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Hi Everyone

My names Bryony and I stumbled across your forum yesterday whilst researching CIW certifications.

I'm currently working in a very limiting and dull job and would like to move into web design professionally, I've dabbled with various software and some web coding but feel I need some proper training and qualifications under my belt.

I came across the IT Skills Group about a month ago and had an interview with one of their advisors yesterday for their CIW webmaster course. It sounds like an excellant scheme to me but I wanted to seek some advice before spending such a lot of money (nearly 5 grand, although only 990 payable at the start of the course).

Would be grateful for any help you can offer.

 

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First off, Welcome to the forums!

Secondly, most of us here will recommend the self-study route as thats what most of us do, but I am not going for the CIW, so it may be different! There are many people here going for the CIW, hopefully they could help you more then I can.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

 

Hi Welcome

Although I know nothing about CIW I would agree with the other posts to recommend self studying or atleast contemplate it.

I am studying for the compTIA A+ and am doing that through self study.

I just couldnt justify 5 grand for something which may or may not get you a job in your pospective field.

 

Hi there and welcome

 

Hi and welcome

it may seem like alot of money but you've got to look at it as an investment, where will you be in 5 years, what will you be earning and more often than not you'll be better off earning more money. if you do choose the course it's still a good idea to do some home learning too and venture from the course criteria because they'll be alot they wont teach you and you'll find will help broaden your knowledge.

grim

 

Thanks for all the replies, the thing which tempted me with the course is that after you pass the first module exam, they have a job agency that helps you find your first IT job and once you have that, you can work through the rest of the modules and they keep supporting you from the career side for up to 2 years. They also pay for you to resit the exam if you fail which I thought was a good idea as they are quite expensive I think.

I like the idea of self studying but I'd worry that I wouldn't have covered everything I needed and that i'd end up spending nearly as much money on buying resources and paying for exams anyway.

 

Welcome to the forums.

Theres a pretty big list of threads here where people have been talking about the 'promise' of finding you a job earning x amount.

What exactly are they promising you on that side? Are they saying that they will assist you in searching for a job in the industry? are they specifying a salary? are they promising you a job?

If they are saying that they will help you with finding a job, but not specifying anything else, then thats not too bad. Its certainly a plus point, but then again, you could just as easily sign up to every recruitment agency that does IT in your area. Its what I did. So is that really worth the extra cash?

If they are promising a certain salary or even a guaranteed job then i would personally steer clear of them. None of the companies can do this. Its up to you to get yourself a job, they cant do it for you.

Paying for the resits is certainly a bonus point. but then again, how many resits?

As for spending nearly as much through selfstudy. I really do doubt that that would be the case to be honest. Besides, even if you do, the operative word is nearly. When you are talking about 5k, nearly can be as much as 1k. Thats still a lot of money to save.

Finally, your concerns about not being ready. You just need to get a list of the exam objectives, and make sure you cover each in as much detail as you can. Then you study and study again until you feel you are comfortable with the content. Once you are ready, track down a couple of example tests and try them out. If you are getting quite high marks, then you can try the exam.

 

Thanks for the advice, the company in question do not guarentee a job or salary, they just said that I would have a career advisor and access to their agency to help me find a job. I was quoted average salaries but obviously each case will differ.

What resources are there available for self learning, books/cd/dvds etc? The course would be through distance learning cd's so if there is a good self learning equivilent then I would be happy to try that and maybe think about the course again if I struggled.

 

Welcome to the forums, and I also agree with whats been said.

 

i think i would be inclined to start with the self learning especially with course fees of 5k.

good thread here

grim

 

Best advice I can give is to avoid racking up huge debts and pursue certifications through self-study. Worked for me!

Welcome!

 

If you go to the CIW forum, I think one of the threads there says that you cannot actually buy the CIW self study guides in the UK anymore. It seems that you may HAVE to go through a Training Provider. The alternative is to find books from third parties that refer to the CIW modules that you want to do, and there don't seem to be allot of these books about. Maybe you could try to see if anyone is selling their old course material on ebay.

5K sounds a bit steep. I went with SkillsTrain and they charged HALF of that for the Website Design Manager course, which incorporates 5 modules.

EDIT: seems you CAN still get them, but at double the price they are from the offical CIW website.
Heres the thread I was talking about.
http://www.certforums.co.uk/forums/thread18540.html

 

Hi newbie. I've recently discovered THIS, which I wish to hell I'd known about before I signed up with SkillsTrain. I elected to go with a training provider because I reckoned I needed the structure to keep me moving along. The course(s) in the link are done online, and the price per module (£199) includes the exam fee if you are willing to take the exam at Paisley University (a bit of a trek from Portsmouth), or you can pay the going rate in addition to the course fees (£99 I believe) to sit the exams at a centre nearer you. Either way, it works out CONSIDERABLY cheaper than the price quoted to you, and is more flexible than the SkillsTrain option (though I don't think they give you the software that SkillsTrain does which partly makes up for the price differential there). Worth checking out. That's what I'd have gone for if I'd known it existed.