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paddyfrog

paddyfrog

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Bruno
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My son wants to study CCNA routing and switching, the OU offers this course over an 8 months duration, but he is looking for a shorter alternative (full time or online) with a reliable source amongst so many providers. He is open to suggestions/advice
Thank you
 
i thought for a minute someone was gonna jump out and shout HEY PANCHO .

to qualify for this you must have had a 12 inch screen black and white telly in the 1950's HEY CISCO -HEY PANCHO no cisco kid ing :LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
We've used QA before and they have always been excellent https://www.qa.com/ . We've only ever done courses up to 5 days however so not sure if they do the course you want.

As an aside, I would just add this, when I recruit for our IT roles, Cisco qualifications seem to be the new MCSE ones, and by that I mean lots of people doing them without any practical experience. I don't know your son's experience or if he is working currently, but if he is not I would suggest trying to get an apprenticeship first if a full-time role is hard to come by where he might get a chance to use some it when dong the course.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do, I'm just saying it will likely be far more useful if done in conjunction with some practical experience, though of course this is not always feasible.

Good luck.
 
Hi Al
Thank you for the advice I will pass it onto him, I know that he has done a few placements in general networking and server maintenance.
 
Qa are excellent, but expect £2500 plus per weeks training. You can do it yourself, plus get a years access to the virtual labs. Plenty of options on the Cisco training website
 
I'm told virtual labs are no substitute for physical kit (certainly when I looked the virtual software was a bit hit and miss). Hardware for training labs often comes up on auction sites.

I would add though, what is your son hoping to achieve as an end result? Role in Cisco specialised networking? Or something more generic support wise?
 
Byker28i said:
Qa are excellent, but expect £2500 plus per weeks training. You can do it yourself, plus get a years access to the virtual labs. Plenty of options on the Cisco training website
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Good point, sorry Bruno I did neglect to mention the price.

I also forgot to mention these people our dev team use them and think tey are good for online learning, they seem to do Cisco also, though none of my team have done. A lot cheaper looks like £25\40 a month. https://www.pluralsight.com/search?q=cisco&categories=all
 
I must confess to a certain bias (as you'll guess from my username), but he might find this of use:

http://www.btplc.com/Careercentre/Ourlocations/UK/Apprenticeships/index.htm

We have lots of Cisco qualified techies. If he gets an IT apprenticeship, they'll put him through CCNA - from experience, I'd be looking at Security courses, not R&S so much.
There's no question that Security is the technology to be in at the moment. Good contractors can write their own pay-check pretty-much at the moment.

One final point I would make - and I speak from experience - is to echo the comments above about gaining hands-on experience. You can pass CCNA by reading a couple of books and watching a few videos (CBT Nuggets, for example). But it won;t prepare you for a real-worled network role.

Good luck to him, though. After 38 years of datacomms/IT working, I'm at the wrong-end, and it's hard to not be a grumpy old git at times. But I do work with several modern apprentices & uni. grads and there's still plenty of opportunities in the industry.
 
Honestly, for the CCNA self study is the best option.

Get an INE sub, use that for videos.

Buy him a student / personal license of Cisco VIRL software, its as good as real kit for CCNA.

Definitely still a good career choice though... lots of work out there and CCNA / support roles offer a good foot in to the industry.

If you want anymore advice just give me a shout, I've been involved in all things networking and Cisco for around 15 years now.
 
akr said:
As an aside, I would just add this, when I recruit for our IT roles, Cisco qualifications seem to be the new MCSE ones, and by that I mean lots of people doing them without any practical experience. I don't know your son's experience or if he is working currently, but if he is not I would suggest trying to get an apprenticeship first if a full-time role is hard to come by where he might get a chance to use some it when dong the course.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do, I'm just saying it will likely be far more useful if done in conjunction with some practical experience, though of course this is not always feasible.
Click to expand...

This for me. It's no good just splashing out thousands for a paper certificate if there is no real experience...
 
paddyfrog said:
My son wants to study CCNA routing and switching, the OU offers this course over an 8 months duration, but he is looking for a shorter alternative (full time or online) with a reliable source amongst so many providers. He is open to suggestions/advice
Thank you
Click to expand...

Bit far but hear get great reviews and know I few people have done there CCNA there. I did mine you can stay local or work remote

http://commsupportnetworks.co.uk
 
I will say Cisco has been massive in IT for years and can only get bigger, my organisation cannot get enough contractors for networking roles.

£400/day is easilly achievable
 
I've been a software engineer working on the operating systems of carrier class core and edge routers for the last 8 years or so and so don't have any experience from the field but do think there are plenty of exciting times ahead in networking, definitely in the large service provider and massive web / data center areas.
 
