New to Forum, New to IT - Looking for some help!!!

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Can I just so thank you so much for all your posts and advice. I feel so humbled and happy!

I have a guy from National IT Learning Centre coming to my house tonight to 'interview' me, to see if I fit their criteria for a place on one of their courses!!!!

I feel a bit of a fraudster as I arranged this before posting on this site and I now think that learning the basics myself is the best way to start, but I tried to get out of it today but he seemed quite pushy!

Wish me luck and I will post back and let you know how I get on. I will probably have signed my life away ha ha

Thanks once again for all the support!

x

 

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Thanks for your lovely post, It is a bit male dominated on here isn't it hee hee!

 

Just remember, you don't have to sign if you don't want to. Ask them nicely to leave, and then show them the door. Oh, and don't be fooled by the 'I've just phoned my boss, and he said I could give you a 25% discount if you sign today". Deals that sound too good to be true generally are.

All the best.

John

 

If they're like most training companies, if you can afford to pay, then you "fit their criteria". Don't fall for the pushy sales tactics... they're designed to get you to sign away your hard-earned cash (past, present, or future) to them. If he says that the "offer is only good if you sign today", don't believe him. Those offers are regularly ongoing. Trust me, if you decide to sign later, they won't turn away your money.

I'd strongly recommend that you save your money and go the self-study route. After all, you can always go to a training company later if you decide that self-study doesn't work... but once you've signed the paper, you're committed - you can't decide you don't like it and quit in order to try to get a refund.

 

Thought I would let you know how I got on with National IT Learning Centre last night.

The course advisor was a lovely gent; he was very knowledgeable and was able to answer all my questions.

I don’t know about the other courses because I only wanted to know about the programming side of things, but there are 4 levels of training ranging from £3750 – £6500.

If I was to do up to the highest level (which they call ‘Platinum’ there would be 10 examinations to do in total they are all Microsoft Certified ones and there is also a CompTIA project too. They pay for all your exams, but if you fail you have to pay for your own re-sits (

The guy said it would take about 3 years to complete the courses in full if I put in 10 hrs home study a week.

What I was really pleased about is there was no hard sell at all, if anything he made me more aware of the negatives of distance learning; having no one monitoring you means you need to be self motivated – something I am not great at.

Also he offered me a voucher for petrol, so I could go and visit their offices to see the set up and speak with tutors. Also he is going to set me up with a temporary password for their student forum, so I can go on and chat with people currently training, which will be an eyeopener

So. I am going to have a think about it over the weekend. From what he has told me I am very interested, my main concern is the price, it’s a lot of money. If I got out of it what he says I would, then I suppose it is a fair price, but I would have to get a loan and I like being debt free!

I did speak to my boss a while back and she said the company might pay for a course for me, but I think they were probably thinking of something £1000 tops, so I am scared to ask!

If anyone has an opinion let me know!

 

Obviousely its up to you but I have just come out of debt which took me just over 5 years to pay, it wasn't from a training provider it was my own fault and I will never get into debt again. Think very carefully about payments etc Can you afford the repayments with the current cvredit crunch in the UK intrest may be quite high on the loan.

Ask yourself can you do it by self study, if you need help there are knowledgable people on here and their advice is free.

Also ask yourself was the guy nice to me so I would sign away my money or was he generally a nice person and will the support he says can be provided be provided.

Good luck

 

Am all for self study and hey you have this wonderful forum to post questions if you're stuck. Well ultimately the choice is yours though

 

52 weeks in a year, times 10 for the amount of hours of *self study* needed = 520 hours per year.

x 3 for three years = 1560 hours of *self study*.

It seems to me that you will be paying them a lot of money to be doing a lot of home studying anyway

 

If you're walking and breathing, you fit their criteria.

Well, they say that they pay for the exams but in reality you're paying for them in the large course fees. Added to this they get a large discount for buying bulk exam vouchers, it doesn't cost them as much.

That said, I've heard that NITLC are one of the better training providers.