Hi all, Currently i'm doing Cisco IT essentials which basically covers certain areas towards A+. I'm thinking that when my cisco course finishes in January that i would really like to go on a A+ course. However checking my local colleges etc no one does A+, the only examples i find is online course or some "IT provider" that does 5 days course for stupid amounts of money. I was wondering if it possible to find tutor/classroom led courses in the uk or will i have to go down the route of doing a online course + paying for each exam i take. 3rd option is self study but i rather get some sort of support before forking out for the exams. Regards, Mike.
What's your end goal? Personally if you're doing Cisco at the moment then I'd be looking at doing the CCNA then potentially getting some Microsoft certs (I did Microsoft first now have moved over to doing Cisco certs)
We use QA for our A+, they have quite a few sites up and down the country. I would recommend them as the quality of their trainers seem very high. Not sure about prices though, you might find they have last-minute courses where they have seats going spare which they might do a discount rate for.
After my A+ i was thinking of doing either Cisco for Networks or something else. Everyone i talked to has said A+ is like your foundation block in getting a job in I.T
Just check the site, It said that the course was £2,130. Out of my budget range as i'm living on incapicity benefit + War disablement pension.
I took the exact course listed in the thread title through Home Learning College and it was listed as £1,784 but they did arrange a finance scheme through Barclays (of course this was about 4 months before Woolies went up the ******* so i couldnt' finish it) which worked out to £72 per month. Not a bad course in my opinoin and taught me a lot in the short time i was doing it but I'm sure i read somewhere (maybe in these forums) that it's not really regarded all that highly by employers anymore. I could easily be wrong on that count, I just feel like i remember seeing that for some reason. Still, i went through all of the material I'd received just for personal benefit and still enjoyed it. It certainly gave me a better basis and understanding than i gained from my own research but i also think i've learned more from bit-tech that from the course (the collective knowledge on here is colossal). Not really all that helpful but that was my experience of it and may give you an idea. Chuck a PM if you'd like me to dig the stuff out and give some examples of what it's like
Hi My employer insisted I do an A+ a couple of years ago. It was the most pointless and easy exam I have ever done. It's all multiple guess and hopelessly out of date. Unless you are going for jobs that really require it, I would not bother as not many businesses recognise it anyway. Save your money for a more recognised Microsoft qualification or further up the CCNA league.
I think the next level was CCNA level 1 which is £250 and starts in January at my local college. If it is as people are saying about A+ then i might just skip it for now and study at college for CCNA 1 and have some tutor led class studies rather than sitting at home trying to do A+ online. Throbbi what sort of course materials did you get for A+ ?
A+ is really quite dated, it teaches you alot of stuff that while its nice to know, isnt always applicable to modern systems. If you just wanted to do it on a whim you should take it, but there are better courses to be doing. as mentioned CCNA would be a good direction to go.
Skip the A+ unless you can get it for free/cheap. It's the only certificaton I've got, may as well not even mention it on the resume. Only thing it's really been good for is showing off to the salesmen at brick and mortar tech shops.
