New Horizons?

Ed1975

Have any of you guys taken courses at/from New Horizons?

IT Training, Microsoft Training, Cisco Training, Computer Training, Certifications - New Horizons Computer Learning Centers

If so, what were your experiences? Do you think they represent a good investment? I've read a number of online horror stories, esp. saying that they just take your money and provide very sub-standard instruction.

I'm particularly interested to hear from anyone who did their courses via the "Mentored Learning" or "Online ANYTIME" approaches.

Would it make more sense just to buy well-esteemed courses books like the Meyers one for A+ and do the courses self-study, spending a lot more time than the 5-10 days of many NH courses?

Thanks for your input

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Comments

phantasm

Funny this should come up, the place I take my Cisco exams is at a New Horizons facility. I have never taken any classes there nor do I plan to. It's rarely ever busy when I'm there and when I do show up for an exam the staff is usually annoying as can be.

humdingy02

phantasm wrote: »

the place I take my Cisco exams is at a New Horizons facility

I took all of my Microsoft exams at New Horizons. It was a clean, professional looking place. The testing room wasn't very busy, but there were classes going on elsewhere. I've heard that places like this are good for general Word & Excel training. I'm not sure how their IT training is though.

The $2500 price tag is a *bit* too high though. For that price you could buy multiple books, videos, and practice tests. You could build a very impressive lab (that will be yours to keep throughout further certs). And you'll still have enough left for the exam voucher.

nicklauscombs

Ed1975 wrote: »

Would it make more sense just to buy well-esteemed courses books like the Meyers one for A+ and do the courses self-study, spending a lot more time than the 5-10 days of many NH courses?

Unless your company is willing to shell out the money I would always suggest the self-study route and even more so for something like the A+. Another option would be to check your local community college as a lot of them offer A+/Net+/Sec+ geared classes.

mikej412

The quality of training seems to vary by location. If you find a location that does lots of corporate training for nearby large corporations then you'd probably get a good education there. Other sites that target individuals (and their unemployment training funds) are probably not as good.

If work wants to pay for your training -- then you have nothing to lose. If you're paying out of pocket, then you'd either want to reconsider your options or at least take another long look at the specific training center.

Michael.J.Palmer

New Horizons is a school that teaches course plans to students looking to enter the IT field. Schools like these aren't all that bad really on the exception that they can be very expensive. Make sure that if you wish to attend one that you focus hard on your studies and committ yourself 100% to the transition.

I myself am attending MyComputerCareer.com in Raleigh and there's a New Horizons in the Raleigh area as well. I had checked both locations out before choosing which to attend, MyCC was a bit more expensive but offered more of the things that I liked including personalized hands on training, a private Prometric testing facility (yeah I get to test right across the hall from my classroom and most of the time I may be the only person in the testing room testing which can make for easy concentration) and a better set out career path that with studies that just focused on that path and how to succeed in that path, from what I can tell about New Horizons is that they offer several paths and give you the option, but some studies might not be focused just within that path...

But the choice is yours on what you'd like to do as far as that. Keep in mind if you live in the Raleigh area or surrounding NC cities then you may want to check out MyCC as well.

earweed

humdingy02 wrote: »

The $2500 price tag is a *bit* too high though. For that price you could buy multiple books, videos, and practice tests. You could build a very impressive lab (that will be yours to keep throughout further certs). And you'll still have enough left for the exam voucher.

+1 Unless your company is putting up the money I would invest in books, videos, practice tests and a really killer home lab. If your company is willing to pay for this I would still try to see if they would invest less money in your own self studies, they may appreciate the cost savings

tpatt100

I would check out your local community college. The ones in my area integrate Microsoft an Cisco into their associate degree programs.

JSK

I took my ICND1 and ICND2 classes at New Horizons. I had a great instructor. I'd definately go back for more training in the future. But I'm sure the quality of the instructor will vary from one facility to the next. So the experience is going to be different.

Both of my classes had over 15 people. However there were never more than 3 of us in the actual classroom. We had people attending online. From what I understand there is an extra charge associated with that.

N2IT

tpatt100 wrote: »

I would check out your local community college. The ones in my area integrate Microsoft an Cisco into their associate degree programs.

+1

One of our WAN guys went through the community college route and has progress through the company fairly quickly. I can tell you this much, he knows a heck of a lot more about routers, switches, and other WAN hardware and connectivity.

I'm still sucking my thumb as a tier 2 tech while he is with a tier 3 WAN group.

eMeS

mikej412 wrote: »

The quality of training seems to vary by location.

To back up what Mike says, NH's are all franchise-owned, hence the variance in instruction and even equipment you see in use at some of them.

Every once in a while I'll get a request to give some ITIL training at one. Personally I only work with an NH if it is contracted through an intermediary, or if the pay is up front. There's a perpetual discussion over on the MCT Newsgroups about various NH franchises that have a terrible reputation for both quality of instruction and for not paying instructors. Still, some are decent but sometimes a few bad apples spoils the bushel...

In general with respect to any training I'd say caveat emptor.

MS