Spring Training Course

onemorechance

After looking through job specs in adverts, I decided that it might be a good idea to learn Spring. I went to the Srping website and I saw a link to courses.
A 4 day course in dublin is E2245.5 + Tax! How ridiculous is that! There are 18 places available, so if they fill it, they are expecting will get over E40000 for the course!
Is this not a completely ridiculous amount to be charging for a 4 day course? It just puts me off such a technology. It would be cheaper to go to Prague, Hungary ($1506 USD) etc. (where the courses are in English), flights + hotel would still be cheaper than Dublin, especially as I would need a hotel in Dublin too!
It looks like a book from Amazon is the way to go!
Whilst I know that classroom / instructor lead training should be better than a book, does anyone with experience of Spring see any justification is such a price?

IMO, technology training is just becoming a money scam. I am currently doing a distance learning MSc by one of Irelands top universities and it is essentially costing me over 4k per year to receive a book per month and being told which chapters to read. The instructors give less and less input each time, and are several assignments behind with returning feedback, even though it is needed for the followings weeks assignment.

[SIZE=+1]Class Information[/SIZE]: Name: Core Spring Date: 07/06/2010 - 07/09/2010 Time: 9:00 AM - 5:00 AM Location: Dublin
Dublin,
Ireland Class Price*: € 2245.5 (EUR) + Tax (if applicable)
VM¢ 28 (what is this?)
[SIZE=+1]Class Information[/SIZE]: Name: Core Spring Date: 05/25/2010 - 05/28/2010 Time: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Location: Budapest
Budapest,
Hungary Class Price*: $ 1506.6 (USD) + Tax (if applicable)
VM¢ 28 (what is this?)

dent

I did the Spring Web Developer course and really enjoyed it. Learned quite a lot. The training material and sample apps you get are excellent references.I think it was good value for the company that sent me on it (Would not spend the money personally though). I'm now studying for the certification and think that this more value than doing the actual course.

In saying that you don't need to take the course to learn spring. They have extensive documentation on their site and the web is littered with tutorials. This is how I started out and it was enough to develop professionally with.

I guess the course helped validate past design decisions and helped me to improve future ones

Evil Phil

I think courses like this are so expensive as they're aimed at companies who want to skill up their staff, not the individual consumer. But yeah, technology training is a big money spinner.

brianGal

hey onemorechance, did you decide to sign up for this course in the end?My current contract is up at the end of the month and although I completely agree that it is overpriced and aimed more at companies than individuals I'm considering it because I find it difficult to study and learn new technologies outside of work hours. I reckon what I could learn in 4 days on the course may take me 2/3 weeks so maybe its worth it for that reason. Also, its something that can go on the CV.

kayos

Depending on what your doing in Spring a course like this could be total over kill imho.

Use spring.net everyday in work for DI, IoC and AoP. Never had to have a course on it in my life. Online material and a bit of cop on is all you need.

onemorechance

No I did not sign up for this. The cost is just too much, for me most of all and for my company as they have no use for it currently. I think I would sooner look into booking an English version in Prague or Budapest, could be cheaper and have a holiday at the same. From what i remember, the Dublin one was over 2K + tax, whereas the Budapest one was over 1K + tax. That leaves about 1K to pay for flights and hotel. It is even more worthwhile if you don't live in Dublin, and may need accomodation there too. Also, I would sooner buy a book for E20 on Amazon, before committing to 2k for 4 days. I do see your point though, nothing beats classroom, instructor lead training, so if the 4 days versus 4 weeks is very important, then I'd recommend taking the one in Budapest! From several work and school colleagues, I have also found the standard of education in that part of the world to be excellent.