Cerco 3 week fast track

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I've just finished Cerco's 3 week fast track course.

I'm hardly a newbie in the industry, though after a tour of Afghanistan I felt that I needed something recent on my CV.

I've been on many IT training courses before as well as completing numerous certifications through self study. I was a java programmer in a previous life but would like a career change. I therefore believe that I am in good position to provide a balanced view.

I've read through a great many comments on this forum which are mainly from people who haven't been near Cerco. Those that have been on the course don't tell any lies, that I've seen, however do appear to be a little confused as to the nature and workings of the IT industry. Don't misunderstand me, I feel sorry for anyone who is having a hard time getting into their chosen profession. I'm sure a few consider their investment to be a deposit on buying a job. I didn't have to attend the course to know that they are wrong. Others may consider the course to be expensive. I disagree here too. I've been on many training courses in old and archaic technologies (TOOL anyone?) that cost my employers a great deal more for little return in skills or ability.

Anyone who has applied for a job through a recruitment agency will typically be indirectly paying far more than the cost of Cerco's courses. I consider that there is a degree of hypocrisy prevalent in this regard, although the situation is regrettable.

What I will say is that I found the training to be excellent. If you believe courses of this nature are a scam then I can assure you that the instructors themselves are not involved. All were experts in their field and exceptional.

There was enough detail for someone with detailed technical knowledge to find it interesting, and a nice firehose effect for those with little or no experience. It is true that you can practice the tests to destruction. Little difference here to self study certs in my view. Importantly however I doubt anyone will come away from their training thinking that a distinction guarantees them a job or indeed that they can sit around the house waiting for a phone call. Indeed I took almost nothing from the marks gained, it was purely the knowledge which interested me.

Whether you think that someone can complete a three week course and acquire the knowledge required to enter the IT industry from scratch is something which I am sure will provide for, shall we say, vibrant discussion. Indeed I suspect that a great many of the responses to training courses such as Cerco's are based on the self justified rage of those who consider a highly paid IT position to be their right, whilst binmen and carpenters enter the profession at their expense. It takes all sorts and the empty vessels tend to be the loudest.

At the end of the course we were all given an encyclopaedic list of every IT recruitment agency in the land. One wonders whether some of the previous correspondents used it.

In short I liked the atmosphere, the training itself and the attitude of the trainers and employees. I know little about the recruitment side itself so can't comment.

I would however recommend it fully. Oddly enough not just for the demographic likely to be reading these fora.

 

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Is it just me being cynical or is everyone else thinking "shill" when they read that?

 

I was actually thinking "three week fast track course in what?"

 

The course seems to be loosely based around the A+ and N+ syllabi. Third week is almost all practical.

I personally had never touched networking before, I was quite happy to leave it to short people who wanted to scrabble around under desks...

Please elaborate, I'm not sure what you mean by 'shill'.

 

I did the 7 week course to get into IT in 1997, they were good, it was 7 weeks of practicals to do 1st line work. Daily test scenarios etc. Did 2 City and Guilds at the time. They found you a job, I had 2 offers - they were low paid rotten jobs, but they got me in now I have had numerous jobs, some on high security sites, done CNA, NT4 to 2003 MCSE, CCNA and CCSA/CCSE and a few others I have forgotten. Now working as a Sys Admin, In my time I have worked with Netware/ Unix/Juniper/Baltimore etc.
They gave me a good basic grounding and a start. Also, there were a few IT graduates on the course (So they kept spouting) and they obviously didn't find it too easy, just by the constant whinging.
Don't know what Cerco is like now, but I thought they were fantastic.

 

The training is fine.

The 2 days of paid work in 3 months is not.

Oh and the wage.

Oh and did I mention the lack of work?

If you want a meaningless certificate then sure go for their free course, but don't delude yourself that this will get you a proper IT job, or that cerco will find you fulltime work.

My experiences in 2013 ^

 

I went through Cerco years ago and they got me my first job in the industry as a hardware field engineer. I was applying for entry level jobs at the same time and was getting nowhere, so I guess something can be said for their business connections. After about seven years in the hardware side, I am now moving on to more of a development role.

My main query on this thread is why go from a Java developer which has a fairly high demand and pays good money (Java Developer Jobs, Average Salary for a Java Developer) to an entry level hardware role where there is fairly low job security and entry level pay? As a hardware engineer, I moved company four times in as many years owing to loss of contract; once I got a redundancy notice on my second day working for the company! (Field Engineer Jobs, Average Salary for a Field Engineer)