Students who are entering the IT field have a choice to make. Should they go through a short-term vocational program that gives them a skills-based certification or should they go through a four-year program to get an IT Bachelor's Degree? Either way could be the right way depending on what you're seeking from your college experience.
Some people who are working in the IT field today complain that they are having trouble competing in the industry if they don't have a four year degree. This makes new students wonder whether certification programs are worth it. However, a lot of people find that certification programs do make the most sense because they're short term, affordable programs that lead straight into a job.
The best certification programs in the IT industry are the ones that leave the potential for growth over time. Cisco certification is an example of this. There are five different levels of Cisco certification training and seven different programs to choose from. This means you can keep getting educated in this area of IT for a long time to come while gaining useful certifications that can help you in the job market immediately. Whether these are better than four year degrees or not is a debatable issue but it's not debatable that this is a good choice if it's the one that you make.
