Enroll to University of People

SeekBytes

Dear members,

I was thinking to get an online degree. At the moment I have just finished my CCNA and I should complete A+ and N+ by June.

Since certifications help to land a basic role in IT (hopefully I will get a job this summer time) I was thinking that specializing in one area would not help me in case I could not find an occupation in that specific field. I was pretty sure to go straight to CCNP RS/Sec, but I am considering the negative effects of not getting a role as Cisco Network Engineer.

For this reason I thought to see if I could quickly take exams to complete an undergraduate program with an online institution.
University fees for joining Open University are pretty high for my pockets BSc (Hons) Computing and IT Degree - Distance Learning at The OU. It should cost around 15k GBP.

I checked University of People which is not going to impress anybody here in UK (I could be wrong, but we are the worse when it comes to social status) and I still do not know if it's going to be recognized as valid degree.

Each module at UOP is around 100$ per exam. It's not expensive as I thought and probably I could just book the exams a

I would love to hear from you gents.

Kind Regards, Francesco.

nster

I can't help, but what I can say is that N+ is useless when you already have a CCNA

NinjaBoy

Hi Francesco,

The UoP is not a UK degree awarding body, so whether or not it will be accepted will be down to the discretion of individual organisations. However saying that you can use the services of UK NARIC to evaluate the degree to see where it/how it compares to a UK qualification - but you need to have the qualification first of all.

The UoP does have Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC) accreditation, but that is more of a US body than an international one.

Apart from that, have you taken a look at apprenticeships in the UK? They start at level 1 (but that doesn't mean that you have to start at that level), but once you hit level 4, it is comparable to degree level (it's still not a degree as degrees are academic).

However if you really want to do it, go for it

-Ken

aspiringsoul

I support nster,

If you have the CCNA already, then don't waste your money on the Network+. It is a superfluous credential once you obtain the CCNA. I would focus on Security+ instead, or a vendor track such as the MCSA, VCP5, or the CCNP depending on where you want to go with your career.

Pupil

aspiringsoul wrote: »

I support nster,

If you have the CCNA already, then don't waste your money on the Network+. It is a superfluous credential once you obtain the CCNA. I would focus on Security+ instead, or a vendor track such as the MCSA, VCP5, or the CCNP depending on where you want to go with your career.

This a million times. So often I read people studying for Network+ alongside or after completing CCNA. Network+ is useless by itself. It's even more useless if you already have CCNA. Please do not waste your time, energy, and money.

jdancer

UotP has a very traditional undergraduate computer science curriculum. I think it's a good foundation for pursuing a graduate degree later. Most graduate computer science schools require you have a undergraduate computer science background.