IT Technician courses

[fathead]

Not sure if that's what you're on about though.

That's exactly what I was on about! Cheers.

[fathead]

I've just found this on the OU website. CCNA for £915 (excluding exams)

T216 - Cisco networking (CCNA) - Open University Course

However it's the "Exploration" curriculum. Is "Discovery" a different curriculum/stream then?

[Edu-IT]

The one I mentioned was a Level 3 course, I'm sure. This is only a Level 2.

[nephilim]

discovery is the ground work for CCNA, and technically counts as "part 1"
exploration is the work on top of discovery, and technically counts as "part 2"

To have a full CCNA you need to do both, or have equivalent qualifications for discovery (Comptia N+ and a few others)

[glennda]

Where would be the place to look for such things?

I'm currently doing this which is a Level 3 (equiv 2 a-levels).

Hopefully then going to go onto this which is level 4 (equiv hnd)

wanted to go straight to the level 4 but didn't have enough quals to go straight for level 4 as i have no a-levels as i flunked college!

then going to do some cisco stuff as i don't have much clue about all that!

[wagnerk]

Where would be the place to look for such things?

Contact your local colleges/Uni's, the college that we use for our apprentice is Cambridge Regional College.

-Ken

[wagnerk]

The CCNA - there is only one level (you also have the CCENT which is half of a CCNA), however it's how it's packaged up with FE/HE qualifications that gives it the levels that everyone here is talking about.

If you're looking at just the CCNA, Comms Support has a good reputation on Certforums, but you do not get the BTEC qualification (with the level 3 one) or the OU credit (for the OU module one).

Saying that if you have the kit, you can purchase the study guides and work your way thru them without the need for a course - that reduces the costs alot (provided you have access to the kit), but self-study is not for everyone.

One thing that you also have to take into consideration is that fact that the Cisco certs need to be renewed every 3 years.

-Ken

[wagnerk]

If you want to be an all-rounder - don't forget FITS. It's rolling out across the country and it's all about best practice regarding: service desk, incident management, problem management, change etc Fundamentally it's about running an efficient service with a smile!
regards Margaret

Added to that, they are level 4 (Practitioner) and level 5 (Manager) qualifications

-Ken

[ricki]

HI

Please could someone help.

I have complete my 70-640 and 680 microsoft courses and Wigan College have stopped doing exam. I have checked the prometric site and loads of other exam centers are closed like Lancaster.

Has anyone got any ideas whats going on?

Richard

[simbobaker]

Hi,

I'm also looking at courses to expand my knowledge, I've already done the CompTIA A+ which was ok, only took about 3months to complete using computeach.

I'm now stuck as where to go. Either do a more General CompTIA N+ route or do specific MCSE/MCSA

I can't think which would be more useful in schools. I'm guessing the MCSE?

[JoeBloggs]

I would do A+, N+ & Server+. (As these will give you a good basic knowledge of these subjects which will help any CCNA or Microsoft route)

Once you have done these you will have some sort of perference on the direction you want to take, as now Microsoft have specific routes, or the CCNA direction.

Then there is ITIL / FITS for more service delivery rather than techy stuff.

[pshuttle]

CCNA Self Study

I have had two friends pass the CCNA by self study using only the Sybex CCNA study guide and Packet tracer. They only paid for the exam when they were ready and both passed first time. However, we were working in a WAN environment with daily exposure to Cisco equipment.

Only having to pay for an exam and book saves a lot of money!

[nephilim]

The final Cisco ccna live exam where its recorded and viewed had me nervous as hell, but that said I did pass with 967/1000 ;-) and it was all self study.

[stevenwba]

It the same boat as many who have posted here, working for a few years in i.t and now looking to get some certifications to help move forward, as im working as a tech, i was hoping to do something like MCITP: Support Tech or MCITP: server administrator, just wondered if anyone knew where to go.

I find the hardest part is finding somewhere to study and not being ripped off, as most online study websites want £1000s

[GREED]

Just to put my two pence in, +1 for the NVQ mentions above (mainly as that is my business and what I teach, but hey!). The take your existing knowledge and apply it to a qualification, teach you the next step (or fives steps usually) and align a qual to your personal and professional needs.