Distance learning... Who, what and where? (IT)

hardkore

hardkore

hardkore

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Norfolk
Hey everyone.

I've been looking at this section for a long time for career advice but never pulled up the courage to do so until now.

To give a little background, I left school with half decent GCSE's and decided to do a modern apprenticeship in Light vehicle mechanics. I completed Level 2 of 3 but decided it wasn't for me. I then worked full time in a local pub for a year until one of the regulars I got on with got me a job in engineering.

I've been at that place now for 9 years and it's all going a bit downhill. Since I started I've progressed steadily and I now work in production management but primarily being the middle man between the Drawing office and CNC programming and machining. I've survived 3 rounds of redundancies in the last 4 years but the company situation is getting worse by the day.

I have always wanted to work in the IT sector but have never been sure in what capacity. I'm a logical thinker, very good at problem solving and love technology in all forms. I've enquired into doing some distance learning courses (entry level Cisco, compTIA and microsoft certifications) but not sure who are decent providers of said materials. Given my location I would have to travel to either Norwich or Cambridge to land any big time IT jobs but until I've got into the sector and know a direction I want to pursue I'm just after a nice broad base of basic knowledge to get my foot in the door so to speak.

Maybe 1st or 2nd line support to begin with?

I've seen this course on Reed https://www.reed.co.uk/courses/complete-it-certification-bundle/72042?#/courses/it

Would this be a waste of time or is Hudson a bit of an unknown quantity? I would ideally like to do a OU course but I just want to prepare myself with some lower level stuff as I ashamedly haven't been in any kind of education for a long time.

I currently earn between 24k to 27k a year so and willing to take a big pay cut. I'll do whatever it takes basically.


I really appreciate the time and input.
 
a lot of those courses you wont be able to pass as you need to do the lower level ones first, so look on microsoft and cisco to see the progression paths of each cert, for that price though to get a CCNA and a few MS ones it seems to be ok
 
If you're going to do an OU course then do an OU course they're designed to start gently and bring you up to speed. Doing another course to prepare for it would be a waste.
 
hardkore said:
Hey everyone.

I've been looking at this section for a long time for career advice but never pulled up the courage to do so until now.

To give a little background, I left school with half decent GCSE's and decided to do a modern apprenticeship in Light vehicle mechanics. I completed Level 2 of 3 but decided it wasn't for me. I then worked full time in a local pub for a year until one of the regulars I got on with got me a job in engineering.

I've been at that place now for 9 years and it's all going a bit downhill. Since I started I've progressed steadily and I now work in production management but primarily being the middle man between the Drawing office and CNC programming and machining. I've survived 3 rounds of redundancies in the last 4 years but the company situation is getting worse by the day.

I have always wanted to work in the IT sector but have never been sure in what capacity. I'm a logical thinker, very good at problem solving and love technology in all forms. I've enquired into doing some distance learning courses (entry level Cisco, compTIA and microsoft certifications) but not sure who are decent providers of said materials. Given my location I would have to travel to either Norwich or Cambridge to land any big time IT jobs but until I've got into the sector and know a direction I want to pursue I'm just after a nice broad base of basic knowledge to get my foot in the door so to speak.

Maybe 1st or 2nd line support to begin with?

I've seen this course on Reed https://www.reed.co.uk/courses/complete-it-certification-bundle/72042?#/courses/it

Would this be a waste of time or is Hudson a bit of an unknown quantity? I would ideally like to do a OU course but I just want to prepare myself with some lower level stuff as I ashamedly haven't been in any kind of education for a long time.

I currently earn between 24k to 27k a year so and willing to take a big pay cut. I'll do whatever it takes basically.


I really appreciate the time and input.
Click to expand...

The OU do access courses that could be worth looking at. One covers IT amongst other disciplines http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/do-it/access
 
Good stuff there guys, thank you. Ill enquire into the access as i always avoided OU as a starting point due to the cost and length of time but it might be the best way to go.

The only worry i have is end up specialising in something through OU and not liking it, hence the cheaper lower cost courses to begin with.
 
well if you're not sure if you want to do an OU course then it is a big commitment, my point was just that *if* you were planning to do one then you should just do one and not worry about trying to prepare for it with other courses as they're designed to bring you up to speed.

On the other hand if you just want to do something quickly in order to start working in a particular area then maybe there are better alternatives depending on what you want to do.
 
It's been recommended on here before but have a look at codeacademy and microsoft virtual academy if you have any interest in programing, web development etc.

There's a great one on learning C# and introducing object oriented programing in microsoft virtual academy, and everything you need is free.
 
That £149 for access to all of that course material is pretty good, assuming the material is decent. It is worth noting, that is simply a price for course material, not for the examinations you'd need to pass to actually become certified in those things. The exam costs are typically £100+, and for a few - Comptia A+ definitely - there are two exams.

Getting certified is only part of the game when it comes to getting in to IT, and many will claim that it's unnecessary altogether. Like most industries, experience is key, so it's good that your expectations aren't too high and you're willing to take a pay cut, as it's likely that will be the case.
 
For a lot of the entry level certs you just need the books and can study in your spare time then pay for the exam, unless you really like a course environment for learning.

You could start with A+ the reed link you posted has training for A+ 800 certs which I think expire soon, you want the 900 track.

You could buy a book for it and use professor messors free videos -

http://www.professormesser.com/free-a-plus-training/220-901/comptia-220-900-course/

The best cert training imo is CBT nuggets but its expensive -

https://www.cbtnuggets.com/it-training

For individual exam advice http://www.techexams.net/forums/ is a good forum.
 
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