I started the first weekend Cisco training course format

in the UK back in 2002. It was all going well until some

other guys saw what I was doing and decided to copy me -

badly.

I am all for competition by the way. I don't have the

sole rights to teach Cisco courses. In fact, anybody can

set themselves up teaching Cisco courses. All you need is

a room, routers and a website and off you go. In fact

many did just that.

After about four years in business I saw one guy copy

exactly what I did. He even copied what I was saying on

my site. Same course format, same guarantee and same

proposition. I heard from some of his students after

they had been and was told it was a letdown.

Classrooms stuffed full of students.

Cisco press manuals instead of self produced notes.

No after course support (even though it was promised).

Poor quality instruction.

Little time with the instructor.

The list goes on.

The guy who copied me was copied by others, or they

were copying me again, who can say? Suddenly there were

about five 'Original Home of Cisco Training' companies

out there. All promising what I was:

Free support before and after the course

Come back for free

No sharing equipment

Expert trainers

Along with all the other 'we are the best' and 'we

care' crap. They even made snide comments about other

training companies.

But none of them had worked for Cisco as I had. None

had written their own Cisco manual and none had been

in business more than a matter of months.

Commodities

When a thing comes down to a commodity then the only

factor left to compete on is price. If it comes to this

then you will always lose because there is always

somebody who is prepared to charge less than you do.

Even if this means they are running courses at a loss.

At the moment there is a price war going on in the UK

for Cisco courses. Good for you but bad for business.

Cheap or Good?

They say that you can either have something cheap or

good but not both. I do believe in getting the best

value for money you can but at some point you will have to

decide what end result you want. When I handed my old

company over to Stuart Juggins I knew it was in good hands

because Stuart had over 15 years hands on IT experience and

had just passed his CCIE.

He wasn't a trainer in fact. He had done a little but he

was 97% a Cisco consultant designing and installing IP

networks for the UK government.

There are not many companies run by CCIEs I can tell you.

The other companies copying us were in my opinion letting

their students down. They were not really experienced IT

consultants as they claimed and some were actually run

by CCNA's!!

Course Tips

Here are a few tips if you want to research a course.

Find a company who can run courses up to CCIE level.

If they can't do that then they can't teach below to

any level of proficiency I feel.

Speak to former students who attended and ask their

honest opinion.

Sit in during a class and see what they do.

Check out their manuals. Are they easy to understand or

are they fobbing you off with Cisco press or Lammle?

Ask on forums if anyone attended the course and what

they thought of it.

Talk is Cheap

It frustrates me when I see the rhetoric on many of

the training web sites. 'We are the best' 'we give

you the best course' 'we care.' When you speak to

their former students the truth is that none of the above

is true.

Paul Browning