Which Courses Are Better?

[Steven]

Hi, I have just finished school and i want to go into IT i am wondering which which one of these i should go for and which are known well etc.

I either go to college for 2 year or more and do a NVQ Level 3 National Diploma - Networking

Or Home College and do a CompTIA N+ Networking course.

Any Suggestions would be great, Thanks Steven.

[SYNACK]

Grab some networking courses like Cisco CCNA, all of the server and client technology changes rapidly and is moving to more centralized options at the moment. As this happens connectivity becomes more important. Everything is being given an ip address lately, phones, projectors, PDAs etc.

Networking is one of those core skills that is increasingly necessary. I would also suggest some hardware courses like A+ or a uni paper on hardware engineering. Some may disagree but I also found some of the MS qualifications to be very useful when it comes to doing my job. So long as you actually do them rather than just downloading the brain dumps they are useful. I did the 2000 server one ages back and it is still useful today.

[strawberry]

get some curriculum based education matey, do something like a levels or a gnvq/btec . then get onto vocational training, maybe read some books on the cisco ccna or the microsoft mcsa/mcse

[dhicks]

Originally Posted by Steven

I either go to college for 2 year or more and do a NVQ Level 3 National Diploma - Networking. Or Home College and do a CompTIA N+ Networking course.

If I understand correctly, the CompTIA N+ is something that could be done at home by you simply reading the text book and taking the exams, so you might as well take the opportunity to go and do that college course. You might even be able to do them both at the same time - they're bound to cover mostly the same ground, so you can recycle the knowledge you get for one for the other.

--
David Hicks

[link470]

I personally went to Royal Roads University [where they filmed Batman, the castle place] and took the Microsoft Network Security Analyst program. It was a year long, so I could get done right away and be onto a job such as the one I've landed here with the district. I graduated high school in 2006, and went straight to University, took the program, which gave me all the coursework and specialized training from people high up at Microsoft, IBM, Symantec, etc. It was extremely interesting. Lots of information very fast, but it was an amazing experience and if I ever want to review any of it, I've got all the textbooks [about 25 texts from that year]. I'm now 20 years old and run a high school network of 1000 kids and nearly 300 computers, with the grade 12's only 2 years younger than me. The Microsoft certifications are definitely a good way to go, and good for you for wanting to go right to it after school! That's the best way to go. For me, what helped so much about going to University, is not ONLY do you get the certifications, but you get a Diploma as well and other certification papers from the University itself, and to say you have certifications and Diploma from a University or College means a lot to many people out there because it tells them you were commited to going to a post secondary school and following through with it. The other nice thing about University or College or any institution for that matter instead of just buying the books and studying, is that it keeps you on track. Going somewhere every day, going to school, studying, and coming home at the end of the day. It keeps you on schedule towards your goals and puts a bit of friendly pressure on you saying "hey, you're in school, keep it up and you'll do well!" If you're studying at home, who knows what may get in the way. Relationships, friends, your own hobbies, etc.

Best of luck in whatever you decide to do, and great choice in career

[wagnerk]

The Network+ is actually mapped to NQF level 3, have a word with the company that will supply the NVQ 3 training. With the Network+ you may find that it covers some/a few units of the NVQ 3 training (dependant on the modules choosen), hence less you have to do. Or see if you can integrate the Network+ with the NVQ 3.

Alot of NVQ programs now are integrating professional certs into their programs (the ACA for example).

-Ken