Alternative to VB.NET, online courses?

[carlozdre]

I am really close to sign up with HomeLearningCollege for 1.500 pounds (Microsoft Certified Visual Basic.net) - Technology Specialist (TS) Exam 70-526: TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 - Windows-based Client

http://www.homelearningcollege.com/C...amming-VB-Net/

I done some research and I understand now the price is kinda outrageous, I would like to find out about similar UK courses but cheaper. Any suggestions?

Thank you.

[dmarsh]

I'd forget about certification and apply for a college course, HND / Foundation Degree that will teach you programming fundamentals.

Training providers using advanced certs to sell courses is kinda reprehensible.

When you've done that, and learnt some .Net and written some programs, got a job as a junior developer, written some more programs, then you can start to think about maybe taking the 70-536 and after that the 70-526.

Heres what Microsoft has to say about prerequisite knowledge :-

Candidates for this exam work on a team in a medium-sized or large development environment that uses Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, or Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. Candidates should have at least two to three years of experience developing Web-based, Windows-based, or distributed applications by using the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0, the .NET Framework 1.1, the .NET Framework 2.0, or the .NET Framework 3.5. Candidates should have a working knowledge of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en...ms/70-536.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mc...s/default.mspx

It reccomends 2-3 years experience of developing windows apps, only 240 hours of tuition is pretty light for someone with little background !

Going for a .Net cert with no experience in programming is kinda jumping the gun. Those with experience should have no problems self studying.

Best of luck !

[carlozdre]

I started with them but cancelled really soon after. I am doing some self study courses on VB.Net at the moment and I am still looking for some distance learning courses as this is the only way I can do it because of my job. I think it will help me a little bit as I will probably have some assignments..

Thank you for the info.

[dmarsh]

I found an Australian distance learning university covering .NET that might have been ok.

In general I'd reccomend the local uni and HNC route for people that want part time courses, maybe even speak to your employer and flexi-time / day release / sponsorship etc.

The OU is also a good bet, they have some very good courses, however you will get less direct interaction than with a regular class like a HNC and as far as I'm aware they don't target .Net specifically. If you're serious about programming, a Comp Sci degree is a worthwhile investment.

[LordMoolyBap]

I agree that the HND is the best route. Get some good all round knowledge about databases, systems design and analysis and HCI first. You can normally get on with the local college or uni. That was the route that I took. It is always best to have a good all round knowledge of IT and employers will look for that. Just having the cert on its own doesn't really stand for as much and the certs concentrate on Microsofts visual developer tools using Drag and Drop (Not cool).

OU is good. One thing I would mention is that their CS courses are based on JAVA though. Although I am not saying this is a bad thing as it's pretty close to C# anyway.

Hope that helps.

[dmarsh]

Its correct most OU programming courses are Java.

There are a lot of similarities between Java and C#.

Some OU courses include PHP and Visual BASIC. I'm not sure what flavour of VB.

These days I avoid languages from the 1970's that are typed all in caps like BASIC, ALGOL, COBOL, FORTRAN etc

Of course if you want to learn Beginner's All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code rather than a nice new clean funky language like C# that your choice.

[Majic_Munky]

well at least with all these 'qualified' people being employed in £40,000 jobs - it gives the pen testers something to do...

Lets just hope they have nothing to do with any database holding my info.