Recently, training provider Global Knowledge released their 2020 IT Skills and Salary Report, which contained a number of interesting findings.
The main reason most professionals seek training is to build new skills: 45% of respondents said they trained to prepare for a certification, while 37% wanted to be ready for a new technology or product migration.
Further, in terms of certification, they found:
- 87% of IT professionals hold at least one certification.
- 90% of those surveyed received training in the last year.
- 40% of certified IT professionals earned a certification in the last year.
- Latin America and EMEA have the highest percentage of certified professionals, at 90%.
When it comes to pay, they reported:
- IT professionals with certifications on average earn more than peers without a certification.
- The more certifications professionals hold, the higher the average salary.
- Cloud and cybersecurity certifications are associated with the highest paying IT jobs.
- Cloud professionals in the U.S. and Canada earn 33% more than the North American average and 24% more than the worldwide average.
- 60% of IT professionals received a raise last year.
- 55% of IT staff earned a bonus last year.
- 20% either received a raise or a promotion after getting certified.
- Earning a certification can raise a salary of up to $12K a year.
- VMware is reported as being a top-paying certification; the average salary for VMware VCP-6 Data Center Virtualization in North America, based on 81 respondents, is $125,918.
As for women in IT, they discovered:
- Forty percent of woman respondents are IT decision-makers, which is the same percentage as male decision-makers.
- Female IT professionals have higher average salaries than their male counterparts—on average 9% higher, in fact.
- Of the women surveyed, 86% have at least one certification.
Overall, IT managers report that skills gaps are one of their biggest challenges:
- In 2020, 80% of North American managers and 78% worldwide report skills gaps.
- When asked to assess the level of risk that skills gaps pose to their team objectives, 77% said the risk is medium to high.
- 75% of IT decision-makers are dealing with employees that have a skills gap, which can result in 520 hours or $29K per employee.
- 67% of IT decision-makers believe skills gaps cost their employees between three and nine hours of work per week.
The need for continued training and certification is clear. Overall, IT professionals tend to be more effective in their jobs after certification because of the training investment required. Certified IT professionals saw an improvement of 52% in their work, and 36% felt more engaged with their work. “IT professionals want to constantly learn and enhance their skills. That’s part of the excitement of working with technology—it drives users and adopters to constantly evolve with it,” concluded the report.
Learn more about VMware Learning and 2021 VMware Certifications.
