Hi everyone

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hi Everyone.

just wanted to say hello, my first time in any kind of forum.

I wanted to ask if anyone knows anything about the courses run by the national IT learning centre i had the sales guy come round the other day and quoted me £5250 for a fast track technical & systems engineer course. this seemed like a lot of money!

does anyone know if this course is worth doing or if there is a cheaper company to do it with?

thanks.

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hi Kattenberg

I have worked for many TP's and National IT Learning Centre are the best in my opinion.

Many on here will advise self study which is an option, but I am all for a TP.

It's up to you if you want to invest your money into a course that will improve your outlook or not.

Please feel free to PM me if you would like more info on National IT Learning Centre.

FA

 

I would look into self study as a much cheaper way to learn, self study isnt for everyone though, but then again if you have the motivation to learn IT through a TP then you should have the same motivation through self learning.

All you need are books and access to the internet, as well as the support and advice you will receive on this site.

I personally would not spend 5k on training unless i had cast iron guarantees of a refund if the training wasnt up to scratch and also from experience the courses they advertise (MCSE) shouldnt really be done by people with limited experience of IT as overcertification is an issue that will hinder your employability.

Good luck and welcome to the site

 

I wholeheartedly recommend self-study. See all those certifications in my signature? I have yet to take a training course for ANY of them.

Welcome to the forums.

 

I was thinking of self study but im not sure it is for me as honestly im not sure where to begin, what material i would need etc. It would be nice to have a more structured approach to doing the learning.

thanks for the advice though

 

What experience in IT do you have?

The materials that a TP provide are normally the same as books you can buy online or in bookshops. You can find recommendations for books on any IT Cert site, you can read reviews of them through amazon or whatever place you buy books.

 

dont really have any experiance although i like to think i am quite computer literate.

i would really love to break in IT as i dont want a rubbish job for the rest of my life LOL.

 

Are you applying for jobs at the moment? I would say that instead of paying 5 grand to do all those exams and tie yourself in to a contract, that you should self study the comptia a+ to start with. The reasons I think you should self study are a) you haven't actually worked in IT and might hate it. If you sign up with a TP and decide it isn't for you, you are going to waste a hell of alot of money.
B) the courses they are selling you, are for people who work in IT who have experience of servers, and networks and security, you haven't got that, and although you can learn the theory and pass (or cheat) you won't actually really understand everything until you have actually administered a network.

If i were you, I would be applying for every first line job going, rather then paying lots of money for a course.

 

That's precisely what this forum is for... to help you figure out what material you need.

The reason I recommend self study is not only because it's cheaper, but also because you're going to have to figure out how to self study anyway if you plan to succeed in IT. This is just the beginning of your learning, because in IT, you'll ALWAYS need to be learning. And employers aren't going to pay for you to take training courses every time you need to learn something new... nor will they give you the paid time off to do it. Best that you figure out a self-study plan NOW that works for you... because you'll need to do it the rest of your career if you plan to succeed. Otherwise, you might want to rethink your IT career plans.

Hope this helps!

 

If you are new to IT and Certifications the general consensus is to start by studying the A+ certification, mike meyers does good books for this and you can find them on ebay, amazon, and some good (and some crummy) bookshops

Once you do that come back for more advice (generally to do network+ or the MCDST)

 

Ali's right... you don't need anything to start applying for entry-level IT jobs. Certifications can make your CV/resume look much more attractive... but they're not typically required. Get out there and start applying for jobs today!