Greetings everyone!

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Hi all,

I'm 22 and looking at a career in I.T.

So far my I.T. qualifications amount to an AS level in ICT and an AVCE in IT.

After spotting an advert in the paper for Advent training I got in touch with them for more info and today a guy from Advent came round to give me more details about the courses they have to offer. After asking a few questions about me, he recommended the MCSE course to me. He then went on to explain what the course entailed and what Advent could offer me - it all sounded wonderful but I'm guessing it was obviously a well-oiled sales pitch. Then came the cost - £4,750!

This put me off a bit as this isn't the sort of money I can just be throwing around willy nilly. I decided to do a bit of my own research and this was how I discovered this forum.

I've noticed that quite a few people have recommended self study. This sounds good to me as it will be a lot cheaper but obviously the services of a training company wouldn't be available to me, but you get what you pay for.

I've been interested in computers for quite a number of years and consider myself fairly competent in quite a lot of aspects. I'm thinking maybe the self study option might be better for me. I'm currently unemployed but actively looking for work to gain some experience, but it's difficult making that first step when you haven't really got any experience.

Anyway hope to meet some of you in due course. Any information or advice would be gratefully received!



Cheers


Chris

 

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Welcome. By joining this forum you have taken the first step, and believe me its a good first step to take. Now just trawl the forums and see what aspect of computers you are most interested in. Then just ask away!!!

 

Welcome to CF.

 

See my list of certifications in my signature? All of them were achieved through on-the-job experience and self-study.

Welcome to the forums!

 

Welcome to CF!

 

Hello

 

Welcome to CF mate

The salesman from Advent was trying to line his own pocket - i strongly believe that the MCSE is not the appropriate starting place for someone wanting to get into IT - Microsoft target the MCSE at people with at least a years experience working with Microsoft *server* products - if you don't have experience with server products you should be looking at entry level certs, such as CompTIA's A+ and Net+. These are globally recognised certs, which do not expire, it is easily possible to self study for these and they will give you a rock solid foundation to build any further study on.

From there you can make your own mind up where to progress, the MCDST is a common next step, then maybe the MCSA and from there, if you are still game, you can go for MCSE. Bear in mind that with Vista and Longhorn, Microsoft are in the process of changing all of their certs and the MCSE will not be available for these new products.

Good luck,

Pete

 

Thanks all for the kind welcomes.

I'll continue having a shufty round the forums and will start annoying everyone with some questions in due course.

 

Hey, welcome to the forum, i'm in teh same shoes as you, i'm desperately looking for a MCSE course i can afford, i just found out about theskillsgap.co.uk and i'm gonna check them out tommorrow.


and just for your information, computeach cost £5850 the advantages i could spot from my meeting today is, a student chat room where studenst can ask advice off each other, tutor phone lines are open till 8pm insted of 5pm, you get 3 years not two to complete it, and they give you 23days in centre not 20. they have a very high first time pas rate because they insist your at a much higher level than you need to be before you take the exam.

Just thought i'd share seeing as i had my meeting with them today

 

Just to clarify things for ya mate. When you do the MCSE with Advent. You do the A+, MCDST, MCSA training aswell.

Welcome to CF!

 

Welcome to Certforums.co.uk !

 

Hey all,

The advice has been really helpful thanks

My personal intention is to probably self-study A+ and N+ and then see where I want to go after that.

I get the impression from reading around the forum that a lot of employers actually count experience as more important than qualifications. I really need to get some experience somewhere but it's hard finding a place that will give you a chance. I've applied for a job as a Junior Technician at a school but I don't know if that will go anywhere. Fingers crossed eh

 

i'm in the same postition i desperatly need a job where i can gain some experience, i'm actually concidering offering my services as a volenteer for a while.

I just cant break the surface of this industry!!!!