The CCNA qualification is the usual starting point for all Cisco training. With it, you’ll learn how to operate on the maintenance and installation of routers. The internet is made up of many routers, and many large organisations who have various regional departments rely on them to allow their networks to keep in touch.
To take this course, you should be clear on the operation and function of computer networks, as networks are connected to routers. Otherwise, you’ll probably struggle. You might first take a course in the basics (CompTIA Network+ as an example – maybe with the A+ as well) and then do a CCNA course. Some companies will design a bespoke package for you.
Should this be your first introduction to routers, then working up to and including the CCNA is definitely sufficient – avoid being talked into doing a CCNP. With a few years experience behind you, you will have a feel for if it’s appropriate for you to go to the level of CCNP.
One area often overlooked by new students considering a training program is the concept of ‘training segmentation’. Basically, this means the breakdown of the materials for timed release to you, which vastly changes where you end up.
Many companies enrol you into a program spread over 1-3 years, and send out each piece as you pass each exam. On the surface this seems reasonable – until you consider the following:
What if you don’t finish all the sections or exams? Maybe the prescribed order won’t suit you? Due to no fault of yours, you may go a little slower and therefore not end up with all the modules.
To avoid any potential future issues, it’s normal for most trainees to have all their training materials (which they’ve now paid for) delivered immediately, and not in stages. It’s then up to you in which order and at what speed you want to work.
Kick out a salesman who recommends a training program without performing a ‘fact-find’ to assess your abilities plus your level of experience. Always check they have access to a wide-enough stable of training programs from which they could give you an appropriate solution.
Quite often, the training inception point for a student with a little experience is often hugely dissimilar to the student with none.
If this is going to be your first attempt at an IT exam then you may want to practice with some basic Microsoft package and Windows skills first.
Often, individuals don’t catch on to what information technology means. It is stimulating, innovative, and means you’re doing your bit in the gigantic wave of technology affecting everyones lives in the 21st century.
We’re barely beginning to get a handle on what this change will mean to us. The way we correlate with the world as a whole will be inordinately affected by computers and the internet.
The standard IT professional over this country as a whole can demonstrate that they get a lot more money than fellow workers outside of IT. Standard IT incomes are hard to beat nationally.
As the IT industry keeps growing year on year, it’s predictable that demand for professionally qualified and skilled IT workers will continue to boom for quite some time to come.
Students who consider this area of study are usually quite practically-minded, and aren’t really suited to the classroom environment, and struggling through thick study-volumes. If you’re thinking this sounds like you, go for more modern interactive training, with on-screen demonstrations and labs.
Research into the way we learn shows that long term memory is improved when we use all our senses, and we get physically involved with the study process.
The latest audio-visual interactive programs with demonstrations and practice sessions will turn you off book-based study for ever more. And they’re far more fun.
It’s very important to see courseware examples from any company that you may want to train through. It’s essential they incorporate full motion videos of instructors demonstrating the topic with lab’s to practice the skills in.
Avoid training that is purely online. Ideally, you should opt for CD and DVD ROM courseware where offered, as you need to be able to use them whenever it’s convenient for you – you don’t want to be reliant on a good broadband connection all the time.
(C) 2009 Scott Edwards. Pop over to www.ciscoccna4.co.uk or HERE.
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