EUCIP and other IT courses

noel123ie

Hi there



Ive got a diploma in IT support and am looking for a course maybe 1 night to add to my experience - In Cork area



I know I could do Cisco course but this is 1 night and weekends or MCPs



I can not commit to this due to family circumstances



Can you please advise any ideas would be great



Is this European Certification for Informatics Professionals course worth doing and what are oppertunities after this

Im interest in computers so not sure what course to do



Thanks

Noel

axer

It depends firstly what area you want to go into: networks, pc repair, database, software engineering, etc etc

Secondly it depends on how much knowledge you have in IT at the moment.

Would you not self study the CCNA? I did a course in it a few years back. It was the biggest load of crap and they definitely did not teach enough to pass the exam. I started self studying for it about 3/4 months back and have passed it since. Could have just been bad teachers but look into self study if you do not have to do a course and have some self control.

The CCNA gives you a good understanding of networking so if thats the field you want to improve your skills in then do that.

noel123ie

Hi Axer

Ive done the cert and diploma but my experience is limited I currently work in a call centre

I would like to work in IT department in suppoty or else teach

Cork Institute of Technology do a good course in CCNA which comes recommended from people who have done this

They said that doing the CCNA would be difficult as I would need to have routers etc set up to help me understand material/

What other courses have you done did you find these beneficial


What is your current role

Thanks for help
Noel

Ginger

If you are going down the support route.. you could have a look at the Microsoft Vista support route...

Starts with MCTS: Vista (exam 70-620) and its quite easy

Then you can look at either of the Professional level exams which are the MCITP: Consumer Support Technician or MCITP: Enterprise Support Technician

All can be done through self study, use of virtual machines and online resources and wont require a course.

I would see the CCNA as more of a system admin role rather than support.

noel123ie

Hi there

This sounds stupid but what would a role as sys administrator differ from that of support?

I thought these were the same?

Also is there an MCSA available in Vista

I was thinking of MCSA/MCSE - what in your opinion is value of these
Thanks for help
Noel

axer

noel123ie wrote: »

Cork Institute of Technology do a good course in CCNA which comes recommended from people who have done this

That might not be a bad idea to do then.

noel123ie wrote: »

They said that doing the CCNA would be difficult as I would need to have routers etc set up to help me understand material/

You can get cheap routers on ebay for studying.

noel123ie wrote: »

What other courses have you done did you find these beneficial

Other than the CCNA, I have an MCP in vista and am currently studying server 2003 to get an MCSA.

noel123ie wrote: »

What is your current role

I work for myself atm but I will be looking for a network admin/support type of job in 2 months or so - so im trying to build some certs now.

noel123ie wrote: »

This sounds stupid but what would a role as sys administrator differ from that of support?

Support would be presumed as supporting the end users whereas admin would be more managing the infrastructure e.g. servers, switches, routers etc. Thats what I think it is so someone correct me if i'm wrong.

Maybe as Ginger said, if you want to do desktop support if might be a good idea to do the support mcps first and then if you want to go deeper you could do the likes of the CCNA etc.

axer

noel123ie wrote: »

Also is there an MCSA available in Vista

Yes, vista (70-620) can be used as the client exam for the MCSA. I am putting it with the 70-290 (server 2003), 70-291 (server 2003) and 70-236 (exhange) to achieve an MCSA.

noel123ie wrote: »

I was thinking of MCSA/MCSE - what in your opinion is value of these

I presume they would only be any help when applying for jobs - many list of MCSA etc in their requirements. After that it is experience that is needed.

Ginger

In some companies there is no difference between the system admin and support. They are a just do all and any task that involves infrastructure

Others, have defined support and system admin people.

Support sort day to day issues of clients/customers/staff and go up a couple of levels such as Level 1 to 3 for example. These tend to be more client facing and deal with common issues that tend to bother users.

Whereas sys admin people do things like server maintainence, network design and implementation etc, management of the network and other such things. They tend to have less to do with "simple" client problems and deal with more things such as connectivity, DHCP, DNS and that sort of level.

Depends on what the role is defined as..

I rate the MCSA/MCSE as very handy for getting into Windows based system admin. I think that an MCSE coupled with CCNA are a more well rounded system/network admin type than just the single vendor as they understand a lot more of the needs of both parts of the systems.

Which role are you looking at .. is it Support

noel123ie

axer wrote: »

Yes, vista (70-620) can be used as the client exam for the MCSA. I am putting it with the 70-290 (server 2003), 70-291 (server 2003) and 70-236 (exhange) to achieve an MCSA..

oh can you mix mcps?

I presume they would only be any help when applying for jobs - many list of MCSA etc in their requirements. After that it is experience that is needed.

so mix of mcps and ccna would be good to get a sys admin job?

Thanks a mill
Noel

noel123ie

Ginger wrote: »

In some companies there is no difference between the system admin and support. They are a just do all and any task that involves infrastructure

Others, have defined support and system admin people.

Support sort day to day issues of clients/customers/staff and go up a couple of levels such as Level 1 to 3 for example. These tend to be more client facing and deal with common issues that tend to bother users.

