From the course: Cisco Certified Support Technician (CCST) Networking Cert Prep: 2 IP Addressing

A look at Cisco CCST Networking cert

From the course: Cisco Certified Support Technician (CCST) Networking Cert Prep: 2 IP Addressing

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A look at Cisco CCST Networking cert

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In this video, we're going to take a closer look at Cisco's CCST certifications. Who do they target? And, by the way, CCST, that stands for Cisco Certified Support Technician. And in January of 2023, Cisco announced two of these CCST certifications. There was a CCST in cybersecurity and the subject of this course, a CCST in networking. And these are compared to other Cisco certifications. These are entry-level certifications. In fact, here's a quote from Cisco's website where they say these are entry-level certifications that they view as stepping stones to help you qualify for an entry-level job and also as a stepping stone to their associate level certifications such as Cisco's CCNA certification. In fact, here's how the CCST certifications fit into the overall mix of Cisco certifications. And by the way, this screenshot showing the different certification tracks, this is current at the time of this recording in early 2023. However, you may want to check back at Cisco's certification website for up to date information, but the two CCST certifications are entry-level certifications. Again, there's one in cybersecurity, there's one in networking and the CCST and networking that's the focus of this course. And at the time of this recording, the cost to take either of those CCST exams is $125 US, which is lower than a typical Cisco exam would cost. And interestingly, these exams do not expire. It's not that you have to recertify after 2 or 3 years. Once you earn your CCST certification, you've got it for life. And when Cisco introduced these certifications, one of the common questions that came up was what about the CCT certifications? Weren't those supposed to be entry-level certifications? CCT, that stood for Cisco Certified Technician. And there are CCT certifications for collaboration, data center, routing and switching. And even though those CCT certifications used to be listed in that entry-level column of the certification matrix I just showed you, after the introduction of the CCST certs the CCT certs, they've now been relegated to the additional training programs section of the certification page. In fact, here's what Cisco says about it. They say the CCT certifications are non-progressive and are not stepping stones to associate level career certifications while the CCST certifications are. So CCST, cybersecurity, CCST networking, those are now the go-to certifications for those just getting into the world of Cisco. And since you and I are going to be spending so much time together in our studies, in our next video, I want to give you a super quick bio about my background in the world of Cisco and how I came to be your instructor for this class. I'll see you in that video in just a moment.

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