Certification cash

Offshore outsourcing has reduced the need for companies to award as much premium bonus pay for certain IT certifications and skills as they did in previous years. Foote Partners’ Quarterly Hot Technical Skills and Certification Pay Index shows that extra compensation for IT skills dropped 16% over the past two years, while premium pay for IT certifications dropped 6.5% over the same period.

But while some certifications such as those pertaining to applications development and databases are cooling off, demand for information security, and enterprise systems and networking skills remains strong. According to Foote’s report for the first quarter of 2004, the following certifications continue to offer high value that translates into additional pay:

* Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts jumped 20% in bonus pay for the year ending April 1, 2004.

* Security increased 1.1% overall in the year ending April 1. The top performing certification include Certified Information Systems Auditor, which gained 33% in the past year – the biggest increase for all certifications covered in the study. Certified Information Systems Security Professional and GIAC Certified Windows Administrator designations are also hot.

* HP/Compaq certifications such as the Accredited Systems Engineer and Master Accredited Systems Engineer posted year over year gains of 17% and 13%, respectively.

* Systems administration and engineering/network operating systems is up 3.8% for the 12-month period ending April 1. HP/Compaq, Linux and Sun certifications lead the category.

In terms of non-certified skills, the report identifies increasing value for Gigabit Ethernet, VoIP, Linux and Web services-related technologies such as XML, SOAP, IBM WebSphere and others.

You can purchase the Quarterly Hot Technical Skills & Certifications Pay Index for $895, or $3,250 for an annual subscription. For more information, go to www.footeparters.com/htscpi_latest.htm