1. Who are you?
You need to find out who is offering the training. Are they a storefront “school” that is making it on a class-by-class basis? How long has the organization been around? What is the organization’s reputation? Also, if you contact the organization by phone, learn to whom you are talking. Many storefront training organizations hire IT sales people who are paid on commission. If their job depends on signing you up, then you have to ask if they will have your best interests at heart.

2. How is your material taught?
Hopefully your training will occur through qualified and experienced instructors and an excellent software package to facilitate learning. Find out if the instructors are certified trainers and if they are certified in the subjects they teach. Ask about the course materials. You don’t want three-ring binders and loose leaf sheets; you want comprehensive texts, lab manuals, multimedia presentations, review questions, and test-prep materials.

3. What is your cost?
Cost is not the primary consideration – getting a quality program is. But cost is a factor. The program cost should be listed on the organization’s Web page. If not, you have to wonder if the idea is to make you speak by phone to one of those sales people working on commission. The Stetson University program cost is listed on this website and can be found at this link.

4. How long is your course?
Some activities offer “boot camp” courses that are very, very intensive. We are not aware of any situation where these are good for students – too much learning in too short a time. Many community colleges offer two-year programs for MCSE training – we recommend these for students who have the time for this length of endeavor. The Stetson course is 18 weeks in length. We think that is just right for those who want to seriously apply themselves and get right into the field. (For students who enter our program and find they need a bit more time in a subject area, we even allow them to re-sit the course another time.) Our MCSA program is conducted weekdays, and is a 5-week course. This is one course a week and we think this is an appropriate course length for the material.

5. Do you offer internships, paid or unpaid?
An internship is an added benefit for students who want to apply themselves for additional experience that can be reflected in a resume. Internships provide some amount of real-world experience that could make the difference in getting employed. (Stetson offers free internships.)

6. Do you guarantee I will pass my tests?
The answer should be, “No guarantee, but if you apply yourself, do the lessons, and be active in the learning process you should pass.” (Beware of providers who "guarantee" that students will pass. They often charge a substantial additional fee for this service(?) and demand that students who fail a test complete a remedial test preparation program that is so rigorous that most people drop out of it and never pass ... and give up their guarantee money also.)

7. Do you provide financial assistance?
The answer will be, “Yes.” Financial assistance for technology training programs is often through private lenders. No matter who is the provider, all tend to go to the same lenders such as Sallie Mae, Key Bank or Wells Fargo. Do not let slick ads or commissioned sales people trick you into believing some training business can connect you with more or better financial aid than others.

8. Do you provide job placement assistance (in addition to internships)?
The answer should be yes. For Stetson students we provide four specific sources of assistance.

• We help write their resumes to put their skills, capabilities, and experience in the best possible light for future employers.
  
• We arrange internships for students here at the Stetson Center at Celebration or at Stetson University in DeLand with our state-of-the-art building with servers, routers, switches, voice-over-IP phones (Celebration) and other technologies that students use to build experience and strengthen their resumes.
  
• We will register our students with the Stetson Career Services Office at the DeLand Campus so they'll have a whole university and its vast contacts working on their behalf.
  
• We link our students with many of the numerous staffing agencies and IT firms throughout the areas where Stetson conducts its programs. These agencies often provide an excellent point to begin an IT career, as temporary jobs often lead to full-time employment.

9. Is it possible to get an “all the training you want” program for a certain period of time, like six months?
Think twice if the answer is, “Yes.” This is a bad idea for most students. Here is an example: How about you getting the best-looking body possible in terms of fitness for just $200? Are you ready to pay? Well, instead why not pay $30 a month at your local gym and go there every day for six months for five hours a day? If you do that, you’ll surely have a very fit physique and the cost will be just $180, even less than the $200. The problem is that most of us need structure, goals, timelines, and deadlines. An opened-ended training program too often ends up with students who quit going after a relatively few times.

10. When can I visit?
Most places will be glad to have you visit – gives them a chance to sell you a course. Some people who will shop five places for a $700 washer-dryer go to just one place for a $10,000 technology course. The reason you visit is to make the best decision for yourself. You want to get informed, to see the course materials, to meet the instructors, to discuss internships, to check out the facilities, and to measure what you hear from the organization against what other organizations are telling you. Does the information ring true? Don’t enroll anywhere until you have visited at least three organizations.