The Business of Learning, Special Episode: Building Future-Ready Talent With IT and Tech Credentials

So to kind of get things started and set the stage for our conversation, I'd love if you could clarify what we mean by IT certifications.

So when we talk about certifications in this context, what type of credentials are we referring to?

Absolutely, that's a really great way to ground our conversation because here at Pearson, we are all about learning and certification is a really powerful proof point of learning.

And when you think about certification in licensure, It's across many different professions.

And here at Pearson Professional Assistance, we delivered those certifications and licensures across all of those professions from finance, healthcare, IT, academic admissions, English language learning, and of course, information technology.

And individuals who are taking those tests, they are earning an industry recognized credential.

And the test is part of that required learning journey.

And if I dive a little bit deeper on information technology certification, those are tests that are asking individuals questions to validate their knowledge, skills, and abilities for IT-related or technology-specific work.

And those are roles like a software developer, a web developer, an information security analyst, and more.

And there are some really recognizable brands behind these information technology certifications, like Microsoft, Salesforce, Amazon, Meta, Adobe, Autodesk, and the list goes on and on.

And sometimes people ask me, what's the so what with IT certifications? There's so many different ways that we can learn and validate our skills.

We can take LinkedIn courses, we can take YouTube, we can watch YouTube videos, self-paced learning, we can go to an instructor-led course.

What does IT certification do? Well, I don't know about you, but I've watched many LinkedIn courses before, and sometimes I'm multitasking, so I'm probably not picking up everything that I could if I was getting it my undivided attention.

But for an individual to pass a very challenging IT certification, that learning stuck.

And earning that certification is the proof point that they now have those valuable work-ready skills.

And that is why employers now more than ever are turning to certifications as a strategic role for them to close the global skills gap and have that level of confidence that those employees actually have the skills that are needed to help them adapt in this ever-changing world.

technology that we're seeing today.