Apple updates its IT training courses for latest OS updates

Apple has updated an essential enterprise product — its IT training courses, which have now been updated for the latest iterations of its operating systems, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. The company first introduced these courses in their current format in 2022 and has updated them with each OS iteration ever since.

The company offers four courses:

• Apple Device Support (14 hours and 15 minutes of coursework, and an exam).
• Apple Deployment and Management (11 hours and 45 minutes of coursework, and an exam).
• Mac Security Compliance (5 hours).
• Apple Business Essentials.

Who are these courses for?

Apple recognizes there is a growing need for Apple skills to feed enterprise deployments. As ever more enterprises deploy Apple’s kit across their business, the need for trained staff has grown to the extent that demand for these skills is expected to grow faster than for most other occupations. Enterprises need Apple professionals to help manage their systems.

“More people than ever are using Mac, iPad, and iPhone to do their best work, and the demand for Apple-certified IT professionals has never been greater,” Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of enterprise and education marketing, said when Apple first introduced these courses. 

“Apple Professional Training helps anyone with an interest in technology — whether they are changing careers or upping their skill set — pursue high-paying IT jobs with certifications that will stand out to potential employers. We believe deeply in inclusion in technology, so the new courses are self-paced and freely available, and we are working to ensure ability to pay isn’t a barrier to earning Apple certification,” she said at the time.

The training is delivered in an online, self-paced format. Users can demonstrate their competency with two new exams and earn certifications from Apple. Here are more details about the courses:

Apple Device Support

This is an extensive course that looks at every aspect of managing devices in enterprise environments. It focuses on mobile device management (MDM), Apple Accounts, iCloud, Passkeys, security, and app, network, and security management. Essentially, the course should equip IT staffers with the insights they need to prepare devices for management, and to manage them after that. Hardware insights include use of Configurator for setting up network management and how to use diagnostics to figure out device problems. You can follow the course for free, but the exam costs $149. A pass gives you Apple Certified IT Professional status.

More information concerning the course is available here.

Apple Deployment and Management

This core course provides the knowledge, skills, tools, and services required to manage large numbers of Apple devices. It’s an extensive and wide-ranging set of tutorials supported by a certified examination. Once again, you can follow the course for free, but as with Apple Device Support, the exam costs $149; passing it gives you Apple Certified IT Professional status, which is a marketable skill in its own right. Topics covered include MDM planning and preparation, device management, enrollment, and redeployment.

By the time you finish the course you should understand how MDM works on Apple devices and have enough insight to help you set up an appropriate MDM system in your enterprise. More info here.

Mac Security Compliance

The Mac Security Compliance course has seen some significant improvements, including access to the macOS Security Compliance Project (mSCP), an open source attempt to provide a programmatic approach to achieving security best practices. It’s a joint project of federal operational IT Security staff and volunteers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the US State Department, Leidos and the Center for Internet Security (CIS). The five-hour course guides admins through good practice approaches to developing, implementing, and managing security compliance strategy, including reporting and documentation.

More information pertaining to the Mac Security Compliance course is available here.

Apple Business Essentials

This course will help admins get to grips with how device management works on Apple’s systems. It explains the systems, hardware, and software required to bring devices into management with Apple Business Essentials and guide IT through setup, deployment, enrolment, configuration and security for managed devices. The course also explains how to use AppleCare+ with Apple Business Essentials, which is made available within some plans. More information on this course is available here.

Registration for new Apple exams based on the new operating systems is open now. The exam and exam preparation guides are available in English and will appear in Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, and Spanish by spring 2025.

One thing that is certain, however, is that demand to join these courses will increase in direct response to the company’s growing enterprise market share.

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