Response to Redundancy - Which course provider would be best?

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On the point of the funds for training off the goverment where do you get this info from as I'm getting the bullet in Feb and want as muc help as possible.

 

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CF doesn't promote self-study, although many of it's members do.
Now we've cleared that up, maybe we can all get back to doing what CF does promote: helping people.

 

Thank you Soundian

 

You know my point - the people on here promote self-study - last time i checked a domain name couldn't do promoting.

 

Thanks for the concern, but the goverments/your tax money is not going to be wasted on me taking a course I might not enjoy. I already work in IT, so it's not a career change, and having viewed some course material and taken some mock exams for the A+ & Network+, I can see there is lots of stuff in there that I already know just from working on PC's at home since a young age. I'd just like a qualification on my CV that backs up the knowledge I already have, and also makes me stand out more than other potential candidates when applying for jobs.

http://www.tchc.net/training-services/response-to-redundancy

Someone from this company came into my work to discuss it. On the site it says £1000 is the grant value. This is correct, in the sense that you can use £1000 for whatever you want, i.e. Take an IT course and then get a job as a dog groomer. If your course if more money though, and off the back of the course you get a job, then they return up to £500 of whatever else you have spent.

 

FA, you're obviously on here for one reason and one reason only, what with 51 posts on nothing but training provider threads.

If the government is willing to pay for him to attend a training course, then if he enjoys classroom-based learning, then he has nothing to lose by attending one as long as he doesn't have to borrow or pay any money out of pocket.

However, there are a lot of people who don't even know that self-study is an option. I'm currently being PMed on this very forum by one such individual. So GBL isn't out of line by mentioning self study. It's an option that Troppo ought to be aware of.

Off topic: I don't tire of people offering dissenting opinions on this forum. That's what makes online forums so very useful. What I tire of is people telling others to shut up about their dissenting opinions.

 

I have deleted the contents of my previous post as I myself was flaming and thought best I remove it.
Point taken from Arroryn...

Back to Topic I haven't got much knowledge on the wide variety of TP's that are out there, however I believe that If you paid a big price tag with these courses it is for the mentoring service you can receive from some of them.

If your aiming for a A+ N+ and MCDST then you could probaly find all those for £1500 at your local college and have classroom days and they will (I Imagine) supply your training materials that you can take home to read and study.

Are you looking mainly for distance learning or are you able to attend one or a couple of class room days each week??

 

No he hasn't and no he didn't.
FA has worked for many TPs and so he feels justified in supporting their corner, and what he said was that GBLs anti-TP stance was 'boring'.

Sorry.

 

My vote also goes for a local college for assisted learning / direct tuition.

Otherwise the list of large training providers I'm aware of in the UK is :-

http://www.learningtree.co.uk/
http://www.qa.com/
http://www.pitman-training.com/
http://www.bluechip.uk.com
http://www.firebrandtraining.co.uk/

I've been on paid for training from previous employers with QA and LearningTree amougst others, they are all expensive, but one QA course I took was quite good.

Maybe look into places that offer Cisco IT essentials 1&2 too as I think this is close to the A+/N+ also and may be offered as one course.

Maybe also look into places offering OCR iPro or A+ / N+.

You could probably put it towards year one of a foundation degree if prepared to add some of your own funds for year two.
(Your local college may offer HNC/HND level courses instead which are broadly equivalent to a foundation degree.)

College courses...

 

Thanks to everyone for your input on this thread. Lots of helpful information and this site is now firmly bookmarked.

I thought I'd post an update and let you know the outcome.

After lots of phoning around and reading reviews of various course providers, I've decided to go with ICS Learn as they offer the best package at a price that won't mean paying a hefty chunk out of my own pocket to combine with the government grant.

I've gone with:-

http://www.icslearn.co.uk/it-technical-courses/it-certification/it-career-starter/

and

http://www.icslearn.co.uk/it-technical-courses/it-certification/microsoft-certified-desktop-support-technician/

They provide me with the study books, DVDs and online support, and I know that if I'd have done self study I'd have got pretty much the same study material at a much lower cost, but in this situation it wasn't an option.

There is no time limit on how long I have to complete these three courses which is great, but as soon as they are done, and *crosses fingers* I've managed to secure a new role after being made redundant and gain a bit more experience, I endevour to study the MCITP or MCSA, and I will certainly be using the self study method for that.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

I think that with that attitude you'll go a long way mate.

 

Looks like distance learning with no tuition, so effectively you will be self studying, just the government will have paid £1400 for it, you could have got some genuine tuition for £1400.

However I wish you the best of luck !

 

Ouch! You still have to pay your own exam fees with those courses, which is over £500.
If there was a provider that offered you the A+ and N+ with exam fees included that would be a cheaper option because the MCDST self-study should only cost you around £220.(~£35 per book and ~£75 per exam X2)

 

Sadly I havn't been able to find anyone that will do exam costs included, except for home learning college and Advent, who both want to charge astronomical prices.

They way I see it is that I'll still have to pay for the exams myself, but I'll be staggering it over a year so it isn't as bad.

 

I do know that the company that helps unemployed people find work do the A+ and N+ for free. I am not sure if they pay for the exams or not though.

The only issue is you would probably have to be unemployed for atleast 6 months before being considered for it.

 

Don't really fancy being unemployed that long if I have the choice. I've got interviews with several places at the moment, so ideally I'd like to step straight into another 1st or 2nd line support role once this job finishes (or maybe have a week off to play Aion ) and study in my own time with this Response to Redundancy grant. Paying £80 - £110 for an exam every other month won't be too much of a concern, as I'm receiving a redundancy payment, but this payment isn't big enough to live off for 6 or more months.

 

That's a pity.
Helluva price for what they're offering. Good job it's not your money.

 

Tell me about it. If it were my money I'd spend more time looking at all the possibilities, and would no doubt end up buying books off Amazon and doing home study, but time is not on my side with this. I had to get back to them quickly, before the pot of money got used up by all the women in my company who've decided they fancy a change and enrol onto beauty therapist courses