I am genuinely having a hard time with my Gen Z employee. I have to go through everything step by step each time and it just seems like nothing sticks. I even create documentation for him and he just can't follow it fully.
If getting the cert is part of your goals or part of your work, then you need to tell your boss you are willing to put in the work during business hours. Anything work related outside of business hours requires overtime pay.
If these certs are not part of your goals/work, then I would suggest talking with your boss about incorporating them in.
The reasons I do what the engineers are doing are,
A lot of times people will ask me questions and I give them answers. Then something will go wrong and it will somehow be my fault that I didn't mention it to them (they didn't ask, and I don't know the specifics of what they are doing).
I have my own goals and projects for the year. Why should I give you a significant amount of my time when my salary/bonus will not reflect helping you in anyway.
Job security.
These might sound bad, but that is how it works in corporate America
Edit: It sounds like you need management on board with you before you can fully continue
Something that helped me was to "just do it for 2 mins" - then decide if you want to keep doing it or not. I found a lot of times since I was already doing it, I would keep going.
I read Ender's Game for almost every book report in middle school :)
More Sci fi than dystopian, but I still recommend