Express IT Course (Sydney)

GreatPig

GreatPig

Anyone familiar with the IT courses offered by Express IT?

One of the kids is considering doing their course and I don't know anything about them. Apparently it costs about $5K up-front for a 4 month course but they supposedly guarantee a job shortly afterwards.

Anyone have any experiences with them, or heard of any experiences? Are they worth $5K, and is the job guarantee of any value?

Thanks.

GP
 
I'm surprised that they can guarantee jobs in this climate. I wonder what form the guarantee takes? There are few IT guys on this forum. They would give useful feedback on the job prospects for people coming out of that course.
Scott
 
You cant learn much about "IT" (very broad term) in 4 months.
You can get a job in IT without study, or you can go to Uni and learn a subject very in depth.
The middle road is to go to Tafe and study for 1-2 years for very little money.

I dont trust any expensive express courses and I'd bet my life the job they'd get you into is an $10 an hour junior tech support or the like position - something you can easily get without studying.
 
They teach courses which result in real industry certification which is a very valuable foot in the door... they do charge a bit for the privilege, but that's to be expected.

However the job part of the equation that I don't like. It generally covers a 3 month agreement in which they will provide resources (fax machine, phone, internet, "assistance") for a job seeker to get a job. If a student doesn't get a job within that time, there will be a refund or other clause to compensate them.

Here's the catch.. the "job" itself isn't quantified. I did one of these courses as a graduate and I saw several of my colleagues take jobs in retail or education afterwards having given up on actually changing industries because they were sick of fighting for helpdesk positions.

I guess the problem is that they romanticise the idea of leaving your current career and getting into a well-paid IT job. The ground level IT jobs just aren't glamorous - they're 25K helpdesk jobs and there's nothing wrong with that. A lot of the positions were casual or contract, as well. People just found that the glamour of the industry had dried up when they realised that their guaranteed job panned out as a 3 month contract doing helpdesk work for a government department. The company has fulfilled their part of the deal and you're now on your own.

These people paid about 1.5 times that $5K fee, though, so you can imagine their frustration.
 
GreatPig said:
Thanks, folks. I'll suggest to him that he investigates more options.

Cheers,
GP
Click to expand...

TAFE would be his best option, will gain more technical experience. I can tell ya that at the time I was at TAFE we had allot of these express courses & UNI graduated students attending at TAFE just to gain more technical knowledge.

Also the last year of the Diploma stage a 2 week industry experience is required to obtain the Diploma, very handy & a good start to get your foot into the IT world.



Cheers
George
 
I think DiData offers something similar, but the future employer pays the cost of the training for the graduate. My friend did it recently and got a job reasonably quick, he just has to stay there for 1 year and the course costs nothing..

2 years of tafe is a long time. I personally would recommend getting the basics from somewhere like DiData/Excom/ExpressIT and getting your foot in the door and going from there. You learn alot more on the job and get paid to boot. I have trained at Excom and DiData and can recommend either, haven't heard much about expressIT.

I started in IT 8 years ago after a DiData course to get my foot in the door. I did Tafe for 2 years while in school (Diploma of Information Technology) and it was a waste of time in my opionion, it is very slow paced and didn't learn alot.
 
Further to what natecv8 has said - it will get him a basic IT helpdesk/desktop support job but if he knows his stuff and continues to study he will be on his way in no time. But its a hard(ish) slog a times but worth it. 25k sounds a bit low, I was on 35k for my first role and that was just after the tech wreck as well.
 
About 8 years ago, I did a TAFE traineeship, it was a 12 month course, and gave me on the job and technical training, its pretty much like an apprenticeship, just in IT.

This was great, it gave me the quals I needed as well as 12 months experience, I was very employable after that stage.

The bonus was I also got paid while I was training, sure it was only $250 a week, but that was enough considering I didnt pay for the course.
 
If TAFE courses are the way to go, are there any in particular that should be avoided and are just pretty much a waste of time offering no real experience/skills needed for the industry?

For example, the completion of a cert 3 in IT Networking isn't really all the desirable in the employable world as it offers little work experience.

Would the best thing to do, after having say completed this certificate, be to go to an express IT course?

And how did the tafe traineeship come about? was it application based? Because the knowledge and certificate gained from the TAFE cert 3 isn't even really desirable to employers of help desk IT jobs.


It would be very much appreciated if I could get some help.

I have read all the other posts about the express IT course, and am just a little stuck on what to do.

Thankyou. :)
 
Recently I advertised for a junior building manager. TAFE, etc..

No luck, but heaps of 20 to 30 year olds with IT courses willing to work for nothing. Many immigrants. Sad I thought but no good for me.

Personally those I know who are good at IT were Geeks in School and skilled at 18. Consider another career.

Peter
 
I've been in IT since the 80's. That's the 1980's, not the 1880's (before anyone makes a smart comment).
There used to be the Computer Power training institute, which later changed its name to something else. Now, Express IT. Not sure if they are related, but all offered quick and expensive IT courses.
I've employed people from these outfits in the past. Had to let them go soon after. They are just not up to standard, in my opinion.
Many of the jobs thjey get you into are basic, first level support jobs ie. Helpdesk. Not that there's anything wrong with such a role, but it's sure not the job they show in the glossy brochure.
They don't pay very well and have a high turnover rate.
There are better options for those serious about a career in IT. A TAFE course being one of many.
 
I would suggest Uni if you want to get into coding, application design, etc.
TAFE is good as you can work while doing it, it's more practical and infrastructure oriented, good practical skills for an entry level position.
ExpressIT and other 4/6 month courses, these will cost $$$ and still only gives you skills for entry level positions so you need the couple of years work experience at low pay before you can start moving up the pay scale.

Places like DiData will charge $3k - $5k for 1 week of training, heaps of courses to pick from.
On the other hand check out Amazon for self study books, $50 - $500 depending on single book or box of books. Which give you 90% of what you need to pass an exam which gives you a nice little bit of paper that's helps get your foot in the door.
Check out Microsoft, Novell, RedHat, Cisco, Citrix, Oracle, etc websites to see what certificates they offer, which will give you some idea what to study for.

Have a look on the net at cram sessions, study guides these sites can show you what is popular and which certifications IT guys are going for.

Have a look on Seek in the IT section to see the different kinds of jobs on offer, most of the easy to fill jobs don't show up.

Cheers
Graeme
 
yep TAFE is the way to go. Cheap and gives you some nice qualifications and experience to start off in IT. Worked for me :)
 
This is the quality of what they produce, http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=h...(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0
own site 597 serious errors on the first page
code errors fail to display in heaps ( 37 of 47 failed to display anything ) of browsers http://browsershots.org/http://www.expressit.edu.au/

It is conveivable(likely) that they employ staff trained to their standard, not good,

configuring xp prof ... outdated, windows 7 ... useless
implement an MS2003 network, outdated ,ms server 2008, few run MS server, and MS supplies tech support for that ... useless
managing ms server 2003 ... ditto above
there is nothing in the course docs that provides any likelihood of employment higher than tealady
 
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