The Top 9 Help Desk Certifications

The best help desk certifications in 2022.

Zight | September 15, 2021 | 6 min read time

Article Last Updated: October 03, 2023

The Top 9 Help Desk Certifications

It’s time to think about the best help desk certifications. Help Desks play a pivotal role in your support team’s ability to provide a quality customer experience.

They assist your product’s users and make sure that the technology and processes remain up-to-date and run as smoothly as possible. In the year 2021, most companies should have support teams to help customers through their journey with your business.

According to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for support specialists will increase by around 10 percent through 2026, faster than the average of basically all other occupations.

There are quite a few certification courses available online that can help train candidates for these support and customer service positions. These courses can provide a solid base that aspiring reps can use to apply for entry level jobs or serve as continued education for even the most veteran of support managers who want to brush up on what’s new.

When a course is complete, reps receive credible certifications symbolizing their mastery of help desk software.

In this post, we put together a list of the best Help Desk certifications that are currently available online, featuring both paid and free options.

What is a Help Desk?

A help desk is a resource intended to provide a customer (or potential customer) with information and support related to a company’s products and services. The purpose of a help desk is usually to troubleshoot problems or provide guidance throughout the onboarding experience.

1. Google IT Support Professional Certificate

As one of the more affordable options on this list at only $49 per month, Google offers an IT Support course teaching the fundamentals of customer support to those who might not have a background in customer service. This online course is great for those just starting their careers and learning how to properly troubleshoot more complex technical issues. The training includes interactive labs and reviewable assessments that help users understand universal troubleshooting steps.

One notable feature of this training is how Google incorporates customer testimonials within the lessons. Throughout the course, you’ll hear from real Google users who have used this training to propel their careers to the next level. This motivates reps to complete the course because they see the tangible value of obtaining the certification.

2. LinkedIn IT Help Desk Courses & Training

LinkedIn Learning is another great platform for job seekers wishing to venture into the field of technical support and customer service or anybody seeking to strengthen their overall technical skills. There is a list of courses available that serve as a solid starting point to learn how to respond to common help-desk requests, perform desktop or IT support, and triage and solve issues in record time. There are also courses that train you to run an IT help desk from a local or remote location.

Some of the certifications include:

  • ITHelp Desk for Beginners
  • ITService Desk – Service Management
  • Windows 10:Advanced Troubleshooting
  • ServiceNow:Basic Administration
  • ITService Desk:Customer Service Fundamentals

An extra bonus?All courses are free for first 30 days.

3. HubSpot Academy

HubSpot has become the premiere destination for free online courses.

In addition to HubSpot’s free help desk, HubSpot Academy offers free, online training that helps users familiarize themselves with basic customer service tools.

The ” course breaks down each tool in the ServiceHub suite and explains how support reps can use each feature to save time with automation. By having employees complete this course, they’ll be able to quickly and efficiently onboard your new help desk software without reaching out to customer support.

Even if you aren’t using HubSpot’s tools, you can complete their academy lessons for general customer service skills. For example, the “Customer Success and Account Health Checks” training teaches participants how to use help desk tools to monitor and manage customer interactions. The skills taught in these lessons are applicable to any customer service team using help desk software.

3. Udemy IT Help Desk Professional

This IT help desk certification course from Udemy helps learners to build an IT career path by teaching them the foundational skills needed to lead a successful career in support.

This course is structured starting from the most basic knowledge level. The second section talks about networking, troubleshooting network-related issues, and mastering the most useful commands.

More than 90% of the course contents are practical demonstrations to maximize the learning experience outcomes. Throughout the course, students will see the actual tools that they’ll use every single day while working as help desk technicians.

This IT support training is geared towards beginners, so no prior experience is required. It is suitable for fresh graduates entering the support field or current IT help desk technicians looking to expand their knowledge.

4. Microsoft IT Support

At $99 per course, the Microsoft IT Support certification is a training program based on Microsoft’s product suite.. The course begins by breaking down the fundamentals of IT and customer support. Then, it goes into detail about how you can use Microsoft’s tools to carry out different support functions.

The course also examines what influences customer behavior when dealing with IT Support, including global cultural differences and communication styles and also includes an introduction to the basic stages of case management, from initial receipt of a support call through solution development and closure. Similar to HubSpot’s setup, this course helps Microsoft users onboard their help desk tools in a fast and reliable way.

Although you must pay for the course, you don’t have to pay for the lessons that are specific to Microsoft products. If your team doesn’t use Microsoft, you can pay for each lesson individually, rather than buying them together. This saves you money and saves your team from completing irrelevant training.

5. Cybrary Administration Training Courses

Cybrary is an IT workforce development platform with an emphasis on cybersecurity. Currently, it has the fastest-growing catalog of trainings and classes in the field of IT. Cybrary provides free certifications and courses on Systems Administration covering most in-demand skills.

Anyone interested in learning and becoming a system administrator can check out what’s in store here. There are courses for beginners that explain everything about hardware, software, operating systems, file management, storage, security implementation and system hierarchy in organizations to classes on how to manage open source operating systems like Linux and virtualization management. There are also preparation tutorials to clear the Microsoft’s certification on server systems to become a system admin.

An additional perk of this certification is that its entirely self-paced so you can complete the course on your own time.

6. ITIL Foundation

This one’s a bit on the pricier side at $549, but has quite a large upside.

This training course, offered by Axelos, teaches participants the basics of customer support and how to use help desk tools. ITIL shares best practices to use when providing IT services to customers. This certification thoroughly explains each best practice and provides exercises that help service reps master the ITIL approach.

The major bonus of this certification is that participants have an option to attend an in-person training session with an ITIL expert. These sessions last two days and provide a final exam at the end of the lessons. If there isn’t a training nearby, you can self-study for the final exam using the ITIL Foundation book, offered both online and in hard copy.

7. CompTIA A+

CompTIAA+ is an excellent certification to qualify for an entry-level position in this industry. So far, around 1 million professionals have earned the certification, and it’s also useful for help desk and hardware support professionals. CompTIAA+ can provide professionals with the foundation for pursuing a wide range of fields. This certification is recognized by many organizations and is well respected in the industry, by Dell, HP, Intel, and the defense department, just to name a few.

Having the CompTIAA+ certification under your belt can make you a support technician who can install configure and maintain devices like PCs, printers, laptops, and mobile devices. You would also be able to configure and troubleshoot systems and can also do basic networking.

8. ACMT: AppleCare Mac Technician

Apple care Mac technician is a must-have if you enjoy Macbooks and Apple products. This certification validates the skills needed regarding Macbooks, Macbooks pros, and other Apple products. If you want to work in an Apple Authorized service center, this certification is for you.

To earn an ACMT, you would have to pass two exams: the Apple Service Fundamentals (SVC-19A or SVC-18A) and ACMT 2019 Mac Service Certification (MAC-19A). These are the prerequisite for the ACMT course.

IT training certifications are also not only available through this course but come highly recommended in the world of support. Both exams are administered by Pearson VUE and you must obtain an Apple Tech ID to register for either or both of them.‍

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