Possible Free IT Certification?

[themellowtiger]

I'm currently a high school senior with little to no funds for online ventures, but I hope to find some reputable certification in my desired field.

I thought that this would be a good place to ask, given that the vast majority of the forum-goers have undergone some kind of computer / IT related training. 

I know that most 'free' certs done really have any merit, but I still rather be completely sure that there is no free options out there.

 

It isn't really necessary, entering my final year at high school, to have these certifications but I have some annoyingly extra free time during the summer that i'd like to fill.

My field, generalized, is computer science and information technology; but im leaning more towards Computer System Analyst or Database Admin.

 

Any help would be appreciated. 

[Syntaxvgm]

The standard for entry level is CompTIA A+ certification. Not really much is requested/recognized among the free end, nor is a certification enough to get you a job. In fact, I don't consider the non-networking certifications proof of anything personally. I've met plenty of people with good certs that I would never hire. I bit the bullet in High School at got some certs and it was worth it. Some vocational/college programs will pay it for you. 

A+ is a couple of hundred bucks and a lot of places require it. It's two tests and asks you generally useless trivial knowledge so be prepared. 

There's brainbench, but meh. That wont get you far. 

[ericlee30]

The CompTIA A+ certification is your best bet but it's not free, when i got it back in 2004 it was $180 to take the test.

[Tsuki]

if you can get a job over the summer for somewhere like frys or another retail electronics store, most of them will at least reemberse you if you pass, but you still need the money upfront

[Unknown_Guy]

IT related job or do some open source stuff, freelance or anything else to show you have some practical skills when appyling for real job. At least in our company your CV just with education doesn't mean a lot. Even university degree without some practical skills is useless. There's few interviews and in the end practical tasks with some help from senior developer. When I applied I showed web app that pulled data from one online game API and formatted for us in Wiki. The task I was given was write a class for handling discount for job cart. Another was converting arabic numbers to roman. So my advise is to just get dirty and create something.

[themellowtiger]

Thanks for the help guys.