CompTIA Continuing Education Program – CompTIA Cert. Renewal

CompTIA is one of the world’s leading tech associations. CompTIA offers several certifications in IT, cybersecurity, network management, software testing, project management, and several other professional domains. CompTIA has renewal requirements for some of its certifications and these are outlined in the CompTIA Continuing Education Program. We have gone through CompTIA CEU requirements, fees, how to renew CompTIA certification, and many other aspects of CompTIA certification renewal in this post.

Hint: You will see how you can earn one FREE Continuing Education Unit in this post. Do not skip the post!

CompTIA Continuing Education Program

CompTIA offers several certification tracks and some of the certifications require renewal while others do not expire. The following table summarizes the CompTIA Continuing Education requirements.

As you can see on the table, there are four different levels and only eight CompTIA certifications require renewal. If you are holding a CompTIA certification that does not require renewal, you do not need to earn continuing education units (CEUs).

If you have one of the following certifications, you will need to earn CEUs every three years to renew your CompTIA Certification:

• CompTIA A+: 20 CEUs
• CompTIA Network+: 30 CEUs
• CompTIA Security+: 50 CEUs – See CompTIA Security+ Renewal Guide
• CompTIA Cloud+: 50 CEUs
• CompTIA Linux+: 50 CEUs
• CompTIA CySA+: 60 CEUs
• CompTIA PenTest+: 60 CEUs
• CompTIA CASP+: 75 CEUs

You should earn the required continuing education units every three years to renew your certification.

What is CompTIA Continuing Education Unit (CEU)?

In order to renew your CompTIA certification, you must earn CEUs.

• Typically, each one-hour activity equals one CEU. 

For instance, if you attend a two hours webinar, you will earn two CEUs. Similarly, if you complete 60 hours of self-paced CompTIA CEU training, you will earn 60 CEUs and you will be able to renew your CompTIA certification easily.

How can I earn CompTIA Continuing Education Units?

You can earn CompTIA Continuing Education Units (CEUs) by completing the following activities.

• Complete training and higher education
• Earn CompTIA Certifications
• Earn Non-CompTIA IT industry certifications
• Participate in IT industry activities
• Publish a relevant article, white paper, blog post, or book
• Gain related work experience

We will be describing each activity one-by-one.

Complete training and higher education

There are five different methods for earning CEUs through training and higher education.

• Complete a training course
• Attend a live webinar – See our CompTIA CEU Webinars post.
• Attend a conference
• Complete a college course
• Complete an American Council on Education (ACE) course

In order to earn CEUs from training or higher education, you must earn CEUs in a three-year renewal period. At least 50% of the training course content must be related to the exam objectives of the CompTIA certification you are renewing.

Master of Project Academy offers Free CompTIA CEU Training bundle and earns you 2 CEU hours for FREE. Enroll now!

Typically, each one-hour training activity counts for one CEU. Once you earned CEUs from the training activity, you will need to submit the following details to CompTIA:

• Detailed description and outline of the training
• Course Completion Certificate

Note that, course completion certificate should include your name, name of the course, name of the training provider, date of completion, and the number of hours earned.

CompTIA CEU Requirements

Note that, there are certain CompTIA continuing education requirements for training activities. You can earn all the required activities by attending a training course. However, you cannot earn unlimited CEUs by attending a live webinar or conference. The following table shows the maximum number of CEUs you can earn for each certification track.

If you are a full-time working professional, it will not be easy to attend webinars, conferences to earn continuing education units. Our 60+ CompTIA CEU Course Bundle is designed for busy professionals – hassle-free CompTIA Certification renewal way.

There are four courses in the self-paced CompTIA Course bundle and each course satisfies the CompTIA CEU requirements. The CompTIA training bundle has the following courses:

• Six Sigma Course – 30 CEUs
• Agile Training – 12 CEUs
• IT Service Management Training – 14 CEUs
• MS Project Training – 9 CEUs

In total, you will earn 60 CompTIA CEUs and you will be able to submit your CEUs easily. You can see the following video showing whether a course satisfies the CompTIA continuing education requirement.

Other Methods for Earning CompTIA Continuing Education Units

We will be describing the other methods for earning CompTIA CEUs in the following headings.

