There's no doubt that demand for IT professionals with Linux skills is growing rapidly, and earlier this year I wrote about a brand-new certification program targeting newcomers to the open source operating system.

At the time, the Linux Essentials program from the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) was gearing up for a June launch in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, but last Friday the group announced that it is now available in North America as well.

"Jobs for those with knowledge of Linux and open source software are available now,” said Jim Lacey, president and CEO of LPI. “This is due in part to the phenomenon of 'Big Data' and the cloud, which are built on open source infrastructure. This rapidly growing IT sector doesn't just require those with hard technology skills but also needs to fill a wide variety of job roles that have a basic understanding and literacy around the open source ecosystem.”

A Certificate of Achievement

The Linux Essentials program is the fruit of two years' worth of development in partnership with qualification authorities, academic partners, private trainers, publishers, government organizations, volunteer IT professionals, and Linux and open source experts.

Culminating in a single Linux Essentials exam, the program leads to a certificate of achievement recognizing knowledge of a variety of related subjects, including the Linux community and open source careers; popular operating systems and applications; open source software and licensing; and Linux command line basics, files, and scripts.

Participants in the program also get regional links to employment and apprenticeship opportunities as well as support for skills competitions such as Worldskills International.

Pricing on the resulting PDF certificate of achievement is $85 at private testing or training centers and $65 at academic partners through internet-based testing. More information about the program can be found on the LPI site.

There are, of course, numerous places to boost your Linux skills, both online and off. But if you're a newcomer to the OS based in North America and want to get started learning about Linux, this new program could be a good place to start.