I realise that only a few of you will be qualified to give an opinion.
I am studying a Diploma of Software Development at Computer Power Institute through Holmesglen TAFE. It's a year of full time study. (Before the business, I had been in IT for many years, but had been out of it for eight years. I realised when I started doing some units that I still really enjoyed the IT work, unlike running the business).
The course is very practical, and is very heavily Microsoft. (I have done a few units at the local TAFE to add some balance- three units of Java andone of php). It covers a number of programming subjects (C#, VB.Net, Access, ASP.Net, WPF) as well as subjects like database design, SQL, testing, analysis and project management.
I've been doing well on it so far. I'm doing it remotely, and all the assessments have consisted of assignments.
Now I'm doing a unit which optionally carries a Microsoft certification (MCTS in Windows Development). I know that the certification would be a useful thing to have, but I'm not sure how much.
The certification is for C# (or could have been VB.Net), with a heavy emphasis of XAML & WPF. I'm finding that's pretty heavy stuff- my impression is that it's going very much away from easy to use in order to go towards the very powerful. It's heavy going- and it makes it worse that there's not a lot written, and the books that I have so far can be very difficult to understand.
The certification leans towards knowing a lot of things by rote. In the real world, I feel that I wouldn't have needed to do have memorised a lot of details in that way, especially in some of the areas which may not be used much in real life. That's what manuals are for.
I suspect that the certification could add a month or two to the completion time for my diploma. I'm inclined to either drop the certification altogether, or wait until I have the diploma before doing the cert.
Would any of you IT people have any input on this please?
I am studying a Diploma of Software Development at Computer Power Institute through Holmesglen TAFE. It's a year of full time study. (Before the business, I had been in IT for many years, but had been out of it for eight years. I realised when I started doing some units that I still really enjoyed the IT work, unlike running the business).
The course is very practical, and is very heavily Microsoft. (I have done a few units at the local TAFE to add some balance- three units of Java andone of php). It covers a number of programming subjects (C#, VB.Net, Access, ASP.Net, WPF) as well as subjects like database design, SQL, testing, analysis and project management.
I've been doing well on it so far. I'm doing it remotely, and all the assessments have consisted of assignments.
Now I'm doing a unit which optionally carries a Microsoft certification (MCTS in Windows Development). I know that the certification would be a useful thing to have, but I'm not sure how much.
The certification is for C# (or could have been VB.Net), with a heavy emphasis of XAML & WPF. I'm finding that's pretty heavy stuff- my impression is that it's going very much away from easy to use in order to go towards the very powerful. It's heavy going- and it makes it worse that there's not a lot written, and the books that I have so far can be very difficult to understand.
The certification leans towards knowing a lot of things by rote. In the real world, I feel that I wouldn't have needed to do have memorised a lot of details in that way, especially in some of the areas which may not be used much in real life. That's what manuals are for.
I suspect that the certification could add a month or two to the completion time for my diploma. I'm inclined to either drop the certification altogether, or wait until I have the diploma before doing the cert.
Would any of you IT people have any input on this please?