The cheapest way to get CIW certified

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.

This thread was prompted by stupeas..(cheers m

Well...this will be a long one as i have loads to say, so grab yourself a cuppa.

Like all who want to get into web design, we all look at the easy route, computeach, skills-train, it-skills and so on.....the only thing these I.T training companies ( and thats all of them), have in common is that they are all a WASTE OF MONEY!!!

Last year i phoned up computeach and made a appointment to see an adviser, she gave me all the jargon and waited till the end to tell me it will cost me no more then £5,000....WHAT!!!!...i nearlly spat me cuppa all over her. And they said it will take me over two years to pass all my exams, obviously i said bugger off. After a couple of weeks i had IT-skills around and they said the same bloody thing, but get this.....they ask me what i knew about web design?. I said i knew a little., and i mean a LITTLE of HTML and javascript.
This is what he said then?......."Ok then... we will put you through the CIW foundations exam first...get that out of the way and you can then concentrate on the site Designer training." Well, for those who are CIW Associate, then you know what i mean, for those who aint...well it's not all about HTML, there's Networking, Site development and the business side of things to learn before you can attempt the foundations exam. There's alot to learn put it that way.

My point is....all they are after is your MONEY!....what do they offer you? THIS.........you get half a dozen modules + and CDroms....some of them give you good pieces of software like, dreamweaver, but all take five grand of you and say...go on then...teach yourself web design.
The thing is, i would gladly pay five grand if it meant me sitting in a class room everyday for three months being taught by a professional, and walking away with the certs. But, we cant all do this and not many companies do this anyway. What they are asking you to do is teach yourself....what for five grand...no chance!!!

What i did was find an alternative way....a cheaper way, and this is it.
I started looking on ebay and found some up-to-date CDroms on the CIW program. ( anyone want any copies then let me know), after a couple of weeks i found the courseware on foundations V5 from prosoft and bidded and won. And when i thought i was ready ( which was three months later),i located my nearest exam centre which is in hockley, essex and passed the foundations exam with ease ( 78%). I then repeated this process with both the site designer and e-commerce modules all from EBAY.I have also brought a book called "HTML complete" from Amazon, which has tought me alot and i am nearlly ready for the IDO 520 exam. All in all these training modules and CDroms cost me £50 and with this and all three exams (thats if i pass them), will only cost me £350. Thats better then £5,000 hey?...

The other tip i have is about the dreamweaver, flash ect..because when you look for jobs in web design :www.CWjobs.co.uk , experience with dreamweaver, flash, photoshop and good mark-up knowledge is all these companies want.

If you can't afford these sofware programs then look on ebay....if you are right on the bread line (which i was) then download a 30 day free trial on any of these programs off the adobe web site. And then look on ebay for the training Cdroms. I got a cdrom on "how to use dreamweaver mx" for £5.99 off ebay.

well i will let you all know what other ways i find, but be sure that the cheap way does work and even if i fail my site designer exam....TEN time's, it still wont be as dear as computeach ect...
I will leave you with a good web site for free training....www.w3schools.com , be sure to look at this as it has tought me alot.
If you really want to become a web designer and if you really want a lucrative job in I.T, then DONT ignore this advice.

All the best........ neil. Here is my email: neilpearce1 at tiscali dot co dot uk

 

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.

Neil, i took the liberty of changing the format of your email address, so that it will not be harvested by spam botts.

Putting a valid email addy in a post on a forum or especially in a site guest book is a certain way of getting added to a spammers list

 

great, thanks alot for the advise

 

I went for a job interview with UK IT training, glad I didn't take up on the offer though! Totally agree with the self study route, but then there will always be people that need a classroom environment to study in, and unfortunately, they will be the people that get screwed over by these training companies.

 

Cheers bluerinse, i'm a bit wiser now.

If anyone is after good self study guides then just look on the CIW web site http://www.ciwcertified.com/training/selfstudy.asp

and you will see kits for as little as £49 (foundations)
and £75 ( site designer/e-commerce) all with virtual labs which is all you need to get the practical side of things.

Good luck people...

 

The point is...Training companies DONT provide a classroom environment. They send you course materials, and in my experience, thats about it!!!

Tutor help is very, very poor (again, in my experience).

As far as im concearned, you are paying the training company to find the study material that you need to learn for the exam.

You could do the same thing yourself with a bit of research, and it would cost literaly THOUSANDS of pounds less.

Stuart.

 

Heads up on real life mate.
Its called business.

If you are waiting for someone to pop round and do it for you as a favour then you're in for a disappointment.

If you look at it that way, even if you decide you want to self study, the bookshop is going to want your money and the test centre is also going to want some.

 

Indeed. Self study may actualy be harder as you may not have an explicit path of what stuff to learn.

Personaly, i would rather have a shelf full of my own books and reference tuts from the web, than learning only the bare minimum to pass the exam.

I dont think he was complaining about doing the work. I must agree with him when he says that they are only after your cash. This should be the first thing on everyones mind but sadly humans have this nasty personality trait called trust.

Its not about having to spend money. Its about being aware of the available options so you dont have to spend so bloody much of it!!!

 

Totally agree fella! Business is business and all that crap!

And if people are willing to pay 5 grand for something they could get for under 400 pound, then it's their loss.
I dont want to get into a debate about this because, without sounding arrogant, i have done it. The thing is, when you look on the ciw website www.ciwcertified.com and see how much it costs you to get the foundations modules ($99) or the site designer modules with virtual labs and mentoring for $149 and so on......then where the f**cking hell did they get 5 grand from.
If your passionate enough to learn web design then what ever training modules you get, you learn it. And anything your not sure about you can find on it the www. I've spoken to a couple of local web design companies.....i asked them if i could spend one day a week with them, friday or a saturday, so i could get a real feel of how it all works, get that all important experience we need. They gave me some advice and that was to get as much advice from DIFFERENT sources as i could. Dont always assume the book your reading from or the training modules you studying from, is the only way or the best way of doing things.
Thats why i think learning from the internet combined with reading the training modules is better because you can find different explanations of the things your not sure about.

This is just me.....if you can afford to get it the expensive way.. then go for it. I was just letting peeps know how i am doing things and must say I'm doing okay!!!!!

 

Well Put Mate!!!!

 

good advice and thanks for the site.im a virtual beginner and have bookmarked it.think i learnt more about html in 5 mins on there than reading books lol