Training courses

[Cheshire Cat]

Not doing/done but certainly fancy it. Doing Prince2 for an IT CV keyword but have oft considered doing a sparky or plumbing course mainly cos i just reckon i'd enjoy it. Dunno where you are in Cheshire but Macc college do night courses in trades.

Thanks for the tip, but I'm an exile.
I reckon I'd enjoy learning to be a sparky, with the bonus that I could then ligitimately start ripping holes in the walls and "automating" the house, without risk of being dragged into the street and summarily executed by the building regs police.

[dmuk]

I haven't listed my A levels on my CV in years and gave up even stating that I have any about 2 years back. A levels won't help to any extent once you have experience i.e. if you're over 25 they really don't count for much as they've either been counterfeited by a degree or years of work.

The only qualifications worth taking are professional or in some cases Masters degrees like MBA.

I thought you IT guys pull in £500+ per day without blinking. A couple of MS certifications and some time in support and you can start demanding what you like? If you compare the accounting v city v IT roles, many of the IT roles (at least contract) blow everything else out of the water.

I always think work experience is important. If you can show practical experience AND delivering benefits then this outweighs a lot of the certificates. I guess things change when the market gets more competitive?

I have done my PRINCE2 and always get good feedback on it. However I lack extensive project experience, so this may be of greater benefit for someone with some decent project experience, especially on the gov side.

What do people think about sitting down with a "dummies" or "learn x in 24 hours" guides and spending a month working through the book, exercises etc etc? Does this add much value?

[TykeMerc]

I haven't listed my A levels on my CV in years and gave up even stating that I have any about 2 years back. A levels won't help to any extent once you have experience i.e. if you're over 25 they really don't count for much as they've either been counterfeited by a degree or years of work.

The only qualifications worth taking are professional or in some cases Masters degrees like MBA.

[Solent]

The key to it all, is to do something you'll find interesting. Currently studying NVQ Level III Fitness (personal training), ok, albeit not the best money around but brings in extra 'pocket money'.

If you enjoy a subject, it makes it easier to learn. Don't pick something random, ok you could, I ended up studying archeology at A Level two years ago and passed but as said do something you enjoy, and my A Level has done b*gger all for me

[fadanoid]

Benched 2004. Bit hard. Sunk £3k into ISEB and Prince2. Tumbleweed. Then. Salvation. Contract city since. Day rate increased by 100%. Paid for itself ages ago and the rest is GRAVY.

Moral. The man doesn't need to see quals but he sure does like 'em.

[jkoder]

You should get your ECDL

It might be tough given you're a tester though.

[BolshieBastard]

Paying for training courses is a waste of time. I paid a grand back in 2001 for a WinRunner accredited course as a lot of testing roles were asking for WR.

Did the course got the certificate submitted the cv........ then nothing! Agents said 'if you havent got 12 months commercial experience' we wont submit \ client wont take you!

The only course I'd pay for would be somthing like ISEB \ ISTQB which is a qualification. Even then I only paid £125 inc VAT to Leysen for the accredited training CD and apssed. Wouldnt pay the £1000 residential course fee. That's a rip off.

[lightng]

I was jesting before but actually it is a serious option. My cousin is a self-employed plumber and way better off than I am. No IR35 to worry about, Cash in hand jobs, and other perks (cough cough) I'm sure.

[Durbs]

You may jest, but I have given some thought to learning some non IT skills during my next bench time. How long would it take (& how much would it cost) to become a qualified electrician/joiner/plumber/plasterer? Over the course of my life, it's bound to save me money personally, and it might be useful to diversify the skillset a bit just in case times are hard and I need to make a bit of money between contracts.

Anyone doing / done anything like that?

Not doing/done but certainly fancy it. Doing Prince2 for an IT CV keyword but have oft considered doing a sparky or plumbing course mainly cos i just reckon i'd enjoy it. Dunno where you are in Cheshire but Macc college do night courses in trades.

[Cheshire Cat]

I hear Plumbing and Heating has become a popular course for contractors in certain sectors.

You may jest, but I have given some thought to learning some non IT skills during my next bench time. How long would it take (& how much would it cost) to become a qualified electrician/joiner/plumber/plasterer? Over the course of my life, it's bound to save me money personally, and it might be useful to diversify the skillset a bit just in case times are hard and I need to make a bit of money between contracts.

Anyone doing / done anything like that?

[lightng]

I hear Plumbing and Heating has become a popular course for contractors in certain sectors.

[Cheshire Cat]

I'm a test manager / test lead / test dogsbody so loads of the programming courses are just not applicable (little value in me learning .NET etc) but there are some technichal skills that are useful, e.g. Oracle, Perl, Unix shell scripting (even a bit of Excel VBA scripting, if you want to count that), since although I'm not going to be coding, these things repeatedly pop up in my work.

Anyone know of some good online courses in this sort of non-programmer, but "technical" skills area?

[zara_backdog]

More roles then ever are insisting on being 'Certified' ( Ok, most of us should have been years ago).

Even seen ' Do not apply if you are not Prince/Itil certified" Looks like I will spending some of my rainy day fund doing a few courses and taking the exam's.

[Ifrit]

I have considered doing a Maths A - level. I always regretted not doing that ten years ago when I did my A - levels and I think Maths would be pretty useful. I would do an ISEB (if I could afford it) Actually last night I was reading a book I bought about contracting............ ( I haven't got my first contract yet) I think technically though I can still be on the bench. this book was detailing how to download exam papers and memorise the results to gain the qualification - so it would seem there is a requirement for these qualifications.

[Cheshire Cat]

What sort of (non-programming) courses do you chaps/chapettes do during bench time?
Is there much worthwhile free training about, or are all the valuable courses run as "professional training courses" charging huge rates? e.g. the ISEB nonsense.

Does anyone ever consider just doing an A-level in something that might be "useful", Economics, Accounting, etc

I'm sure the costs would be much lower, and would probably be mostly bookwork and coursework, with an exam at the end.

Likewise, has anyone done much in the way of "professional qualifications" and are they worth the paper the certificate is printed on, or is it just as worthwhile buying a book and finding free sources of info on the web (e.g. Prince2, blah blah)