Dubai, UAE 12 August, 2015 - CompTIA, the IT industry association and leading provider of vendor-neutral certifications for the global IT workforce, has launched Skillsboost, the world's first vendor-neutral IT careers portal dedicated to parents, pupils and teachers.

The aim is to help parents, teachers and pupils take advantage of an array of vocational routes into IT careers in order to address a major skills deficit across the IT industry.

CompTIA's recent global survey of the technology workforce found that 84 percent of Middle East executives indicate at least some degree of gaps in IT at their business exists and with 81 percent of Middle Eastern businesses planning to hire IT workers in 2015, the need for qualified IT professionals is high.   

Mark Plunkett, Regional Director, EME Emerging Markets at CompTIA, said: "Now with the launch of this website, students, parents and teachers access to information on everything from IT salaries to IT employment statistics drawn from up-to-the-minute industry market intelligence.  Crucially, Skillsboost will provide data on the industry sectors with the biggest current skills gaps, enabling schools and colleges to direct teaching resources towards giving pupils the most in-demand skills, dramatically boosting their employment prospects."   

Schools and colleges will also be able to use free quizzes to measure students' computing skills against industry-developed criteria. The site will also allow school pupils to trial CertMaster, which uses 'intelligent' e-learning technology to automatically adapt complex subjects to each student's individual ability level, confidence and even memory capacity.  What's more, students will be able to find out how to get skills training and vocational qualifications recognised by major employers across the IT industry.

CompTIA already provides e-learning technology and industry certifications to schools across the Middle East and colleges through its Authorised Partnership Programmes.

The Skillsboost platform aims to provide a single repository of IT careers information and advice encompassing many different employers and training providers across the IT industry.

Mark continued: "We created Skillsboost to give aspiring young IT professionals a chance to learn about the huge variety of vocational paths into an IT career and help school and college leavers work out how to best increase and prove their skills to find jobs in the industry."

He added: "Critically, as a vendor-neutral IT careers site, this will provide neutral careers, skills and apprenticeships information that could help young people develop their skills in any technology platform and find out about the full range of employment and training opportunities across every industry sector."

Visit http://Skillsboost.comptia.org to learn more about CompTIA Skillsboost.

About CompTIA
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is a non-profit trade association serving as the voice of the information technology industry. With approximately 2,000 member companies, 3,000 academic and training partners and nearly 2 million IT certifications issued, CompTIA is dedicated to advancing industry growth through educational programs, market research, networking events, professional certifications and public policy advocacy. Visit CompTIA online, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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