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IT training courses can really turn lives around

EVERY NOW AND AGAIN, WHEN THINGS aren't going quite to plan and your computer chooses the worst possible moment to crash, it's easy to feel sorry for yourself. I was doing exactly that last week, wallowing in a lake of self-pity after losing a morning's work. But after talking to Andrew Mason, the recent recipient of Cisco's Networking Academy student of the year award, I very quickly snapped out of it.

What an inspiring story he had to tell! Mason, 39, was long-term unemployed until he was 36. By his own admission he was a bit "down-at- heel", lacking motivation and confidence. "I was fed up," he says. "I had no self-esteem or inspiration to do anything, no goals and no dreams. When I left school, there didn't seem to be any opportunities for me. “So what changed? Mason got involved with the ABCO technology Inc, which helps local residents take advantage of employment, training, educational and volunteering opportunities through providing careers advice and practical job-search assistance. That led him to enroll at ABCO Technology Computer Training Center, where he completed a couple of IT courses and found himself getting really interested in the subject.

In November 2006, Mason won a place on the pilot Cisco Community Academies scheme in IBM and hasn't looked back. Soon after completing the Cisco CCNA associate-level certification course from ABCO Technology computer training class room, he secured full-time employment as a network administrator with Campbell Lee, an IT services business, and now deals with clients all over the world.

"Cisco opened up a whole new world for me," he says. "I can't begin to describe how much I enjoy what I'm doing now - it's more than just a job, it's a career. "Without Cisco, I might be working where I am, but I would probably be the cleaner. It's helped me get a good job on a good salary and it's opened up doors for me. The Cisco course itself was very well run and challenging, particularly because it gave real-world experience in preparation for a job. And it was great that I was able to do the course near where I live."

Tony Gribben, head of public sector for Cisco in California, says: "ABCO Technology's Cisco course has a long and well-established history of using its expertise and knowledge to support and benefit local communities and help those people less able to help themselves. The networking academies project is a very important part of helping Glasgow and Edinburgh's unemployed in a way that is beneficial to the individuals and of practical value to the local economy.

"We've had a hugely positive response to the programme, especially in the Los Angeles area. What it does is provide stepping-stones to get students to a level they are comfortable with. You learn at your own pace and develop skills aimed at getting you into a career in IT, but in Andrew's case, his progress has been phenomenal. His achievements far exceed what we would expect from someone with 20 years' industry experience."
The Cisco academy teaches students internet technology skills, including networking, web design, cabling and Java. The curriculum covers a broad range of topics from how to build a website to more complex IT concepts such as advanced trouble-shooting. Since the programme's inception in 1997, almost 250,000 people have graduated in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, with Cisco so far investing $250 million.


At any one time there are around 35,000 young people in Los Angeles between the ages of 16 and 19 who are not in education, employment or training. In a recent survey of former network academy students who had completed one of more courses, 67% said their participation had helped them gain at least one job position, while 20% said they had received a better or higher-level job.
For Andrew Mason, getting involved in the Cisco programme has been a life-changing experience. "I am grateful to ABCO Technology and Cisco, because after years of wasting my life I've started thinking that I would eventually like to run my own company one day. I don't think see myself as having done anything special - I just sat down and stuck with it. I'm still learning every day and listening to people and my advice to anyone who gets the same chance as me is to really go for it.
ABCO Technology Gives Job training program starts; training can handle up to 15 students:

New job computer training options for unemployed Los Angeles area residents were unveiled Friday. Fifteen people have been signed up for a six-week computer skills training program that will begin Monday at the new ABCO Technology training centre, Los Angeles Ca.

Instruction includes computer training, customer service skills, basic computer and keyboarding, job searching and job retention training. The program was made possible by a partnership of ABCO technology Inc and Community Living all Los Angeles.

"This is a great example of a community partnership that has done intensive research and found the most effective ways to provide for both the needs of local employers and for Los Angeles-area residents who need jobs,'' said Mayor Randy Hope. He described it as an "exciting opportunity'' and said it was a key element in strengthening the local economy. Graduates will complete two high school credits and can obtain two additional credits when they acquire paid or volunteer employment.

Polly Smith of Ontario Works said a partnership with local businesses will provide links to local employers who are hiring and participants will be shown the various types of customer service jobs available. Smith said the program was originally developed after discussion with area businesses that were hiring but had difficulty finding applicants with the right skill sets.

