CompTIA (Computing Technology Industry Association) offer a number of essentially vendor-neutral, entry-level certifications across a range of I.T. disciplines.
CompTIA themselves are a for-profit I.T. trade association of professionals from a wide spectrum of the industry, including vendors, training companies, students and the like. Their self-stated mission is to advance industry (I.T.) growth, and currently CompTIA boast more than 20,000 members in over 100 countries.
By being vendor-neutral, CompTIA certifications largely focus on job-role specifics, overall concepts and best practices. Recent incarnations of their most popular certifications, like the A+, have introduced soft skills, such as communication skills, into their objectives.
As of late 2006 there were 13 different CompTIA certifications on offer (click on the linked entries below for certification information and free study resources for the respective certifications):
CompTIA A+
CompTIA Network+
CompTIA Server+
CompTIA Linux+
CompTIA Security+
CompTIA CTT+ (Certified Technical Trainer)
CompTIA HTI+ (Home Technology Integrator)
CompTIA RFID+ (Radio Frequency Identification)
CompTIA Convergence+
CompTIA CDIA+ (Certified Document Imaging Architech)
CompTIA i-Net+
CompTIA Project+
CompTIA e-Biz+
