Accreditation for voluntary ICT Technician work at a local school

[KJK1LL3R]

Hey guys,

I have just finished university over the summer and I got a 2:1 in a Computing with Business degree but since finishing I have struggled to find work. The main reason I have struggled is because I have no interest in going into software development or web design, but I would instead prefer to start off in a technical support job. My ideal scenario is that I want to work as an ICT Technician at a school and then after a few years progress on to become an ICT Teacher at a secondary school. I have already worked in a technical support role at a university for my year-long placement but a single year of experience has not been enough to land me an ICT Technician job having already applied at two schools and a hospital. I am attending a part-time 30 week CompTIA A+ course and should be certified in June 2013 so hopefully that will look good on my CV but I need more experience.

 

Therefore I have been offered the possibility of some voluntary work at my local secondary school who don't currently employ an ICT Technician. I have talked with the Head of ICT at the school who said the following:

"I would love to have someone with your knowledge and experience on board but financial remuneration may not be available. In light of this is it possible that if you were working here if there was anyway we can get you some sort of accreditation for this that would help you getting into a course or recognised qualification."

I am wondering if anybody knows of any type of accreditation/qualification I could obtain during my voluntary work that would increase my chances of landing ICT Technician jobs, particularly within a school or other type of educational environment? Or even if there was some type of accreditation/qualification that would increase my chances of getting into an ICT PGCE course in the future?

 

Since I wont be getting paid for this work, I want to try to make the best of it that I can. I was wondering what things I could offer to do that would look good on my CV or a potential PGCE application bearing in mind that I want to work as a school ICT Technician before possibly moving on to ICT Teacher. In addition to obviously offering basic technical support around the school, I was thinking I could probably offer to be some sort of classroom assistant during ICT classes or even offer to run some type of after-school ICT club for 1st year students. Has anyone got any additional idea's?

 

I really appreciate any advice here. Thanks.

[One_Minute_Hero]

are they an rm school? if so some RM accreditation

[KJK1LL3R]

are they an rm school? if so some RM accreditation

 

Apologies but I don't know what an RM School is? Here is the School website:

St Patricks College, Dungiven, County Derry

[Steve21]

I think you'll find the problem is any of the "more common" certs etc are all paid for courses/exams, unless of course you research it etc in your own time. Obviously you could do some reading etc for an MS exam, or A+ etc but then that's instead of doing the work really (If that made sense)

 

Steve

[One_Minute_Hero]

Apologies but I don't know what an RM School is? Here is the School website:

St Patricks College, Dungiven, County Derry

 

if you ask them they should know if they are using RM CC3 or CC4. they are management systems for edu networks priced like gold and function like mud

[X-13]

Apologies but I don't know what an RM School is?

 

An "RM school" is one that uses an RM network, these days it's typically CC4 [server 2008r2 with Win7 clients] if the school can afford the upgrade or it's a new install, or CC3 [server 2003 with WinXP clients] if they can't afford the upgrade.

 

RM networks are almost exactly the same as a standard Windows network, but they have RM's fancy^{[Citation needed]} skin on top.

 

 

If you have experience with a vanilla Windows network, you can look after an RM one. [However, it doesn't really work the other way because of the proprietary RM gubbins.]

[KJK1LL3R]

are they an rm school? if so some RM accreditation

 

I have checked and the School uses C2K (C2K Services for Schools) which I believe is associated to RM. Here is a screenshot of my work desktop at the school:

 

 

As you can see I will be using some of the things on my desktop such as RM Management Console and RM Explorer 2. Is there any type of RM accreditation that applies here? I would really like to get something worthwhile out of this voluntary post as I am not being paid.

[twin--turbo]

RM acreditaion will only be worthwhile in schools, and only in the ones that use RM. So it has limited use

 

Rob

[KJK1LL3R]

RM acreditaion will only be worthwhile in schools, and only in the ones that use RM. So it has limited use

 

Rob

 

That suits fine as I have previously mentioned that I would ideally like to become a school ICT Technician. So what are my options in terms of RM accreditations?

[dhicks]

My ideal scenario is that I want to work as an ICT Technician at a school and then after a few years progress on to become an ICT Teacher at a secondary school.

 

I've tried that, and you might be surprised at the skillset needed to be a good ICT teacher, i.e. mainly good teaching skills, with technical stuff coming second. If you want to get in to teaching, aim to be a classroom teaching assistant or similar for a while - being an IT technician isn't really the route in. Anyway, isn't the idea of a computing-with-business degree is that you go off and run a startup or something for a few years so you have some interesting something-other-than-teaching experience before you head back to the classroom?

[Sylv3r]

They also appear to be using RM CC3, you probably wouldn't want accredidation in this as it has been superceeded by CC4. Whether they would be happy to put you through CC4 training or whether it would benefit you is another matter altogehter.

 

It may be better looking down either the Microsoft, FITS or COMPTIA route instead.

[witch]

You say you havent been able to find a job - but havent you just sent me your CV for adjustment? You will have a much better chance if you follow my recommendations. We really can make it better, you know

[MacGeek]

I would be very wary of a secondary school that at present has no IT technician. You may be walking into a giant mess. However any experience is good experience. See if they have an old server that is mothballed in a cupboard somewhere. Get it out and put Server 2008 R2 on it, break it, fix it, break it some more. Just experiment as much as possible, but not on your live environment. All is good for your CV.

[Ephelyon]

If you're not being paid, ensure that their liability insurance still covers you.

[CAM]

I don't know what accreditation they are offering you, but I can't think of any free ones off the top of my head. Why do I say free? Schools love free, they will try get anything for free and it sounds like they are trying to fill a techie post for free too.

 

That said, work experience is invaluable these days but remember your hours are limited for doing voluntary work as it makes you unavailable for job hunting. The skills you pick up just doing the job will help but you must not let the school start putting you on full-time hours without paying you. Your priority must always be job hunting for paid work such as interviews and CV preparation above what the school is asking you to do!

 

Best case: Work experience, IT skills, contacts and a CV. Worst case: School takes the mickey and treats you like a full-time employee with none of the benefits or renumeration. I really wouldn't hang on that accreditation, not even paid school IT workers find themselves with much in the way of paid for training courses.

[KJK1LL3R]

You say you havent been able to find a job - but havent you just sent me your CV for adjustment? You will have a much better chance if you follow my recommendations. We really can make it better, you know

 

I am still working on it. I am also a carer for my disabled father whom lives with me so its tough to find the time but I will certainly get back to you on it and appreciate your help.