depends on non-related job search skills such as how well you network. |
There are two parts to obtaining the CTT certification.
First, you must pass a multiple choice exam.
Secondly, you must submit a video of you teaching a class. The video must demonstrate you know what you're doing.
You can buy materials from the Chauncey Group that will help you. One is INSTRUCTOR COMPETENCIES: THE STANDARDS, VOLUME I (ibstpi Standards). The other is a video to teach you how to make the video that proves you are a good teacher. Hey, Chauncey is a business, and without access to these materials how would you know what was expected of you?
Chauncey also has a new certification, which is not as well known, yet, but may be helpful to the many people who have paper degrees and certifications and employers who want to hire only people ready to get to work immediately.
The Associate Technology Specialist.
Chauncey worked this out with the NorthWest Center for Emerging Technologies. They literally wrote the book SKILL STANDARDS FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.
The NorthWest Center identified 8 different IT career "clusters:"
(Mmmm, when I wrote Secrets of Changing to a Computer Career, I wrote about 11 types of jobs for newbies to break into IT.)
You can get your ATS certification in any one or more of those clusters, thus demonstrating your competence to do the job.
However, you must also pass the Core Skills test, which measure your general business skill levels. These are:
Mmmm, does it look to you like Chauncey thinks that some people seeking IT jobs can't even write well or understand basic math?
Still, I hope this certification does help both potential employees and employers out. I can't help but question how it will help when an employer wants to hire someone who can immediately sit down and re-design their Windows 4.0 network.
IT equipment and software is all vendor-specific, which I think is one reason that vendor certifications such as Novell's CNE and Microsoft's MCSE are so popular.
Cross vendor certifications may vouch for your generic networking or programming skills, but nobody has a generic network or software.
Still, if you are looking to break into IT, you need every edge you can find. So, assuming you can read, write and 'rithmetic, go ahead and get ATS certified in the cluster that applies to your skills. It can't hurt, and may well help.