Microsoft learning - who do you use.

Vince · 6 Dec 2010 at 12:12

Hi there,

So I am looking to update some of my age old MS certifications and sit a few new ones. It's been a good few years (5) since I did this and can't remember the name of the company I used but I do know that they were pretty good and I could do it online which was a bonus.

So this may be in the wrong place but if anybody has a decent company that do ms courses, preferably online then any info would be much appreciated.

Mr-White · 6 Dec 2010 at 12:21

If you're doing them your self just buy the Mircosoft training books like this as courses tend to be expensive. If you can get your company to pay, QA is pretty good and they have loads of training centres in London.

MW

Vince · 6 Dec 2010 at 16:31

Looks like this depends on how much training I want to do next year. If I only fancy a few courses then I could go for the classroom courses. If I want to do another management course or some other non ms courses and events then I need to do these with books. The company provide me with a yearly training budget which covers these so will do some research, thanks for the links.

I have just ordered an epic amount of MS SharePoint 2010 books so wanted a course to go along with them. I was thinking of:

Course 10174A: Configuring and Administering Microsoft SharePoint 2010

and

Course 10175A: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development

To get the old SharePoint juices flowing. This is however probably a bit late as we have already migrated our wss3 farm but you know what they say, better late then never.

Mr-White · 10 Dec 2010 at 15:16

I might be able to get you 10 days for £1000. I got this deal last year and the guy I deal with got £20k worth of business from my recommendation to my boss so he has said he will give me this deal again but I can't warrant spending that kind of money atm.

MW

Vince · 19 Sep 2011 at 20:37

A bit of a thread revival here....

Its been a while but I finally got around to ordering the courses today, I have decided to do three courses to gain the MCTS (microsoft certified technology specialist) qualification. I have already migrated the SharePoint farm here over to 2010 and think that because I worked with server 2007 for so many years I should really have some qualifications to back up my claims.

I have ordered the course through a company called e-careers at £199+ vat each for three courses and I then have to pay another £99+ vat for each exam. Couse material is delivered over the net so I can have a little browse as and when I please but to be honest I might just have a quick read through then try my luck with an exam. Mind you I’ve been caught in that trap before as even though you can do it, can you do it the MS way?

Course starts with :

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 MCTS 70-630

After that there is a choice of several others from desktop management to .net distributed apps and development to SQL Server, visual basic, c# and all sorts of other options so I guess deciding on what else to take might be tricky but I’m thinking I might do the c# course as all the SharePoint custom event handlers and code I have written has been done in c#.

So I guess my question is anybody out there with the MCTS? If so how did you find it and what modules did you go for?

HungryHippos · 19 Sep 2011 at 21:11

I have a few MCTS qualifications. I have:

70-620 MCTS: Windows Vista, Configuration
70-236 MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Configuration
70-662 MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Configuration

I also have an MCITP as well:

70-433 + 70-451 MCITP: Database Developer 2008

As for which ones to take? well MCTS is just single exams in a single subject, if you take a set of specific exams you get an MCITP qualification (see http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mcitp.aspx#tab2). As soon as you take any exam and pass it you become MCTS certified basically, if you take other MCTS exams you are still just an MCTS certified individual.

My next exam will probably be 70-663 which will give me MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator on Exchange 2010.

For material I was sent on a course for the SQL one because we needed the qualification quickly. For the others I just studied and took them in my own time. Generally I found the CBT Nugget videos excellent resources, and also if available the Microsoft books to support the MCTS exam are generally alright as well.

Vince · 19 Sep 2011 at 21:32

Bingo... course codes and everything

Thanks buddy.

70-236 MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Configuration
70-662 MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Configuration

These two were the two I was looking for, I haven't done any of these in years so about time I gained some more qualifications. Last ones were xp and server 2003 courses. And back then everything was mcp so times have changed I see.