Cisco CCNA Networking Training – Options
December 6th, 2009 | by Jason Kendall |If you’re looking for Cisco training but you have no experience with routers, what you need is CCNA. This training program has been put together to teach people with a working knowledge of routers. Big organisations that have different locations rely on routers to join up their various different networks of computers to allow their networks to keep in touch. The Internet also is made up of hundreds of thousands of routers.
It’s important to have an understanding of the operation and function of computer networks, because computer networks are joined to routers. If not, it’s likely you’ll run into difficulties. We’d recommend you first take a course in the basics – perhaps Network+ and A+, before you start a CCNA course. You may find training companies will put such a package together for you.
Getting your Cisco CCNA is where you should be aiming; don’t be cajoled into attempting your CCNP. With experience, you can decide whether you need to train up to this level. If so, your experience will serve as the background you require to take on your CCNP – as it’s a very complex course – and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Have a conversation with any specialised consultant and they can normally tell you many awful tales of students who’ve been conned by dodgy salespeople. Ensure you only ever work with an industry professional who asks lots of questions to discover the most appropriate thing for you – not for their wallet! You need to find a starting-point that will suit you.
Occasionally, the training inception point for a trainee with experience will be hugely dissimilar to someone without.
If you’re a new trainee embarking on IT studies as a new venture, it can be useful to start out slowly, beginning with user-skills and software training first. Usually this is packaged with any educational course.
Now, why might we choose commercially accredited qualifications instead of familiar academic qualifications obtained from tech’ colleges and universities?
With 3 and 4 year academic degree costs becoming a tall order for many, together with the IT sector’s increasing awareness that vendor-based training is closer to the mark commercially, we’ve seen a big surge in CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA based training paths that supply key solutions to a student at a fraction of the cost and time involved.
Essentially, the learning just focuses on what’s actually required. It’s not quite as straightforward as that, but the principle remains that students need to concentrate on the fundamentally important skill-sets (along with a certain amount of crucial background) – without trying to cram in every other area (as academia often does).
Just like the advert used to say: ‘It does what it says on the label’. Employers simply need to know what they need doing, and then advertise for someone with the specific certification. Then they know that anyone who applies can do the necessary work.
Don’t accept anything less than an accredited exam preparation programme included in the package you choose.
Ensure that the mock exams aren’t just asking you the right questions on the correct subjects, but additionally ask them in the way that the actual final exam will formulate them. This really messes up people if they’re faced with unrecognisable phrases and formats.
‘Mock’ or practice exams are enormously valuable in helping you build your confidence – so that when you come to take the real thing, you will be much more relaxed.
The way in which your courseware is broken down for you is often missed by many students. How many parts is the training broken down into? What is the order and how fast does each element come?
Students often think it makes sense (with training often lasting 2 or 3 years to achieve full certification,) that a training provider will issue the courseware in stages, as you achieve each exam pass. But:
What would happen if you didn’t finish every module at the required speed? And maybe you’ll find their order of completion doesn’t come as naturally as an alternative path could be.
For future safety and flexibility, many trainees now want to insist that all study materials are delivered immediately, and not in stages. That means it’s down to you how fast or slow and in what order you’d like to take your exams.
(C) Jason Kendall. Try LearningLolly.com for excellent career advice on Cisco CCNA and Cisco Training.
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