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CompTIA

non-profit that issues IT certifications

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ597534
Source-derived summary

The Computing Technology Industry Association, more commonly known as CompTIA, is a for-profit American trade association that issues vendor-neutral professional certifications for the information technology (IT) industry.

History

CompTIA was created in 1982 as the Association of Better Computer Dealers (ABCD). ABCD later changed its name to the Computing Technology Industry Association in 1990.

In 2010, CompTIA moved its headquarters into a new office space in a facility in Downers Grove, Illinois. By 2014, over one million people worldwide had earned A+ certification. CompTIA established a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization called Creating IT Futures.

The CompTIA portal moved to a hybrid version of the open-access model in April 2014 with exclusive content for dues-paying members. The move expanded the organization's reach to engage a broader, more diverse set of members, and within a year, CompTIA's membership grew from 2,050 members to more than 50,000 in 2015.

Skillsboost, CompTIA's online resource for schools, was launched in June 2015. It contained resources for students, parents and teachers to promote the importance of computer skills.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “CompTIA” as non-profit that issues IT certifications. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around CompTIA, non-profit and issues.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1982, 1990, 2010, 2014—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1982-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with CompTIA, non-profit and issues providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “CompTIA”, the useful work is to connect “non-profit that issues IT certifications” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q597534. VIAF identifies the subject as 132687317. The Library of Congress control number is n95055753. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1990, 2010 and 2014.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “CompTIA”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow CompTIA primary sources, CompTIA archive and CompTIA research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “CompTIA”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from CompTIA” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.