IT classes for the little guy

pcgizzmo

It seems that to take a class at any recognized IT training center such as Global Knowledge etc.. it costs at a minimum $3000 for 5 days. I'm sure there target audience is corporate clients but what about the guy who is self employed or out of a job trying to get some training? If you compare these classes cost and time wise to a college they are way over priced for what you get. In two months of classes I could have paid for a Bachelors degree at a state school or very close to it.

I'm all for free market and all but lets say there are 15 people in your class at $3000 per pop. Thats $45000 in a week and I know the instructor is not making all of that. It seems what we need to do is go into the training business and not work for corporate IT. Thats where the money is.

There needs to be a hands on class solution for people that can't spend $3000 and up per class. I know the market sets the price but I believe it's set a bit high. Personally I would pay for classes myself if they were $750 or so and I know my company would send me to many more if they were less. As it is I get one a year if that.

the_hutch

Its called self-study. Go buy a book at Barnes n Noble for $50 and have enough discipline to learn it. Classes are generally aimed at test content cramming...and you aren't going to retain a lot of the information that way anyways.

HLRS

Yes I agree some IT training courses are expensive , well which IT training? if its low level certs I would read books and watch videos on youtube or download torrents.
I was looking for training for CEH it cost $3500 which is out of my range. I also took a CCNA training for $700 which was very useless. I could watch videos off youtube and learn same thing!

jdancer

Quite a few community colleges are authorized vendor training centers.

Check out the vendor's list of authorized training centers.

I plan to take VMWare training when my CC offers it.

cyberguypr

Nothing beats self-study if cost is a concern. For the money you are willing to pay you'll be best served by building a lab and either finding online resources or paying for CBT such as CBT Nuggets or Trainsignal.

Last year as part of one of my classes I did a project on the financial aspects involved in setting up and maintaining a decent training center such as Global Knowledge or New Horizons. Go through the exercise and you'll understand why they charge those prices. Also, as you recognize, as long as someone is willing to pay the price there is no issue. If the price was unfairly high they would be out of business. Another thing is that most of the time they run BOGO half or Buy 3 get 1 free offers so they cost comes down a little. For example I scored Exchange and Lync for $4,500 (retail is $3k each).

Finally, a previous employer once sent me to a few sub-$1,000 training session. Quality was very low and the instructor was awful. Not saying there aren't cheap training providers that are good, just that as with many things in life you usually get what you pay for.

Bloogen

Try looking into smaller local training companies that may have more affordable prices. These places may even be open to some form of price negotiation. You local college may also have some part time or single courses that re likely much more affordable and less condensed.

Self study is naturally cheaper and a great option. Some people really respond better to being taught by someone else. I encourage you to either locally or online possibly try to find someone who would be willing to work with you a couple times a week. For example, if we both decided we wanted to do the CCNA we could meet up twice a week and explain our understandings of a chapter of a book, maybe help each other with labs etc. This might be a peer where you work on things together or maybe someone who is slightly ahead of where you want to be technically.

On a slightly personal note, if there was an online service that matched you up with a tutor for 1 on 1 lessons for a topic or certification would that be something you would be interested in paying for? For example, you have a lesson with the instructor speaking to you personally, with some sort of screen sharing as if it was a classroom lesson, there could also be homework labs/questions etc? Something I have been thinking about for a while, wanted to hear someone else's thoughts.