MCSE (or whatever it's called these days) training

[BatchFile]

I've got my PM meeting with the head today and I'd like to ask for some Microsoft training. I've never had any formal MS training apart from a 1-day SFE course on NT4 several years ago (though I have been a NM for 8 years and had a pretty good background knowledge before that). Day to day I get along fine, but I'm starting to feel a little out of date in certain areas (eg. AD!) and seem to be googling solutions more and more.
The MS website is clear as mud - I looked at it yesterday... So:

Where Do I Start? What are the options? and how much will it cost? and Where do I get it from?

(by 11am please I was going to post this yesterday but all hell broke loose!)

Thanks in advance

[jamesb]

Options are self-study, correspondence course, center-based course and residential course. Those are in order of (usual) pricing.

Self-study requires the books and exams, and possibly some equipment to practice on. Would run to maybe a few hundred (exams are about £80 each, free second shot if you fail the first time). Amazon's the best place to look for the books, and I believe ProMetric handle the exams these days.

I don't know much about correspondence courses.

A center-based course depends on regular attendance, whether as an evening class, weekend class, or whatever. Generally more expensive than a correspondence course or self-study, but cheaper than residential. These may or may not include exams, depending on the course. QA-IQ offer these, and I know that others do as well. Some colleges offer Microsoft courses for adults.

If what you really need is an intensiveupdate then it might be worth going for a residential course. They're the most expensive option, but generally it means that it'll only take you a couple of weeks to get everything updated rather than months. Only worth doing if it suits your learning style however. For these you're generally looking at a few thousand for an MCSE course. Firebrand are generally the people I go with for these (if nothing else, the food is fantastic) but there are many others out there.

[strawberry]

Aim for MCSA first, its the more relevant half of the MCSE. There are 4 exams for this, each one a qualifcation in its own right, each exam costs £80 and can be studied for using the ms press book and possibly other self learning material such as testout or cbtnuggets.

[jamesb]

Aim for MCSA first, its the more relevant half of the MCSE. There are 4 exams for this, each one a qualifcation in its own right, each exam costs £80 and can be studied for using the ms press book and possibly other self learning material such as testout or cbtnuggets.

If you select your courses/exams carefully, and choose the right elective then your MCSA exams will count towards the MCSE, and you can also end up with MCSA Security and MCSE Security, just so you can have a few more letters to throw around.

[BatchFile]

Many thanks to both of you, you've been a great help. It's not particularly the letters after my name that interests me as I don't plan to move jobs for a while (though never say never and all plans are subject to change), just the feeling that I'm, well not falling behind, but you know what I mean? and I think that doing a formal qualification may be a good way of polishing my skills.

I'm probably going to go down the self study route first, as I've got a good chance of getting that funded.

[strawberry]

also worth considering doing an mcsa then looking at cisco's ccent before you do the mcse, The extra modules that take you from an mcsa to an mcse are nice but not really all taht relevant day to day in a school.