The question of whether certifications or degrees are the best to further one's career is a puzzle many struggle to fix. It could be safe to say certifications or degrees alone are not the answer. It really takes more than education to forge ahead, as the choice of which to pursue would highly depend on one's career goals. Although some have often used certificates and certifications interchangeably, they do not exactly mean the same thing. Certifications are not the same as certificates. Certificates are simply a “paper” to many professionals, while certifications could depict competence in a specific area.
For an entry level point or one seeking specialist knowledge on a subject, certifications would be a great idea. To deepen the understanding of Information Technologies for example, would require more than just general introduction to concepts and theories spanned across years for a certificate. Rather, an intense certification course for say 6 months to a year with very specific, practical immersion and in-depth study will be more helpful.
Many businesses and hiring leaders are beginning to adopt the trend that skills can be sorted beyond traditional degree certificates. Considering the fact that there is no end in sight for the technological revolution, the future of jobs and work in general will continue to evolve, demanding more and more novel skills. Hence, we would not always go back to school to obtain new degrees but anchor on the available masterclass certification courses to scale.
Technology evolves quickly. A generation of new technology can happen every three or four months. This means traditional four-year or more college programs may not entirely capture the scope to allow students take advantage of valuable infrastructure roles. Instead, many leading technology companies are more and more actively seeking people with certifications.
It appears more and more employers are joining this bandwagon every day, as companies drop college-degree prerequisites because they increasingly realize that time spent during academic courses doesn't necessarily translate to a firm work ethic and competence in the workplace. This is especially the case in IT and other technology roles. In other words, certifications have become the new college degrees in technology.
