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Hello folks,

I know I've only been here a few hours, but I found this Forum by accident, whilst searching for something specific, which I didn't actually find.

I hope that this won't be labelled as spam by the mods, and I do apologise if it appears that way.

First, please let me give you some background. I am a Microsoft Certified Trainer with 10 years experience, recently made redundant from a fairly big UK training provider, though one that mainly dealt with corporate clients rather than advertising to the general public. If any of you have been sent on courses via your workplace you may have been sent to the company I used to work for.

I am presently doing some contract Admin & Troubleshooting work, but find that even this is hard to come by in the current economic climate. As for finding another full time training role, that is most unlikely at the moment. Every training company I know has made trainers redundant recently.

My problem is that I like training. I find I can explain complex topics & help people understand them and I really enjoy what I call "The Penny Drop Moment" when something elusive finally makes sense!

I have read with great interest a lot of the posts discussing Training Providers, their pro's and cons, value for money, support etc and realise that a lot of people are going down the self-study route rather than paying out fortunes to attend poorly constructed & supported courses. I know how that works, all of my MCSE's have been self-study, basically, though while I was working for a training company I did get to sit in on some of the courses, though more to see how they should be taught than anything else.

I also noted the posts about Study Groups, focusing on specific exams that people were getting ready to take.

So, to the point.

Would you, the folks that are currently self-studying MCDST, MCSA, MCSE etc use a service whereby you had access to a web based collaboration tool with a whiteboard, chat, webcam etc for direct tutorials and mentoring from a suitably qualified person, prior to taking your exams?

How much is it going to cost? I envisage a range of options, basically along the lines of £3 for a single session, £10 for 7 days access, £30 for a months access. A pay-as-you-go solution.

What will I get for my money? I'm planning 3 x 2hr sessions a day, 3pm - 5pm, 7pm til 9pm and 9.30pm til 11.30pm GMT. If there's a lot of American interest I can run sessions to suit them too. I'm a bit of a night owl so 2am til 4am GMT isn't a problem for me either!

Some sessions can be planned to cover specific topics, WINS, DHCP, DNS, AD, RIS, XP, others will be general Q & A, with you asking me the questions!

The theory here is that you're not signing up for 12 months at a time, though I could arrange that. It's more "I'm doing the exam in 3 weeks, but I'm not sure about this" so you sign up for a week and we cover the bits you're not sure about.

Why should I pay? Good question. There are plenty of free resources out there, you've got the Self-paced Study Guide from Microsoft and maybe another from Sybex (all good books, don't get me wrong)......but maybe there's something you still can't quite get your head round......£88 for the exam, even with 2nd Shot Free.........isn't it worth a tenner to make sure & get those topics explained?

I appreciate your comments on this.

Regards,

Simon

 

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I would potentially be interested yes for the prices you are quoting.

I assume payment would be over something like PayPal?

 

Same here, it would be a service that I would pay for especially on the more trickey subjects.

This would be on the proviso, I could check your credentials before making payment

 

See also this thread I posted a while back.

Might be of interest to you too Simon.

 

Thanks for the replies, folks. I was getting worried there with 40-odd views and no one posting.

To answer your questions; yes, Paypal would be my preferred method of payment and for those that want to see my credentials, here you go:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/transcripts
Transcript ID: 685716
Access Code: SimonTrainer

I managed to sit in on the CCNA course before I got made redundant, but need to sit the exams!
I've also done the ITIL v3 Foundation, awaiting the exam result on that one.

 

See PM (Private Message) I've sent you too

 

I had actually spotted that thread and looked at the site last night. I also found a few others offering online tutors for all sorts of topics, mainly school level Maths, English etc. One US site was quoting $35 an hour to access a tutor.

Now, the trick is that if my rates are to be low enough to be affordable, I need enough students to make it worth while! I'm prepared to spend a bit on advertising, but would basically be relying on word of mouth and Fora like this one.

Will need to sit down and work out some figures.

 

Wow, thats the longest MS Transcript I have ever seen

 

Do you mean exams taken or what MS reckon I can teach?

Believe you me, compared to some of my colleagues at the firm I've just been made redundant from I'm a complete lightweight.

I've only taken 21 exams, over the past 10 years - I started as a Motor Mechanic and changed career in 1998.

Some of my colleagues have taken 50+ exams, write courseware for MS, are MVP's, take Citrix exams before they're even released etc. To be honest I do miss working with them - damn this economic climate!!

I was devastated to be made redundant after 4 years with this company, but, c'est la vie....the above reasons are why I got made redundant and not them!

 

I would potentially be interested.

 

Isn't that what THESE forums are for? And as a bonus, they're free - you don't have to pay ANYTHING to have several established authors and trainers answer your questions and explain things several different ways.

 

A true and valid point, but sometimes things do make more sense if they are explained with a diagram that builds slowly, adding more complexity as it's explained and evolves. The app I'm looking at using allows desktop sharing too, so I can then switch from a slideshow or whiteboard to a server (either real or VPC, I have both I could use) to demo the actual steps required to achieve a goal.

Forums sometimes just exchange one page of text (from a study guide) for another (a post on a forum).

Whilst the responses I've had has been fairly (to very) positive, I have only had four of them!

The idea still requires thinking about.

 

Again, nothing that can't already be done for free... but hey, if you want to charge for it, go right ahead! If enough people sign up, it'll be worth your while!

With a major difference - the forum posts talk back; study guides do not.