The Value of ITIL Certifications to Individuals

Responses to the survey showed clearly that earning intermediate and advanced ITIL certifications is valuable to individuals. Of the 117 participants, 76.5 percent indicated that earning ITIL intermediate and advanced certifications made them more marketable compared to others in the job market. This is significant value because of recent economic conditions and the need for individuals to show that they have the credentials and experience that are significantly better than those they’re competing against for limited jobs.

Of the respondents, 58.8 percent indicated that the ITIL intermediate credentials resulted in an improved ability to compete with others in the job market. This statement was intended to assess whether or not the pursuit of ITIL intermediate and advanced certifications resulted in some skills that made respondents more competitive than others. Clearly, there is an effect here, given that over 50 percent of the respondents indicated that due to pursuit of ITIL intermediate and advanced certifications they were better able to compete with others in the job market.

Individuals occasionally pursue ITIL certifications as a means to qualify them for specific roles in an organization. The expectation was that a positive response to this statement would be higher; however, the survey indicated that over 50 percent of the respondents qualified themselves for a specific role by earning advanced and intermediate ITIL certifications. This represents significant value and speaks to the extent to which organizations value the knowledge and experience gained when an individual earns advanced ITIL certifications. Clearly, employers respect these certifications if they are willing to assign key roles to people based upon earning these certifications. A regular criticism of ITIL certifications is that they do not in and of themselves generate new knowledge in individuals.

Reproduced from Global Knowledge White Paper: The Value of ITIL® Certification

Related Courses
ITIL Foundation Courses
ITIL Intermediate Courses
ITIL Expert Program

The survey results showed the opposite of this belief because 70.6 percent of respondents indicated that they developed specific beneficial knowledge and expertise, which is a clear indication of value to individuals in terms of learning new and useful information. Respondents also overwhelmingly indicated that earning advanced and intermediate ITIL certifications resulted in direct application to work activities and projects. Of the respondents, 76.5 percent showed that these certifications held value for them in the form of being able to directly apply knowledge learned in pursuit of the certification to specific work activities.

Another key aspect of the responses to this question is that all respondents indicated that at least one aspect of individual value was present for them. In other words, none of the respondents indicated that the ITIL advanced and intermediate certifications lacked value.