CompTIA A+ course worth doing ?

Irish Blood Hound

I recently completed the Java Associate Developer SE7 course through Ecollege (FAS) and I'm considering doing their COMPTIA A+ course . Is it worthwhile doing ? So far my only qualification is from the java course , would comptia be a good qualification to have alongside that ? Also where they say on Ecollege : "Learners will be entry-level computer technicians who will, by the end of studying this path and before taking the exam, have accumulated a recommended 500 hours hands-on experience in a lab or in the field." Are we meant to look for work experience and if so , where?

Krusader

Irish Blood Hound wrote: »

I recently completed the Java Associate Developer SE7 course through Ecollege (FAS) and I'm considering doing their COMPTIA A+ course . Is it worthwhile doing ? So far my only qualification is from the java course , would comptia be a good qualification to have alongside that ? Also where they say on Ecollege : "Learners will be entry-level computer technicians who will, by the end of studying this path and before taking the exam, have accumulated a recommended 500 hours hands-on experience in a lab or in the field." Are we meant to look for work experience and if so , where?

I think you need to decide what you want to do. Do you want to build, maintain and troubleshoot systems and networks or do you want to write code?

The 2 certs don't really compliment each other

L1011

Irish Blood Hound wrote: »

I recently completed the Java Associate Developer SE7 course through Ecollege (FAS) and I'm considering doing their COMPTIA A+ course . Is it worthwhile doing ? So far my only qualification is from the java course , would comptia be a good qualification to have alongside that ? Also where they say on Ecollege : "Learners will be entry-level computer technicians who will, by the end of studying this path and before taking the exam, have accumulated a recommended 500 hours hands-on experience in a lab or in the field." Are we meant to look for work experience and if so , where?

I would imagine that its absolutely worthless for what you intend to do. It is a very basic (albeit the questions are written in a pointlessly tricky manner, so its not actually that easy to pass without reading all the coursework) hardware focused course. You have a programming qualification. Chalk and cheese.

Borboletinha

What course or certificate would do if you wanted to write code? Also, would prince2 be a good certificate to get for a job? I was told it would by someone who works in IT. But the little research I did it seems to me that it is to do with priject management.
Im studying for a BA in business information systems. Would love to work in IT. Not building anything preferably. I love programming and databases (what little bit I know) Can someone let me know which certificates I should get that would help me get an entry position.

tawfeeredux

You could try a few of the free courses on Codeschool or Codeacademy just to get a feel for working with code. If you wanted something more advanced, including working with databases, you could look at Michael Hartl's Ruby on Rails tutorial.

If you want a certification, there's Microsoft MTA (look at the Developer or Database streams). The Microsoft certs obviously focus on their own frameworks & languages (.NET, C#, Visual Basic). I'm not sure about what certs are available for non-Microsoft languages.

You're right about the Prince course, it's project management.

Faolchu

if you prefer coding then teh a+ isnt for you. PRINCE2 is a project management certification track so again may not be what you need

frankpm

If you are interested in leading a development team, the I suggest you start with Scrum. Its a lot lighter than PRINCE2 and easier to start applying it. There are numerous certifications available (PSC, CSM, ..) and it is easy to find online study material (video, book). If you like the idea of Project Management, then you can study PRINCE2 (PRINCE2 Foundation)