Qualification recommendations (IT in general)

[Paul Gear]

On 26/03/10 15:11, Michael wrote:
> Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen.
>
> I have a question for all you IT people out there. If someone, such as
> myself for example, wanted to retrain for IT what would you recommend
> would be the best way to do this?
>
> I have had a look at the Cert II, III, and IV and the explanations
> seem really basic but they offer Distance Ed through OTEN. University
> courses look fantastic, until they say you need HSC level Advanced
> Maths, or the equivalent, or you do a University level Maths unit to
> bring you up to speed, which in my case will never happen.
>
> May I ask what you people did to gain your qualifications? and would
> you do the same thing again or recommend others do it the same way?
>
> Please note, on campus is not an option for me and probably wont be
> for a while, I do need to be able to study in Distance mode.
>    
Hi Michael,

You're probably not going to like hearing this, but in my opinion there 
is no substitute for a university degree with a strong emphasis on 
programming.  I've only been employed as a programmer for about 3 years 
of my 18 years in the IT industry, but i rely on the programming skills 
i learned at uni every day, especially when it comes to problem solving 
in complex software and network environments.  Even if you're not strong 
on maths, take the time to get a good grounding in it and work on your 
programming skills, and you'll never regret it.

Regards,
Paul