Volume 4

Volume 4 , Issue 5

The best instructor-led retraining options

By: Stephen Ibaraki

Continual retraining is a necessity for IT professionals. Aside from online and self-study, instructor-led training is the best option. It is available at commercial training centres, and public and private educational institutions. Keep in mind that each of these options has their own particular strengths and weaknesses, which we will investigate in this column.

Commercial

Commercial training organizations typically provide industry-certified education within a continuous and short time frame. It is often the quickest way to bring busy IT professionals up-to-speed on a new technology.

This training makes use of approved material from vendors like Oracle, Microsoft, Novell and Cisco. Content coverage is taught by industry-certified trainers and takes anywhere from four hours to a full week. There are no exams during the course, however, formal exams can be written at certified testing centres, such as a Sylvan, in order to receive a certificate.

Costs for commercial courses vary, but can exceed $2,000. The tip here is to take advantage of vendor promotions, generally available upon new product releases.

For certification exam preparation, our research indicates the pass rate is more than 80% if four hours of study is taken for every hour spent in class. For a 30-hour course, you should spend an additional 120 hours reviewing the material, making up your own sample scenarios and testing them out. Exam preparation software, like that distributed by Transcender (www.transcender.com), can help immensely. These decision factors can help you choose between different commercial training centres:

· Is the price competitive?

· Are free certification exams offered to students? Exams can cost $150 per attempt.

· What kind of training resources and materials are provided? You want certified, vendor-approved course kits, not photocopies.

· Can you retake the course for free? Some commercial providers will allow you to retake the same course provided there is room.

· Are you given exam strategies and access to test-prep software?

· Does the instructor hold valid teaching credentials, certification across different vendors and have more than five years’ experience? This background allows the instructor to give integration advice, valuable in companies with products from more than one vendor. The best professional trainers are well known in each city, so phone around and check to see who’s the best. Also, see if you can sit in on a class and speak with attendees.

· What is the refund policy? How soon does the training provider have to be notified in order to receive a full refund? Are partial refunds allowed if you are dissatisfied with a course?

· What are the course cancellation policies if there is a shortage of students? Generally, the better centres will run a course with just one student.

· What additional value-added services and products are provided — Free CDs? Disks? Access to other resource materials?

· Are new computers used? The instructional experience is much better with fast computers loaded with ample disk space and plenty of memory. Do you have to share computers? One computer per student is ideal, two even better.

· What is the maximum class size? Less than eight students work best, according to the studies we have conducted.

Public

What if you can’t get time off from work, or your company will not subsidize training? Maybe fast-track training just doesn’t fit your learning style. Spending a week on a course is not an option for everyone. In these cases, public and private educational institutions provide alternatives.

Public offerings are delivered through evening and weekend programs at school boards and colleges. With school boards, course completion certificates are available. However with colleges, the programs offer certificates and diplomas in addition to industry recognized certification (CCNA, MCSE, CNA). Most vendors provide certified academic programs to schools and colleges that are equivalent to commercial education, but at subsidized prices.

There is a caveat here: the school or college is not allowed to offer the course over a short duration to avoid competition with commercial training centres. Courses run from several weeks to several months following a more traditional academic scheduling format. For example, a course can run on weekday evenings and on weekends for several consecutive weeks. With colleges, exams are given, which results in a credit for successful course mastery and a college academic transcript. Credits can be accumulated towards a certificate, diploma or even a degree. The advantage here is that if you don’t achieve an industry recognized designation such as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), then you have the college diploma as proof of content mastery.

When comparing programs, the same questions apply as with commercial centres, with a few additions:

· What additional courses are offered?

· What value is added that goes beyond certification?

· Is the curriculum technical or management focused? If you want to work in industry, then technical focus is what you want. Be careful: two institutions can provide the same course names, but the emphasis can be different.

· Is this a career change? Experience means a lot in the IT field so be prepared to work at minimum wage in a job that may not directly relate to your education. Three years of experience allows you to bridge to higher profile jobs in your desired areas.

· Are you looking for a perfect job fit to match your education? In my last study, this happened in less than 12% of the cases. Think of your education as providing a foundation or vocabulary for learning on the job. This means that less than 20% of what you have trained for will apply to your new job. Therefore, apply for jobs based upon your ability to adapt to new job requirements.

Private

Private educational institutions are structured much like public schools and colleges, except costs are generally higher. Look for additional services to compensate for higher fees, such as job placement, career counselling and job finding. Private institutions will typically spend a lot on advertising, which can help with new job placement. Their track record is especially important. Ideally, the institution should have been in business for at least three years, with a good reputation, and prospects of being in business for the foreseeable future. Also, accreditation will maximize your ability to leverage your education into a new job or promotion.

Stephen Ibaraki... His many years of IT experience have made him a much sought after speaker and in May he was inducted into the Canadian Information Processing Society Hall of Fame.

Visit other BrassRing Company Sites
BrassRing Systems | BrassRing Campus | BrassRing Diversity | Academic Software | htc Journal