MCSE course

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Hi I am new on this forum so hello everyone.

I would like to do MCSE course but my question is about some good classroom course because I don't want to do some online training. I found those two, seems ok and relatively cheap:

1. http://www.lsce.co.uk/mcse_courses/mcse_courses.aspx
2. http://www.bcoc.co.uk/mcse_mcp/training_courses_london/mcse_certification_courses.aspx

- any suggestions which one or maybe any others. I live in Reading so it doesn't have to be in London but good quality and quite cheap.

Regards

Sebastian

 

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how much hands on IT experience do you have?

 

- I am self-learning so maybe not to much but I am strongly motivated, relly want to do it and work in IT industry

 

Hi Sebastian,

Welcome to Cert Forums.

Either course looks reasonable. The only question I would ask each of the vendors would be to ascertain how much 'out of hours' work you would need to put in to pass each module.

The reason I ask this is that 10 weeks to pass the complete MCSE, I'm not sure if that is achieveable. However with the right attitude and motivation, you can go along way.

Whichever route you take, please keep us upto date with your progession.

Good luck!

 

Hi Welcome

Just be aware that having the MCSE is supposed to be for people who have at least 1 years experience in adminstering servers on multi user/site environemnt. Having this cert and not the required experience can lead to you finding it harder to get a job.

You should be looking at entry level certifications such as compTIA A+, N+ and the MCDST.

 

From what I can see these are structured in a similar way to an MCSE 2000 course I started a few years back.

Unfortunately the company I was using went bust, I lost virtually all of my money (just over a thousand) and got back 14p (yes, 14 PENCE) from the liquidators. I then found out that the Directors had been involved with several companies doing the same thing.

The typical cost for a course like this with classroom led training is in the region of £4,000 to £7,000 depending on what options you select and where/who is running the course.

I would check very carefully that both of these companies are well established and if the course fee has recently been lowered - this was where the company I used (AMRAF) came a cropper. They were in difficulty so tried to raise some cash quickly by offering cheap courses to get a load of money in. It wasn't enough and they went bust part way through my course. Even the instructor was unaware of what was going on.

Downside was - we didn't even get all the coursebooks up front so ended up with nothing really useful.

You can expect the pace to be very intense and if you have little or no knowledge you will probably find it difficult. My "classmates" were not in IT like myself but from all walks of life (e.g. a forklift truck driver) and they found it hard going. I was using the course as a cheap way of getting my certs as I probably knew about 70% of the stuff anyway.

I'm not trying to put you off or casting any aspersions on the two companies mentioned. Just be careful - there's no such thing as a free lunch !

They try to give the appearance of being educational establishmnets but I suspect that if you check they are just Limited Companies who offer training (interesting that the "About Us" actually contains very little factual information about who started them etc etc).

Forewarned is forearmed !

If you do go for it, I really hope it works out for you

 

Good advice.

Sorry to hear about your problems UKDarkstar.

 

It was a good few years back (around 2000 from memory) but really got burned so just saying "be careful" !

 

This is why I would only trust a college for a course. When I Was looking at studying the A+ I found prices ranging from £350 - £1000+ from TPs where as when I looked at colleges the prices were very similar. In the end I self studied though but I would never rule out a college course for any other certs.

Could you not go to the financial ombudsman to get your money back or would it not apply now since it was 8 years ago?

 

Paid by cheque through my business so no comeback via credit card etc. and as the training was from a Limited Company the liquidators are appointed by the Court - ombudsman doesn't even enter into it.

That's why I suggested finding out if these course prices had just been lowered significantly as that could be an indication of a "problem"

 

That's bad, you would have thought there would be some compensation for them folding. A mesley 14p I would have wanted to kick someones butt.

Atleast you have got sorted now and are doing good by advising people to check them out first.

 

Thx for advise. Do you know some trusted, competent college which offer that cours in reasonably price.
And how can I check out that schools to be sure, go there or...?

 

Try to find other people who have done them, but don't do the MCSE unless you have the experience to go with it like I said it can do harm to your employment prospects.

 

Ring them up and ask if they are a limited company - if they are you can check their details at Companies House :


http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/9a7fa331c49c95b0fc31907944c165ba/wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo

Look for outstanding information, Directors who are involced with other companies etc. That's not to say there's anything bad about that but you may get a "feel".

Ask if course prices have been reduced recently, as I said before.

You can google for MCSE training near you or go via the MS site to find a trainer but you will pay a lot :

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/learning/learn/training/default.mspx

 

Good advice from the guys... MCSE is a big thing to take on with little or no experience in IT, especially when you're being examined on things like GPOs, AD, DNS, and more besides in some of the exams.

Take things slowly, working your way up, studying for A+ and then Net+. A+ and Net+ give you a firm foundation from which to move forward into Microsoft or, dare I say, Cisco cetifications. You can still be looking for a job while studying. Once you got the job, you'll no doubt come on in leaps and bounds. Don't set your sights too high where the job is concerned. Expect mid-teens as a starting salary, not the £20k or £30k you may hear in the media from time to time.

All the best.

 

LSCE has only been going a couple of years by the look of it :

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/626cfd7cd8e516d12923ce7e3c98dd46/compdetails

 

***WARNING***

Under Bickenhall there's an "action to strike off" but I'm not sure what that means.

Their accounts are overdue too (note - this can be a common occurance)

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/626cfd7cd8e516d12923ce7e3c98dd46/compdetails

 

*** WATCH IT !!! ***

Both these companies have the same Registered Office if you look !

Could be co-incidence (i.e. both using same Accountants) but I think I'd want to see if they have the same Directors !

 

Good info found by UKDarkstar.

I'd stay away if I were you.

 

Thank you for that information but I don't know what to do now. I really want to do that course, so could you help me find some solution in my situation. So you think those two schools are suspicious, on the website you can even see pictures of their seat on the side, how is it work I will pay and they can disappear?