Maintaining Your CompTIA Certification
Getting to know your CEUs.
Students ask me: Do CompTIA certifications need to be renewed?
Your CompTIA certification expires three years from the date you earn it and must be renewed before that expiration date. If you need to know your expiration date, log in here. Continuing Education Units (CEUs): Each certification requires a certain number of CEUs for renewal.
What is a CEU?
A Continuing Education Unit (CEU) is a course time/instruction designation where one hour equals 0.10 CEUs. CompTIA didn’t create the CEU system. The International Association of Continuing Education and Training (IACET) established the criteria for CEUs to establish standard procedures for issuing these lifelong learning credits. CEUs are used by CompTIA and many other certification programs.
When calculating CEUs, 10 hours of instruction (or participation) equals one CEU. If you see the term CEU used, it should always contain the decimal point to show the fraction of hours.
CEU Requirements
The CompTIA Continuing Education (CE) program requires certified professionals to earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to maintain their certifications. To maintain CompTIA certifications, professionals must earn a specified number of CEUs every three years to keep their certification active.
CompTIA maintains a comprehensive list of approved CEUs on its website, including additional certifications, college courses, webinars, work experience, and more.
CompTIA also provides an easy-to-use assessment tool on its website to assist professionals in tracking their progress. This tool helps determine whether completed CEUs meet the requirements for specific certification renewals. Users can select from a pre-populated list of activity types and provide details about each activity to determine how they qualify for their CEU requirements.
CEU activities that apply to all CompTIA Security+ CE (Continuing Education):
Attending industry conferences
Obtaining higher-level CompTIA security certifications (e.g., CompTIA CASP+)
Earning non-CompTIA IT certifications
Publishing articles or whitepapers
Participating in industry activities
Completing online self-study courses and webinars
Completing courses on security topics covered in exam objectives
Working in a security-related job role (max 9 CEUs per year)
If you apply for a security-related job role deduction, you will need a note from your employer. That note will have to convey that some of the responsibilities of your job match exam objectives. You are better off asking your employer for a training course (or one training course per year) that you can apply toward your recertification effort. That way, you get the training, and you get paid. If your employer pays for a one-week course each year, you can easily claim at least 4 CEUs (given a 40-hour work week) for 12 CEUs over three years.
How about an example?
CompTIA Security+ requires 50 CEUs within the three-year certification cycle, consistent with other CompTIA certifications at the same level, such as Linux+ and Cloud+.
To renew Security+, you need 50 CEUs within three years. Three years is 36 months or 156 weeks. That’s 16.7 CEUs per month or .32 CEUs per week. Remember that 1 CEU is equal to 10 hours of work. That makes it 167 hours per month or 3.2 hours per week. The problem with this math is that you hit 50 CEUs at the deadline. You’re better off planning to have 50 CEUs submitted two months before your certification expires.
Is there a grace period for submitting CEUs?
You have three years from the date your certification was earned or from the certification's expiration date to complete the CE Program requirements and remain certified. CompTIA provides a 90-day grace period after your certification expires to upload CEUs completed during your 3-year renewal cycle. You can’t take a course after your expiration and apply those CEUs. The CEUs have to have been earned before your certification expires.
How many credit hours equals 1 CEU?
10 hours. And again, CompTIA didn’t create CEUs. That was the IACET folks.
It is a course time/instruction designation where one hour equals 0.10 CEUs. This division by ten means that 10 hours of instruction (or participation) equals one CEU. If you see the term CEU used, it should always contain the decimal point to show the fraction of hours.
Continuing Education Units are measured by taking 1/10 of the time of the course.
Obtaining a Higher-Level Certification
One way of recertifying is to obtain a higher-level certification. CompTIA certifications do have an ordered hierarchy. If your learning objectives include earning another certification, remember that each CompTIA certification has a 3-year term at the end of which you need to recertify. If you space out earning your certifications by 18 months to two years between each and follow the order in the CompTIA pyramid below, you can add new and recertify previous certifications.
CE Fees
CE fees are required for renewal and must be paid before expiration. The due dates are based on your three-year renewal period dates, not the calendar year.
The annual CE fees are as follows:
$25 per year / $75 total per three-year renewal period for CompTIA A+ and Data+.
$50 per year / $150 total per three-year renewal period for CompTIA DataSys+, Network+, Security+, Linux+, Cloud+, PenTest+, CySA+ and CASP+.
Renewal Activities That Do Not Require CE Fees
You do not need to pay CE fees if you choose one of these renewal options:
Pass the latest release of the CompTIA exam (if a newer one is available)
Earn a higher-level CompTIA certification.
Complete a CompTIA CertMaster CE Course.
Submitting CEUs
Follow these step-by-step instructions to submit your CEUs:
Note: Each CE activity you complete must be uploaded as a separate CEU submission.
Step 1: Log in to your CompTIA account.
Step 2: Click the Manage Certifications header.
Step 3: Click the Go to My Certifications button to be directed to your certification account.
Step 4: Click the Continuing Education menu item.
Step 5: Click Add CEUs in the menu bar.
Step 6: Click the drop-down arrow to select the intent level. This is only necessary if you're renewing multiple certifications.
Step 7: Click an Activity Group to select an activity type.
Step 8: Click the Accept Activity button.
Step 9: If you have selected the Attend Live Webinar or Completed a Training Course activity, you will be prompted to enter the Training Provider name.
Step 10: Enter the number of CEUs for the activity.
Step 11: Click the Documentation Language drop-down arrow and select the language of the documents you submit.
Step 12: Click the Browse button to upload the required documents.
Note: You can submit a maximum of five documents to support the activity; the total file size of all documents cannot exceed one megabyte.
Step 13: Click the checkbox above the Submit button to agree that the CEUs you’re submitting meet the CE program requirements.
Step 14: Click the Submit button.
Stay Certified!
The easiest way to stay certified is to take a higher-level exam. This restarts the clock on your underlying certifications and gives you another three years. There are no discounts on additional CompTIA exams, so you’ll pay hundreds of dollars to get a new certification. The only caution is to ensure there is a higher-level exam and know which higher-level exam renews which lower-level exams. For instance, if you achieved CompTIA Linux certification, only achieving CompTIA Cloud+ certification renews that. And the order in which you take the exams matters; Linux+ does not renew Cloud+.
CompTIA is also the one of the only certification authorities that recognizes other organizations certifications. CompTIA publishes two tables: one for certifications that partially renew and another for certifications that fully renew. For example, if you pass the AWS Certified Security Specialty exam, you renew your CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) certification.
There is another easy way to maintain many CompTIA certifications, and that’s using CompTIA’s learning products. If you want to renew your Security+ (SY0-601) certification, you can purchase and complete the online CompTIA Security+ CertMaster course. You don’t have to do anything else. Your certification is renewed as you work through and complete the course requirements.
If you achieve a higher-level certification, achieve another recognized certification, or submit the required CEUs, you still have to pay the CE fee. CompTIA’s Continuing Education (CE) fees are incredibly low ($25 per year for A+, $50 per year for all other certifications), and paying the fee once covers all of your CompTIA certifications.
My suggested strategy for maintaining your CompTIA certification is to participate in and complete activities throughout your three-year term's first two and a half years ( 30 months). My Ford’s Notes newsletter aims to help you identify those activities and maintain your certification.
References
How To Renew Your Certification | CompTIA IT Certifications. https://www.comptia.org/continuing-education/learn/how-to-renew