Whereas sys admin people do things like server maintainence, network design and implementation etc, management of the network and other such things. They tend to have less to do with "simple" client problems and deal with more things such as connectivity, DHCP, DNS and that sort of level.

Depends on what the role is defined as..

I rate the MCSA/MCSE as very handy for getting into Windows based system admin. I think that an MCSE coupled with CCNA are a more well rounded system/network admin type than just the single vendor as they understand a lot more of the needs of both parts of the systems.

Which role are you looking at .. is it Support

I would like a sys admin jod ideally but anwhere but here for a start!

What courses would you recommend we doing over the next year?

Thanks for help
Noel

Ginger

Its not really mixing MCPs, its just using different exams to make up the cert.

If you follow axers example, he will end up with the following

70-620 .. MCTS
70-290.. MCP
70-291 ..nothing
70-236.. MCSA as all 4 exams put together make the MCSA.. so from those 4 exams he will have 3 certifications.

axer

MCSA or MCSE with CCNA would give a good advantage I would think (at least I hope).

MCSA requirements
MCSE requirements

Ginger

noel123ie wrote: »

I would like a sys admin jod ideally but anwhere but here for a start!

What courses would you recommend we doing over the next year?

Thanks for help
Noel

Are you a course person or are you the type that can self study?

Self study requires more discipline and the ability to research any topic you dont fully understand. The upside is that it is usually a lot cheaper and lot more flexible to your time as you do it when you can/want rather than when you have to

I personally am better at the self study route as I dont usually have the patience after a day of work to sit in a classroom and be switched on while someone reads to me.

noel123ie

Id be better in classroom but all the companies that do these courses are profit based in Cork( No government body runs these) so they just throw the information at you http://www.pfh.ie/ and is very expensive

So may have to go the other qoute

Noel

Ginger

FAS does an MCSA course IIRC..

And that is funded so you dont pay as much

noel123ie

sorry ginger whats IIRC?

Thanks
Noel

Ginger

Sorry .. IIRC is if i recall/remember correctly

noel123ie

Sorry still dont get this on fas site now...

can you send link that would be great

Noel

axer

There are (were at least) 70% subsidised IT courses i.e. you only pay 30% of the course cost - fas pay the rest. Do a search for them in cork. I think the PFH group do them.

Ginger

Linky: http://jobbank.fas.ie/cdp/cdpProgrammeDetail.asp?Param=3896

Unfortunately that is for Galway... the original link was part of the One Step Up program. Ring your local FAS office about.. for some reason, when i try to get to the existing one I used before its asking for as username and password

Here is the original link http://www.fas.ie/en/Employer/One+Step+Up/One+Step+Up+Programmes+Listing/IT/MCSE.htm

noel123ie

thanks a mill for that

it really helped me

Noel

noel123ie

Hi there

Was looking into this course as a starting point

http://www.cit.ie/parttime.cfm/section/details/id/89/nkey/3//action/page/aID/188/CatName/Courses.html

Has a bit of everything

What ye think

Thanks
Noel

Ginger

If its funded its a nice course (it will only be 360€!)

You will only be able to sit the Server+ exam rather than going for the higher Cisco stuff. Its a nice stepping stone anyways, but you will probably need to supplement it with the A+ and/or possibly another vendor specific cert depending on the area you want to get into.

I would say it would set you up for a junior sys admin role quite nicely or 2nd level support.

Some of the folks here who are more into that line of work will be able to advise more..

Mod: Aidan could you split this off into a new thread .. might make it easier to read and also to get a response.

noel123ie

Hi there

I was thinking of

Exam 70-290
Review the preparation guide for Exam 70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment

Exam 70-291
Review the preparation guide for Exam 70-291: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure

Exam 70-620
Review the preparation guide for Exam 70-620: TS: Windows Vista, Configuring

Also doing Security + as an elective

What would you think of this does it really matter what mcps you do?


Or should I do the new 2008 Microsoft certification?


Thanks
Noel

Ginger

I dont it matters too much unless you are going into an Exchange job role and they expect Exchange. That is why they changed it, so people would have the same exams for the same qualifications rather than a mix and match of them under the same name..

Personally I think this is a harder way to earn your MCSA unless you are looking at the Security Spec which means you will need another one

noel123ie

Hi there,

Thanks a mill.

Ya Ill probablty follow the route posted earlier on the forum.

Id hope to move from here and study as I go to desktop rule.

However if I do MCDST - Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician none of these mcps count towards MCSA/ MCITP.This would be microsoft entry qualification.

I understand my experience is in level 1 but seems a waste doing these as these can not be built upon

Am I better starting on 70-620 ( Vista) and going from there?

Thanks
Noel

Ginger

That is one of the reasons that I propose to people to get the Vista MCTS.. Besides the fact its not an overally difficult qualification, it allows you to use it for the MCSA, MCSE, MCITP Consumer Support Tech, MCITP Enterprise Tech and MCITP Enterprise Administrator certs as well..

So its a good one to have and then work from there based on your timeframes and your requirements

noel123ie

Hi there


I actually got the books for this at weekend on amazon.

What other materials did you use for preparing for this?

Thanks
Noel