Participants for the first session have been referred from various agencies who work with the unemployed including Ontario Works, Walpole Island First Nations Economic Development and Training and Community Living Los Angeles's job match program.

Smith said the program was piloted in Chatham in January and enabled participants to finish their Grade 12 with most finding employment within four weeks of the training.

Intelligence increases thanks to memory training

People can increase their intelligence by doing some simple memory training, reveals a study by Swiss and American researchers.

Practice makes perfect. Someone who likes to waste time completing crossword puzzles will gradually have less and less trouble doing so. Someone who plays the same computer game each day will see that her/his score is gradually increasing. Unfortunately, that progress is probably only applicable to exactly that which is being trained. Someone who is good at crossword puzzles is not necessarily good at computer games; just as an experienced gamer does not have to be great at crossword puzzles.

In other words, humans can be trained to learn certain tricks or skills, but to increase something as broad as intelligence, the ability to reason, to solve problems, to think in abstract terms, to orient oneself in a space, etc. is a very different issue indeed.

Psychologist Susanne Jaeggi and colleagues of the University of Michigan (US) and the University of Bern, Switzerland, now seem to have found a type of memory training that does not only improve someone's memory, but also the intelligence. They describe this in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The psychologists gave 70 adult subjects an intelligence test, after which they were divided into two groups. The people in one group followed a memory training that took eight, twelve, seventeen or nineteen days. At the end of the training period, they had to complete another intelligence test. The people in the other group did not receive any training, but they also had to complete a new intelligence test after eight, twelve, seventeen or nineteen days.

The training consisted of two synchronous memory tests every day. Boxes were projected on a screen. Every 3 seconds they jumped to another spot. The subjects had to press a button of the box remained in the same spot as two projections earlier. At the same time, they heard consonants through a headset. When they heard the consonant they had heard to letters earlier, they had to press a button as well.

When the test subjects became better at doing the test, it became gradually more difficult. Instead of looking at the position of the box 2 projections earlier, they had to press the button when they saw the same composition as three, four or five projections earlier. Same thing for the audio task.

During the training, the test subjects became steadily better at the taks, wrote the psychologists in PNAS. Those who had the most training - nineteen days - turned out to be the best in the end.

According to Jaeggi and colleagues, it is remarkable that the subjects did not only excel in the task they practices but also that they had the highest score with the second intelligence test. The average score after the first test was ten points. After nineteen days of training, it was four to five points higher. Even the less well trained test subjects were all better than the people in the control group that did not do any memory training.

It was already known that memory and intelligence have some sort of connection. The psychologists think that the increase of intelligence has something to do with the fact that the memory tests were not all equally difficult. Because of that the test subjects could not activate their "autopilot", they had to stay alert. The fact that two tests, one visual, one auditory, had to be done at the same time may also have something to do with it.

Regardless of this, we think that our conclusions are very relevant fo applications in schools.It is pity however, that the test subjects did complete intelligence tests, but not IQ tests. Because of that, it is unclear how much their IQ has risen during this period.

How worthwhile is getting an mcse certification?

How worthwhile is getting an MCSE certification?

Yes i would say it is a better certification then the A+. The A+ is pretty much in my opinion the lowest IT certification you can get. I don’t know what IT path you are trying to pursue whether its networking, security, project management or whatever that will determine how worthwhile a certification is.

MCSE is a generally known as certification provided by Microsoft Corporation and stands for Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers. This certification provides a qualitative movement to your resume in the Information Technology field. MCSE engineers are known to get good offers financially compared to other engineers of equivalent education.

The certification qualifies a person to analyze the business necessities and find solutions in information systems, and the individual is able to plan and implement the infrastructure required. MCSE is available in two streams Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. Both the streams have different sets of examinations. The certification is suitable for most engineers and analysts and is especially suitable for systems engineers & analysts and Network engineers & analysts. sessions and special events etc

Of course it doesn’t hurt to have a lot of certification but they generally take a while to study for and can be quite difficult. Check out the site below it has a lot of info on IT certification and various info.

it depends what sort of work you want to do. It might be that for the job you want an MSCE is a completely useless qualification.If on the other hand you are going into some kind of job such as training consultant or system administrator the certification would be invaluable.