What Do I Need To Work In Schools ?

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HIya

New here

I have just had an interesting conversation with my Boss.

We deal with a lot of schools but just selling IT equipment.
We Have come up with an idea that offering support contracts could be a good thing for us.

My question is, although I know my way round a pc and software, what do you think would be the minimum qualifications I would need before we could confidently offer such a service.

Many thx

Paul

 

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IT certs probably won't be as important as your Police background check.

Turn up with a bag of Werthers Originals and you won't go far...

 

LOL! well said

 

Experience dealing with 1000's of users who are doing their best to break things and find holes in your security measures. Personally I wouldn't consider providing support to education sector a good business. But that's just my opinion.

 

Brush up on proxy servers.

 

Ok, shall we assume that I won't be going there for any other reason other than to keep there pc's up and running

So, on a serious note, what do you think is needed

Yes i understand I will need to be security cleared, but that is not an issue !!

 

Ok, shall we assume that I am not on the Police wanted list

What is required on a serious note ?

Yes, Proxy servers is something I have come across.

The area we were lookign at is not big schools, but more junior and less IT intensive, certainly at the begining as I believe bigger schools tend to have in house support

Paul

 

Having configured more than my fair share of networks for Schools I would say if you are going to have anything to do with the network side of thing then "know your access control lists" get the little blighters off onto their own vlans and lock them in there, secure all other vlan's as much as possible.

Joe

 

Yes it is.
I was being serious.

You asked what you needed to work in schools, and an enhanced CRB check is one of them.
That's going to matter more to the authorities than anything else - it's a political game.
School govenors may not know the difference between A+ and an MCSE, but they sure know about the risks of allowing someone who hasn't been fully vetted within a mile of their kids.

So don't ask a question if you don't want to listen to the answers.

 

That's so true. Some time ago I was voluntering for a non-profit organisation that organise events for kids. I wasn't allowed to enter premises if there were kids inside until I had Enhanced CRB check done.

 

I have next to no experience, but I would not be on my own and am willing to learn before delving into this, hence why i am looking into what is reqd.
This really is at a very early stage and was looking to get ideas on what is reqd.

My original guess was to at least be at A+ and N+ standard. Then whilst looking at other exams, start helping schools out and anyone else that needs help and gain experience that way.

Regarding the safety of Kids issue raised.
It was the Werthers mentioned that raised my eyebrows, maybe i took it the wrong way, but i honestly thought coming on here i would get serious answers, but in fairness, you added a sense of humour to what i know is a serious point, so fairdo's

When i say it is not a problem, i mean i have nothing to worry about in regards to whether i would get through the vetting stage as i am squeaky clean ;-)

Thx for all your help everyone, and any more info you can give, that would be great

Paul

 

In all honesty mate, some kids these days are educated to a higher standard than A+ & N+. From what I've learnt.. I wouldn't want to attempt support a school network unless I had 3/4 years experience in an MCSA role. I don't think the school would settle for less either. There's far too many things which one wouldn't know about unless they had the experience. If you got somebody on board with you who could take point technically.. then go for it! But on the basis of you having very little experience and trying to go into quite a demanding contract, I'd have to advise you to think very carefully. Gaining the contract and then losing it will look bad. Don't forget, schools have lots of networking power, and if it's local it's probably even worse.

Good luck whatever you do mate!

 

No worries mate.
You ask for advice on an open forum and you need to take the good with the bad.

Having a sense of humour is what keeps you sane...

 

Having just left a job working at a High School. Just general IT knowledge that you would gain day to day, the ability to troubleshoot etc. Nothing special. However you are unlikely to be able to find a job in a lot of places now given that the government is privatising the IT Staff in a huge amount of schools under the BSF initiative.

You will need the enhanced disclosure (CRB Check) but the school will do that for you when you apply and recieve the job.

and as for support contracts for schools, I would forget about it. They have all been tendered out under BSF and any that haven't will be employing in house staff. Unless you can compete with RM and the likes. It is unlikely.

Sorry to piss on your bonfire, but I have just finished up a contract at a High School.

You also need a very thick skin, as the comments are relentless, ranging from asking for your number, adding you on facebook, slagging you off, saying you look like XYZ off of XYZ, commenting on what you wearing and everything else just as kids do.

Any new builds will be supported by someone else, so that leaves you with the old schools, which will have such a ram shackle network that it is a nightmare to work with. Any experience with Group Policy, things like smoothwall, forefront TMG, UserLock Software, deploying applications on mass by creating .msi files, imaging using WDS, Laptop Rollouts, Asset Managment and inventory keeping, Cabling knowledge, Switch Configuration, General Network troubleshooting, Backup and Recovery Procedures and software.

 

I agree, You need to know a bit of everything to work in a school. I'm a Network Manager at a primary with 500 users. We have 150 client machines, managed wireless, managed switches, 4 servers and whitboards all over the place.

You need to be good with GPO's, Proxys, Cabling, imaging, software deployment, web filtering and everything else you can think of.

In primary schools there's generally only 1 IT support person so you have to do it all alone.
I'm in the process of planning a server migration to server 2008 which should be completed by september (once all the new images are rolled out)

BUT.. I have zero IT qualifications. Not even the A+ . . but i'm working to correct that this year starting with the MCDST and then going on from there.

 

That is exactly the same as the last Network Manager I worked with, he had an MCP in XP and had been managing a 1300 Pupil School alone. Perfect example of someone not having certifications but knowing so so so so much about so so so so much.