Earn New CompTIA Certification to Earn CEUs

CompTIA grants continuing education units to use in your existing CompTIA certifications when you earn a new CompTIA certification. Currently, CompTIA offers CEUs for three certifications. If you have a CompTIA certification and if you earn one of the following new certifications, you can use it as a CEU source for your existing certification:

• CompTIA Cloud+ certification grants 15 CEUs if you have CompTIA Network+ certification
• CompTIA CySA+ or CompTIA PenTest+ certifications grant 33 CEUs if you have CompTIA Cloud+ certification
• CompTIA CASP+ certification grants 25 CEUs if you have CompTIA Cloud+ certification

So, if you are planning to earn new CompTIA certification, you can use this method to earn new CEUs for your existing certifications.

Earn Non-CompTIA IT industry certifications

CompTIA grants continuing education units if you earn an IT-related certification. If you are planning to earn new certifications, you can check the CompTIA non-IT certification list and see how many CEUs you can earn once you earn that certification.

Participate in IT industry activities

As an IT professional, while you are participating in IT activities, you can earn CompTIA CEUs. There are three categories for IT industry participation category. These are:

• Teach or Mentor: If you are teaching an IT-related class in your organization, or in public, you can earn CEUs by instructing IT-related courses.
• Create instructional materials: If you are developing or authoring CompTIA certification exam objective-related course materials, study guides, questions, etc. you can earn CEUs from these activities.
• Participate as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in a CompTIA exam development workshop: If you attend CompTIA workshops, you will earn one CEU for each one-hour workshop activity.

Publish a relevant article, white paper, blog post, or book

If you are authoring in an article, writing a blog or book, these activities count for CEUs to renew your CompTIA certification as well.

Gain related work experience

As a working professional, you might be practicing the CompTIA exam objectives in your daily work. CompTIA counts continuing educations for your work experience as well. However, there is a maximum number of hours you can earn by work experience. You can see the number of CompTIA continuing education units you can earn by work experience in the following table:

CompTIA Certification Renewal Fees

Once you earned the required CEUs, you must submit them in your CompTIA profile. To do this, CompTIA requires annual CE fees. The following table shows the annual continuing education fee and total continuing education fee for the three-year CompTIA renewal period.

Can I Earn Free CompTIA CEUs?

CompTIA does not have any requirement that the attended activities must be paid activity. Therefore, if you can find a free webinar, training, conference, or any other activity, you can earn Free CEUs by attending these free activities. For instance, our Free ITSM training is an IT related course and earns you one FREE CEU to in your CompTIA renewal cycle. 

However, it will not be easy to earn all required continuing education units by free events. I would recommend you to attend our CompTIA Renewal Training Bundle to earn CEUs to renew your CompTIA certification. Especially, if you are a full-time working professional, it will not be easy to attend webinars, live events, conferences, etc. You can attend our CompTIA CEU Course bundle and earn CEUs to renew your certification.

Why Should I Renew My CompTIA Certification?

There are several benefits of having an active CompTIA certification. The following three points are the major benefits of having CompTIA certification:

• Companies across the globe are always looking for more competent professionals to work in their projects with a high success rate. That’s why they are looking for people who have accredited certificates as proof of their mastery in professional skills.
• The CompTIA certification helps professionals showcase their skills to their current employers and catch any future opportunities. Consequently having this certification means that the owner of the certificate has the basic skills and experience of relevant methodologies.
• A CompTIA Certified Professional will gain more respect and honor in the industry than non-certified professionals. In addition, if an employer or management team trains and certifies its staff, it will be a valuable investment with long-term benefits.

If you are a CompTIA certificate holder, you may easily get used to these benefits and you may mistakenly assume these benefits will always be there.

“You Don’t Know What You Have Until It’s Gone”

If your certification expires, you will need to retake the exam and probably you will remember how hard you’ve worked for the certification exam. So, do not let your certificate slip out of your hands!

CompTIA Certified Professionals’ Salary

One of the biggest benefits you will have by having an active CompTIA certification is, a rewarding career. While an IT professional earns ~$110,000 on average in the US, you can earn up to $200,000 depending on the location and company you will be working at.

Considering the rewarding salary and compensation packages for certified professionals, you should not miss renewing your CompTIA certification.

Summary

If you have CompTIA certification, you must be careful that some CompTIA certifications require renewal. If you hold a CompTIA certificate that requires renewal, you must earn continuing education units every three years to renew your certification.

There are certain requirements to earn continuing education units to renew CompTIA certification. The most convenient and affordable way is to attend a CompTIA CEU Training bundle and renew your certification.

CompTIA certification has several benefits. Therefore, do not forget to renew your CompTIA certification. Otherwise, you can miss a rewarding professional career that an active CompTIA certification could bring.