Software application development
This blog is intended to provoke discussion and exchange between like minded software application developers, engineers, architects, project managers - and keen hobbyists too.
Wednesday 5 November 2008, 8:21 AM
UK IT training: does it make the grade?
I say "we" because my better half, who has been a software engineer for more than a decade, will be sent in deep undercover (that's a joke OK?) to attend a course and dig as deeply as possible into this subject matter. I'm merely a would-be hack with the audacity to suggest that I might be able to help fashion a story around this topic.
So what factors should we consider? This is where I am looking for pre-report feedback please guys.
#1 Although Teresa has over a decade of programming experience, her Java years amount to only around half of this time. So will the course (Java Programming Language) which she has specifically selected, be pitched at the correct level?
#2 Will the course provide the necessary level of tuition to gain the Sun Certified Programmer for Java examination professional certification (this should be a ‘no brainer’ of course).
#3 When we attended Sun's JavaOne event last year one particular session was billed as an all-singing, all-dancing hour of everything you ever wanted to know about Java but were too afraid to ask. It wasn't of course - and the presenter even told the audience that he had deliberately put every buzzword in the title he could think of to draw the crowds in. Will the UK's training programme be pitched and delivered at a more realistic level and pace?
In search of some professional comment on what you should look for in a training programme I thought I'd extend the nepotism theme; if I am going to use my wife as a mole then why not use my brother-in-law Neil Tune (as he's an HR director) as a spokesperson?
According to Neil, “Getting value from an IT training course is no different from getting value from any training programme. First of all you need to be clear why you need to attend a training programme; to learn a new skill to for your role, to refresh & update yourself on changes, or to prepare for a new project or role in the future etc. Secondly, you can then try & identify courses that meet your need, make sure the course has clearly stated objectives & sufficient detail on the topics it will cover; also make sure that it is a provider that you can trust and whether your organisation has used them before. Thirdly, during the course you should not be afraid to ask questions & ensure the topics you want covered are covered - after all you are the customer. Finally you should make a note of your key learnings and plan how you will transfer to your role."
Thanks Neil – “key learnings” as a plural huh? Spoken like a true HR specialist!
Anyway Sun, for their part, say that upon completion of this course, students should be able to: create Java technology applications that leverage the object-oriented features of the Java language, such as encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism, create multithreaded programs and among a list of other skills, be able to create an event-driven graphical user interface (GUI) using Swing components: panels, buttons, labels, text fields and text areas.
Camberley in Surrey will be the location for this training programme and I’m already looking forward to being involved with it.
PreviousComments on this post
Well I hope Theresa enjoyed the course, even if it was about java.
I have been a Microsoft 'guy' for many years. I really don't see that changing anytime soon. Over the years I have taken various exams from the early WOSSA's to the more recent Visual Studio exams. For this I have done a mixture of training types. From classroom based, to online to good old book graft.
What exactly was I training to do? Easy, pass an exam. Thing is, those exams get retired as newer, better, faster comes along. This is an argument I have had with a fellow professional for some years and we have now both swapped sides of the table. He has become a solutions professional, me I am working from the side of experience and referral.
Most training, is aimed at one particular thing, and that is to pass an exam. Resultantly, in order to pass an exam you are given questions and in many cases a number of potentially suitable answers are provided. The good old, multi-guess. Except, most questions have a wrong answer, a potentially correct answer, a correct answer and a vendor correct answer. Or am I being a little too cynical here?
You see, the vendor correct answer, will likely get you the most points, and speed you on your way to that certification that will last you a couple of years. Yet the danger is that in pursuit of this certification, we forget the one important factor for which we would not be doing this training at all, the customer.
Does the customer really care if you have an MZXS Certification, or does he care that you know enough to get his email working properly? Does that JVBB certification help you enough to solve the customers CRM issue at 4:50pm on a Friday afternoon? Maybe it does.
Worldwide, there are many companies whose sole business is to help you pass exams. In fact a friend of mine went to India and had a superb week passed his MCSD, yet he knows well that he wouldn't really want to be tested in front of a customer. These companies, in my opinion, have diluted the value of certification to the point that experience and referral are better alternatives.
Some true words spoken there my friend.
We all know the value of O-level Geography studies detailing pig farming in Denmark in our normal day to day lives and the same worth can potentially be argued all the way to professional exams.
Tell you what though, our trainer was a great guy and definitely not in the "those who can do - do .... and those that can't - teach" bracket. He was an ex-dev and knew his onions. You can't get away with being a dope in front of a bunch of hungry techies.
AdrianB