OrangeCanon said:
Honestly, for the CCNA self study is the best option.

Get an INE sub, use that for videos.

Buy him a student / personal license of Cisco VIRL software, its as good as real kit for CCNA.

Definitely still a good career choice though... lots of work out there and CCNA / support roles offer a good foot in to the industry.

If you want anymore advice just give me a shout, I've been involved in all things networking and Cisco for around 15 years now.
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Hey. It's the aforementioned son. Thank you for the suggestion and offer of further advice, I will probably send you a PM in the next few days. Self-study was never really an option I had thought of so I will definitely give it a look. The only problem I would have with self-study is finding it difficult to have some sort of study structure. Do CISCO have their own structured learning materials?

Is there an average length of time it should take to study to be exam ready? Obviously being dependent on the individual person and amount of time spent studying but, a rough estimate?

I would like to eventually go on to security and I know that the exam requires a requisite of either CCENT or CCNA routing and switching. I have heard that if you have a little bit of know-how, that going straight into CCNA shouldn't be a problem. Would you recommend starting with CCENT?.

Thanks again and thank you to everyone who posted great advice and comments!.
 
If, as seems the case, you have no prior experience, I would say starting with CCENT will be easier.

I'm not fully up to speed with the latest Certifications, but I think CCNA can currently be completed as a single exam or as the 2 ICND (1 & 2) exams. I'm not sure if CCENT is equivalent to ICND1.

Based on the CBT Nuggets videos that I have seen, you'd be looking at around 50 hours study time, plus any additional reading, for ICND1 and the same, with possibly more reading, for ICND2.
 
The CCNA exam is really aimed at those who already have the CCNA qualification and need to redo the exam to keep it active.
For new students Cisco advise the CCENT 1 then 2 to be the way to gain the CCNA.
Once you have the CCNA you will need to keep doing exams to keep the qualifications active. Any more advanced exams would cover the requirement or if not then the CCNA exam again.

The CCENT can be done with self study. If you get one of the official Cisco books they generally come with simulation software which will cover enough for the CCENT 1 + 2.
Create a 'Cisco Learning' account and you can subscribe to their library of videos/articles, and just as importantly get access to the Cisco virtual labs along with tutorials.

You can buy some kit on places like Ebay if you want to get hands on but be aware of the software revisions available on those devices as the old kit won't do some of the stuff required. Good to practice with though, if a little noisy :)
 
PaulF said:
The CCNA exam is really aimed at those who already have the CCNA qualification and need to redo the exam to keep it active.
For new students Cisco advise the CCENT 1 then 2 to be the way to gain the CCNA.
Click to expand...
Putting my cynical hat on for 5 minutes..... If they can get you to pay for 2 exams as opposed to one, of course they recommend doing 2. ;)
 
BT Bob said:
Putting my cynical hat on for 5 minutes..... If they can get you to pay for 2 exams as opposed to one, of course they recommend doing 2. ;)
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Maybe, in the ideal Cisco world you'd do the CCENT 1 then the 2nd 6 months later while working as a junior network engineer gaining experience.
 
And that too me is the keyword; experience. Just like the thousands of paper mcse. Only had the conversation today where a qualified person asked me how the hell I knew that it would be he issue. Plain and simple; experience. Been there done it, talk and engage with people who do it and work yourself up with good grounding.

But I guess many roads lead to Rome.
 
paddyfrog said:
Hey. It's the aforementioned son. Thank you for the suggestion and offer of further advice, I will probably send you a PM in the next few days. Self-study was never really an option I had thought of so I will definitely give it a look. The only problem I would have with self-study is finding it difficult to have some sort of study structure. Do CISCO have their own structured learning materials?

Is there an average length of time it should take to study to be exam ready? Obviously being dependent on the individual person and amount of time spent studying but, a rough estimate?

I would like to eventually go on to security and I know that the exam requires a requisite of either CCENT or CCNA routing and switching. I have heard that if you have a little bit of know-how, that going straight into CCNA shouldn't be a problem. Would you recommend starting with CCENT?.

Thanks again and thank you to everyone who posted great advice and comments!.
Click to expand...

I would suggest getting some videos and spending 10-15 hours watching these and making notes. Depending on how the information sinks in, this will tell you if self study is a good fit for you.

I've used self study all the way throughout the Cisco exam track.

I would suggest CCENT if you are completely fresh to networking. The CCNA exam is not easy. In fact I'd position it above the CCNP level exams in terms of difficulty due to the breadth of subjects.
 
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