Need some advice, dont want to waste £5,000.

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Yes its a diverse field, I've worked on embedded, Client Server, e-Commerce and Desktop applications.

You don't have to pigeon hole yourself as long as you REALLY know your stuff and are a quick learner.

Theres nothing like a formal education for starting programming in my mind. This is because it will give you a firm foundation and a basis on which to build. Certs will certainly make you employable but will they let you solve difficult problems ?

For instance there is no real cert path for C++ ? So you get MCSD and take the C++ option. That only covers Visual C++ fundamentals. It doesn't even make you an expert windows developer, its not gonna teach you much of the Win 32 API, MFC, ATL, COM/DCOM. C++ is an open standard, theres many C++ compilers for many different OS's are you gonna know how to use these? Does MCSD teach you about the STL or much about templates? etc You are going to have to learn continually if you want to be a good developer, much of what i've learnt over the years won't be on any cert program.

Unfortunately the world is market driven, we don't live in a meritocrasy, many recruiters and employers will make some fairly arbitary decisions on what pieces of paper make you qualified. That said degrees are always well regarded in my experience and a HND is valuable to get to a degree. Both of these qualifications require far more than any certification program I'm aware of.

Certifications of course have their place, but I would say they exist for :-

1. People who missed out on a college education.
2. Patching a bit of missing knowledge in your education.
3. Learning industry or vendor specific material not covered elsewhere.
4. To upgrade your training which obviusly gets out of date the older you get.
5. To allow you to switch career paths within IT.

I had a degree and 7 years C++ experience but I spent 2 years self study to obtain Sun Java certifications as I didn't wanna just be seen as an old hand in C++.

On a brighter note, don't forget these are all just pieces of paper !
Some of the best developments in world history were made by people without any pieces of paper or words after their names.
I know a few good developers who started their career without any formal training or certs.

 

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If you know basic programming fundamentals then self study is not that hard but it is time consuming and requires alot of motivation. Each exam typically costs around £120, some specialist exams cost more generally because they involve an assignment or a lab session. This does not apply to the MCP exams.

The books typically go for around £30-£50, theres alot of sites like this with reading reccomendations. Amazon is also good for book reviews, don't forget to check both .co.uk and .com sites as they have seperate reviews on each site.

The most important thing to me would be, 'What do I get that I wouldn't get with self study'?.

So forget books and exams apart from the cost that is. These are relatively easy to arrange. You can sort your exams online or by phone with prometric and take at a centre over the weekend.

That only really leaves the actual training and support ? What do they offer ? How many hours of training do you get ?
A HND will take two years full time, I got a grant when I did it but I think the fees were around £2000 per year. You get say at least 4-6 hours direct tuition / support per day over three terms, about 7 months. So approx. 7*4*5*5=700 hours direct support, thats £3 per hour. I don't think you will beat this for value. These college courses are also available part time.

Professional training courses cost around £500 p/d, (£2500 for a one week course) thats £62 per hour.

These training providers market themselves as providing a mix between these options and the exact offering seems to vary.
I'd say they were closest to a discounted professional course, this is probably because you are buying a package of multiple courses and they possibly get a government subsidy.

 

That’s the thing to be honest. I will be unable to attend any thing full time due to working 8:30-4:30 every day. So this is really the only route. However to answer your question what will I get other than the books.
Absolutely nothing. I will never go to there centre as its to far away and with programming I don’t really see the need. Tutors, well as some one else posted or in the sticky there are google, this forum, few friends on msn.

So I keep questioning my self £5000, for what. Maybe £750-£1000 worth of books, if that? O and cheap VB studio (£75)

Thinking about it the option really is for my self to buy some books on VB, XML ( which is what first qualification is about ) and go from there, that way could get my first qualification and try and get in to the ICT industry. What, this would cost me maybe £200 in books? and £100 - £150 in exams, this would get me the qualification which would of cost £3,200 in materials then £100-£150. Im not being lazy my greatest fear is that I will get the wrong books and not learn the correct stuff and fail exam.

Gah

 

Yep self studies definitely an option as has been said, I self studied for all my certs.

You can take a HND or degree part time, they don't have to be full time! If this level of commitment is too high you can take evening classes in a single module at many colleges. Some of these modules relate directly to certs.

I was using my own fulltime HND qual just as an example of the value argument.

In the end its a personal choice, but there is plenty of choice and many valid approaches !

Best of luck !

 

One more question as I still have not decided. With the self cert and Microsoft Certificate, are there any governing bodies? I remember the guy saying something about there being a governing body and NITLC being part of it and there being a web site (the governing bodies) which show all companies it "governs."
Any one have any idea?
Thanks once again.

 

please forgive me found it after searching the forums
http://www.odlqc.org.uk

 

Well I'm not part of the training industry, nor have I taken any of the courses disscussed on these forums.

I found this :-

http://www.odlqc.org.uk/standard.htm
http://www.odlqc.org.uk/nitlc.htm
http://www.odlqc.org.uk/buyers5.htm

From the last page :-

Remember this is a common trick of sales people to say different things than what is in the paperwork, I had this once with a pension. Check everything they say in the paperwork before you sign !

What exactly do you expect these bodies to do for you ?
In my general anecdotal experience in life they just seem to provide a very basic rubber stamping service for courses and course providers.

The certifications themseleves are industry run, in many cases by a vendor, these vendors generally reserve the right to do whatever they like with their cert programs. In other words the rules could change at any point.

I'd consider all this very carefully before spending thousands of pounds, you should be paying for training and classroom/lab experience, not for a piece of paper ! Look at degrees, masters, doctorates etc if you want a qualifiaction with more long term value.

 

i agree chack ou the open university they do great courses in compters and learnings