Certification - December 2008 - (Page 40) degree, leaving significantly less free time available. The minimum credit load for most four-year degrees is 60 credits, with each credit taking roughly three hours of study time per week. However, some might feel that the loss of free time is offset by not losing any income, and students benefit from extra perks such as discounts on laptops and software. ing education in IT. One of the primary benefits of technical classes is that the cost of training typically is borne by the employer. Plus, classes usually occur during work hours, so you don’t have to use your personal time to complete the training. A one-week class generally runs about $3,000. Classes taught by staff instructors cost less, while those taught by a contract trainer tend to cost a little more. For instance, Inacom Information Systems in Madison, Wis., charges $2,250 for five days of Windows Server 2003 Active Directory training with staff instructors. A week of learning how to install and configure VMware Infrastructure 3.5 with a contract trainer costs $3,195. Then there are the certification exams. Tests commonly cost in the $100 to $300 range. Most Microsoft tests cost $125, while a VMware Certified Professional exam costs $175. signing Up for Technical Classes College is not for everyone. On top of which, going back to school might not be worth your time if you Employment of computer and information systems managers is expected to grow 16 percent between 2006 and 2016 — faster than average for all occupations. are happy in your current position and moving up to management gives you the heebie-jeebies. Some students rely on cost-benefit analyses to help decide if college is worth the effort. These analyses are useful not only in illuminating how much school costs, but also in deciphering the average amount of time a pay increase takes to break even with the cost of education. However, these kinds of analyses rarely account for the soft costs, such as the time lost to studying that could have been used to do other things, such as taking your child to a baseball game, going on a vacation or cultivating a friendship. It also misses the intangible perks such as respect from your peers and flexibility with career options. If college isn’t in the cards for you, ad-hoc, weeklong technical training classes may be the solution. Technical classes are the most common type of continu- The major drawback of technical training classes is the training usually meets the needs of the business, not necessarily a student’s personal training goals. For example, if you’re aspiring to be a Microsoft Exchange Server administrator, training for a new rollout could be very useful — but not if you’re hoping to become a storage area network administrator. In these situations, an employee will have to be motivated to cough up enough money and vacation time to get desired training. Even when training needs match up, the employee may have to spend his or her own money for a certification exam. The good news is, if the student passes, many Fortune 100 companies, companies with a large IT staff and consulting companies often offer reimbursement for the cost of the exam. However, some businesses, especially smaller ones, may be less interested in paying for certification tests if the certification brings value only to the employee. The business owner also might be con- 0 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE December 2008
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