Cisco courses in UL

bonzer1again

Has anyone done any of the cisco courses in UL...looking to see if its worth doing.

rmacm

Years ago I did the ICND1 course and passed the exam....I'd say definitely worth doing if you can get both ICND exams you'll have a CCNA coming out of college.

bonzer1again

did you do it in UL?

rmacm

Yeah I did, guy called Eoin O'Connell did the course (not sure if he still does it). I''m working on my CCNP at the moment (or rather trying to motivate myself to start studying for it).

It'll give you a fairly good grounding in the basics and go through some basic configuration and verification stuff so you'll have a head start on people with no networking experience.

fire_man

I was interested in doing it aswell,it is expensive though,a few grand i think,is the course on for a week or is there a longer one?

rmacm

fire_man wrote: »

I was interested in doing it aswell,it is expensive though,a few grand i think,is the course on for a week or is there a longer one?

It was something like €150 for the ICND 1 when I did it if I remember correctly. AFAIK UL offer it at a reduced price. If you went to a private training company e.g. Global Knowledge you'd be paying a few grand alright.

Zeouterlimits

Eoin O'Connell is still running it yes

sceptre

I had Eoin for labs a good while back (as did a few others here). Good guy, knows his stuff and extremely approachable. On that basis I'm pretty sure that whatever he's doing for the Cisco courses is quality stuff. The sort of person that if you have a question will make sure that you understand the answer (and, just as importantly, the question). Drop him an email to see when they're running the courses.

Peteee

Yeah Eoin's a solid guy.

bonzer1again

did anybody do the cisco course anywhere else around limerick, and what was it like!

reunion

where do you apply to do the cisco course? and when is the next one on?

bonzer1again

http://www2.ul.ie/web/WWW/Faculties/Science_&_Engineering/Departments/Electronic_&_Computer_Engineering/Future_Students_&_Courses/Other_Courses/CNA

Mr. CooL ICE

+1 everything said about Eoin. That guy will go out of his way to help you with anything

clarelad

anyone know if eoin is still doing this course? tried his email about 2 weeks ago but no reply since...

bonzer1again

AFAIK The next course UL are running will be next Summer, when the students are finished there exams...that'll be for a week.

anyone know any other places in the meantime?

Tastyboy

You can do it in LIT something like 2 nights a week for about 10 weeks, something like that. You can also do it in HSI, all in a week, it's pretty expensive. For those on social welfare, you can avail of it for free with FAS online.

bonzer1again

There's a company called Proskills running it as well, they are a Cisco Partner and have cisco trained people delivering the course. one starts September 28th

www.proskills.ie

I've heard they are good.

bonzer1again

ProSkills are charging €850 for ICND1 and say they will be running ICND2 after christmas too.

starlit

Is the CISCO Course in UL still being held as a bootcamp course or regular part-time/full-time course in the coming months or early next year?

bazkennedy

Its held over 2 weeks at the end of second semester

TheTownie

Yes Eoin is still doing the Cisco courses. I did ICND1 in June. Won't bother doing ICND2 until end of 4th year.

The way Eoin does it at the moment is he flies through the material over 4 days, usually Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday. Then you can do the test the following Friday, like I did, or wait an extra week or more if needs be. Eoin is usually pretty flexible that way.

The course is designed to be taught over the best part of a year but Eoin breaks it down to a 4 day course. There is a LOT of the material which you can literally ignore but the core stuff you have to know and understand it inside out as you don't have any time to be hanging around in the test. The test is multiple choice btw.

It is usually held just after the end of the exams as that the most suitable time for most people. There were 25/30 people doing it this year. Of which 5/6 did it the following Friday and the rest waited until a later date as there is no point doing it unless you're ready.

As for cost, christ I only did it a few months ago and I've nearly forgotten! Ha! Pretty sure I paid E50 deposit to confirm my place, then E300 during the four days teaching, then E96/E97 for the test itself. That fee for the test includes a discount that you get if you pass a voucher exam with a score of 75% or higher. Without the discount you're looking at something around E115.

For those thinking of doing it. If you have networking experience or have done networking modules then you will be well capable for it but don't be cocky about it either. It might seem easy but you have to be thorough or you will get caught out in the exam as did some of my colleagues a few months back. You only get discount on the test once. You'll pay full whack if you have to repeat it.

If you haven't any networking experience whatsoever, then it is a lot of material to take on board in such a short space of time. Remember though, there is no problem doing the four day course then giving yourself two weeks or so to study it and understand it fully. If you have worries about not being ready just say it to Eoin and he will do whatever he can to accommodate you (Give him as much notice as possible, don't pull out on the day of the exam as thats just messing about ).

And if I'm totally honest, I felt that there was an aspect of the course that came up in the test that without knowledge over and above what the course material gave you, you wouldn't have been able to answer but thats a minor issue in the overall context.

Any questions feel free to ask.