ysabetwordsmith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2020-01-19 06:21 pm
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2020-01-19 06:21 pm
IT Certificate
Take a look at Google's IT Certificate and its new Python version.
I've been intrigued by the rise of certificates in college. Most of these are programs designed to train students for a specific job or cement a specialty within a career major/minor, although some do feature hobbies or other personal interests. Smaller and more nimble than a major or minor, they're usually more relevant to what you actually do in a job. Majors are larded with crap you don't need that just wastes your time and money. My advice to people who are attending college in hopes of actual job-relevant training, outside a few careers that absolutely require a specific major, is to pick a small easy major at a college with a big range of certificates, then pick things like Office Skills, Information Technology, Customer Relations, Elder Care, Animal Handling, Landscaping, or whatever else you expect to be doing. Look at want ads in the career you want to work -- what skills are they asking for, and can you find classes in those exact things?
In terms of teaching job skills, community colleges often outperform fancier ones, and trade schools are even better. Also, many of these certificates are available via online schools. There are whole careers that college just doesn't cover, that you can learn online, such as dog breeding. I looked that up for a poem once: yes, really, there's no specific college support for it, but a few organizations have filled the gap on their own. Don't be afraid to search for a school that actually teaches what you want to do, even if it's not a college.
I've been intrigued by the rise of certificates in college. Most of these are programs designed to train students for a specific job or cement a specialty within a career major/minor, although some do feature hobbies or other personal interests. Smaller and more nimble than a major or minor, they're usually more relevant to what you actually do in a job. Majors are larded with crap you don't need that just wastes your time and money. My advice to people who are attending college in hopes of actual job-relevant training, outside a few careers that absolutely require a specific major, is to pick a small easy major at a college with a big range of certificates, then pick things like Office Skills, Information Technology, Customer Relations, Elder Care, Animal Handling, Landscaping, or whatever else you expect to be doing. Look at want ads in the career you want to work -- what skills are they asking for, and can you find classes in those exact things?
In terms of teaching job skills, community colleges often outperform fancier ones, and trade schools are even better. Also, many of these certificates are available via online schools. There are whole careers that college just doesn't cover, that you can learn online, such as dog breeding. I looked that up for a poem once: yes, really, there's no specific college support for it, but a few organizations have filled the gap on their own. Don't be afraid to search for a school that actually teaches what you want to do, even if it's not a college.
no subject
Trade school is highly underrated. Once you complete your apprenticeship, journeyman wages around here can get close to six figures, which is more or less the difference between a long-ass bus commute and living in town... and yeah, community colleges are far more skills-oriented, where the big unis tend lots more towards theory... and of course the tuition costs, even in-state, are eye-poppingly different.
Textbooks, however, will ALWAYS be expensive as long as they print them in job lots. :P
Thoughts
No, but a lack of the current favorite program can prevent you from getting a job. Many jobs now list program requirements, but finding actual training in that is often hard.
>>Trade school is highly underrated.<<
They also tend to teach things which are difficult or impossible to outsource or automate. You can't outsource plumbing to India, and we're a long way from automated construction. EMTs are susceptible to neither, and some programs for that only take a few months.
>>Textbooks, however, will ALWAYS be expensive as long as they print them in job lots.<<
Textbook prices are frankly usurious. That's why some teachers eschew them and make their own, or use generally available books instead. It would make more sense for the schools to buy the damn books and furnish them free as part of taking a class. Pay $$$ only if you want to keep the damn thing.
Re: Thoughts
(Anonymous) 2020-01-20 05:48 am (UTC)(link)https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=3d+printed+house
For college textbooks, I'd order them off Amazon a few weeks before the class. Then at the end of the course, I'd sell the newish books and order one that was a few editions out of date for future reference.
For the class I volunteer at I essentially wrote a textbook/workbook, because I couldn't find one exactly like we needed. (As a bonus, we can now just print off a pdf, and give it to new students immediately. At least once this meant that the student had a starting point to self-study at home, because she was unable to come to class).