In-Centre IT workshops are generally sold by many training providers as a positive. But they're a leftover relic in reality from the time when IT training courses came mainly from books and training manuals, and needed college back-up to be sure students understood everything. Modern training courses now incorporate state-of-the-art interactive instruction and testing, which leaves the books and in-centre brigade far behind.
As well as being part of an out-dated teaching system, there are many more hidden negatives with in-centre workshops. There can often be a lot of travelling required, as colleges can be miles away from students homes. This means spending hundreds of pounds on accommodation and petrol, as well as the often inflated course fees. An MCSE could well have 10 in-centre workshops, with at least one overnight stop each visit. Assuming you can't get cheaper than 40 pounds for petrol, 35 pounds for accommodation and 15 pounds for food - that's 90 pounds per trip, or close to a massive one thousand pounds for 10 trips!
It can often turn into a logistical nightmare trying to organise suitable dates - finding relevant workshops that are available and that fit in with your current job and family commitments (and happen to coincide with your study needs) can seem almost impossible at times. Workshops quickly fill up, so colleges end up either excluding people, or taking bigger numbers than is ideal.
Inevitably, group workshops will be a mix of different ability levels, which can lead to tension between those who want to go slower or faster. Often we feel awkward asking questions in front of other students, especially when we're not familiar with them. Questions don't get asked because we don't want to look stupid! Why go through that embarrassment when we can have video workshops and one-to-one live 24x7 support when we need it?
Students usually take holiday allowance from work rather than un-paid leave to attend workshops. It doesn't leave much time for holidays and family time if half the allowance or more is taken up with training, as most of us only have 20 days a year. That's assuming of course that your boss can accommodate those dates, and let you have the time off.
Most training companies provide Monday to Friday workshop availability, and typically group two to three days together. This can be a big chunk of time away from the job and home - especially if travelling time has to be the night before.
For many students it's also important to keep their training private. Most don't want to risk losing potential pay-rises and career advances in their current job, but keeping training a secret is difficult with five workshops to attend in a year. Bosses might feel a little different towards someone who they know is studying to get into a different industry.
It's also the case that many students jobs frequently take them away from home. This makes workshop time almost impossible - fitting time in for friends and family is challenging enough!
Watching and learning at your own convenience, from pre-filmed, one-to-one instructor lessons is so much more simple. When a question crops up, use your 24x7 live online support (which you should expect on technical career courses). You can watch again and re-learn modules as many times as you need to, until you've really grasped the lesson. There's no hassle, and no need for note taking, so you'll preserve time and money. By choosing interactive learning from the comfort of your PC you're also more likely to preserve your sanity.
Author Resource:
(C) 2009. Navigate to LearningLolly.com for logical advice on Anime Studio Pro 5 and Anime Studio Pro 5 Training .
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")