'We would start at 9am, study for the equivalent of an office day, then take a break for dinner, then have a "wrap session" in the evening". So says Andre Vaux, network development officer at West Oxford District Council about his six-day voluntary incarceration at the hands of The Training Camp UK, a US-based IT trainer that practises "accelerated learning". Vaux was one of eight people on his course who wanted to minimise time out of the office, but still get an accredited IT qualification."If you wake up at 3am in Training Camp, instead of worrying about your work, you can go into the lab and work it out for yourself," he says. "It is pretty intensive, not everyone's cup of tea at all. You need a lot of get-up-and-go."
If your get-up-and-go just got up and went at the idea of spending 70 hours over six days immersed in the detail of computer networks (or 14 days of round-the-clock learning to get a Microsoft MCSE -170 hours of tuition), consider the alternative. "To do my Cisco CCNA course would probably take about 40 weeks if I was to do it in the usual way," Vaux says, "I'm always very busy, but I wanted to further my career." Vaux faced a problem that millions in the UK share: how can we acquire the right computer skills, at the right price, if our employers don't have a formal training programme? Vaux convinced his bosses to pay for his qualification, but half of his fellow trainees were paying their own way, investing their savings to earn a new career, or a promotion.
Whether the training is to make you a networking professional, or simply a competent user, there's evidence that more employers then ever are relying on staff to organise their own training. A survey released last month by MORI, produced on behalf of training specialist KnowledgePool, found that we spend less time being trained at work than we spend ill in bed. More than two in five workers had received no training in the last year. As a result, 31% of workers revenged themselves on their employers: they admitted to lying or exaggerating about their skills - most frequently about technology skills.
But when it comes to acquiring those skills, a significant number of employees now prefer to organise their own learning. One third still prefer to go on formal courses organised through work, but 19% now prefer to study themselves.
There are risks to organising your own training though: "Choosing courses can be very hit and miss. If you want to program in Java, for example, you choose a Java course, but that might not get you further in your career if you don't have complementary skills. It's like getting on any train that is going in the right direction, and hoping you will get to your destination.
It's better to say, "I'm a junior analyst, I want to be a senior analyst, what's the gap?" says Brian Sutton, chief educator at QA training. His company gives its students a training tool which uses the Skills Framework for the Information Age, a cross-industry framework that shows what you need to know to do every job in the IT department. "It provides a picture, like the picture on the box of a jigsaw. It's the trainee's job to put the pieces together," he says.
That might be a lot of pieces: a course that says you can program in Java doesn't show that you can work in a team of programmers for example. Sutton sees many self-funded trainees taking the cheapest courses, which they soon regret. "Training can be jolly expensive. But keeping the cost to a minimum is often a mistake."
Tech-Connect is a company that combines training with practical advice on how to fund it. "Probably 40% or 50% of our trainees come to us through a [government sponsored] Career Development Loan," says Priscilla Kheir, a director. The loans, up to £8,000, are made by Barclays, The Cooperative, Clydesdale and the Royal Bank of Scotland, and do not have to be repaid until you have finished a course and found a job: in the interim, the government pays the interest. The amount you can borrow can include the cost of books, travel - even babysitters.
"An advanced course might take between six and eight months to complete, more if you have to train at weekends," she explains. "So in the nicest possible way, we are hand-holding, it's a big risk to do a course and change career." Sometimes, Kheir discourages people from borrowing money to take courses that would be too ambitious. "It's not just about getting people on to a course. It's about making sure they do well on a course."
Training in basic IT skills has caused even more heartache for the UK's self-starters this year. The government's individual learning accounts scheme, by which 2.5m people applied for grants, predominantly for training in basic IT skills, was suspended in November 2001 when large-scale fraud from cowboy trainers was uncovered. Until it is replaced, many computer novices have to find our own courses, and decide which ones are worth the cash. Terry Watts, chief operating officer at cross-industry body e-Skills UK, recommends nationally-recognised qualifications like the European Computer Driving License, which will be recognisable on a CV. 'It's hard to spot which ones matter, so in the first instance I'd go to the local college of Further Education and see what courses they have to offer,' he advises. James Golfar, development director at Internet Exchange, a network of 36 venues offering access to the internet in the UK, either based in the high street or in libraries, recommends having a long-term goal: the 40,000 people his company trained last year had access to a mentor who would create a training plan. "More than 85% of individuals who are doing IT training are doing it to get a better job _ You need a trainer who will deliver training against a clear certification route."
And Henry Stewart, managing director of Happy Computers, whose trainees work for companies from Starbucks to the cabinet office, advises you not to be lured by e-learning on the internet if you are forced to train with your own time and money. "There's a lot of hype around e-learning, but you have to be pretty dedicated to make it work. E-learning works brilliantly as part of a bigger training programme, but unless you are incredibly self-motivated it's not all you need." His advice: be prepared to spend a little more, and go to a company that is accredited by the Institute of IT Training: "If it isn't accredited, you have to ask yourself why."
If training yourself seems risky, expensive and time-consuming, it has one important benefit: in-house training often doesn't give you certifications that will be recognised by your next employer. Before joining e-Skills UK, Watts spent 14 years at IBM. Today, despite having been an IT director, he doesn't have a single cross-industry certification from his training.
Perhaps the best route is to convince your boss to pay for your course, as Vaux did in West Oxford. At Tech-Connect, Kheir has a line that she uses on behalf of her students. "Employers worry they will train their staff, and then the staff leave. I say, imagine what it will be like if you don't let them train, and they stay."
