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labrax · 08-12-2007, 07:03 PM

Get a book on the A+ class and read through it - that should be enough for you to understand what a 4 day course would teach you. Hopefully the town will reimburse you or pay for the $50 book. Your library network may even have one for you. If you are totally lost with XP or W2K3 - the books are simple, but they might be a good start - those XP for Dummies are cheap and may introduce you to topics that you want to spend time on. I deal with public safety organizations all the time in my job - and some of the admins are good and some are lost and it is somewhat painful when they are lost. You deal with a lot of data and with confidential stuff - they should realize this and be willing to offer some training - it is shortsighted on their part if they think otherwise.

I do not have any certifications and actually have attended about 7 courses on Windows support, server support and Linux. Some teachers are good and some teach you right out of the book. Global Knowledge is a company that my company has brought in to teach an accelerated MCSE class in the past and the occasional class - they were pretty good. There used to be a company out of Acton Mass that was OK, but they got aquired by a company from Westboro and Braintree - might want to search for Windows training and Westboro, MA. Unfortunately, there are 'paper MCSE's and MCSA's out there - they have taken the courses but lack real world practical experience - and they sometimes are really dangerous as they have the credentials but do not know what to do with them. We had one that was one class away from her MCSE and she could not change the time on the system - I kid you not.

Bottom-line - there are some introductory classes out there that will introduce you to the basics - you will need to find some time to play with what you have learned. If you can set up a test box for yourself to play around with that will allow you to mess around without screwing stuff up. The MS technet pages offer a lot of information to dig around in if you need answers about a specific topic.

Are there any Homeland Security Grants you could apply for related to IT/Security training? Does your town have an Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft - if so, are there any spare training vouchers available that you could use? Can you solicit for Consultants to see what it would cost to have them manage the infrastructure and then compare that with what it would cost to have you attend training - so you could show the higher-ups that you are not blowing smoke - and that they would be better financially served by sending you to some training.

Good luck - because a lot of organizations/towns look to cut in their IT budgets, or level-fund them when they think nothing of adding another mid-level manager in finance, marketing person or curriculum specialist. It is crazy how they do not value IT. Ask TJX how the 1.5 billion dollar (or more) gaffe they made in failing to secure their wireless network in MN worked out for them - data thieves setup outside their Marshalls store there and got a lot of data that cost a lot of people a bunch of time and aggravation.

08-12-2007, 07:03 PM	#11
labrax Registered User iTrader: (0) Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Central Mass Posts: 214	Get a book on the A+ class and read through it - that should be enough for you to understand what a 4 day course would teach you. Hopefully the town will reimburse you or pay for the $50 book. Your library network may even have one for you. If you are totally lost with XP or W2K3 - the books are simple, but they might be a good start - those XP for Dummies are cheap and may introduce you to topics that you want to spend time on. I deal with public safety organizations all the time in my job - and some of the admins are good and some are lost and it is somewhat painful when they are lost. You deal with a lot of data and with confidential stuff - they should realize this and be willing to offer some training - it is shortsighted on their part if they think otherwise. I do not have any certifications and actually have attended about 7 courses on Windows support, server support and Linux. Some teachers are good and some teach you right out of the book. Global Knowledge is a company that my company has brought in to teach an accelerated MCSE class in the past and the occasional class - they were pretty good. There used to be a company out of Acton Mass that was OK, but they got aquired by a company from Westboro and Braintree - might want to search for Windows training and Westboro, MA. Unfortunately, there are 'paper MCSE's and MCSA's out there - they have taken the courses but lack real world practical experience - and they sometimes are really dangerous as they have the credentials but do not know what to do with them. We had one that was one class away from her MCSE and she could not change the time on the system - I kid you not. Bottom-line - there are some introductory classes out there that will introduce you to the basics - you will need to find some time to play with what you have learned. If you can set up a test box for yourself to play around with that will allow you to mess around without screwing stuff up. The MS technet pages offer a lot of information to dig around in if you need answers about a specific topic. Are there any Homeland Security Grants you could apply for related to IT/Security training? Does your town have an Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft - if so, are there any spare training vouchers available that you could use? Can you solicit for Consultants to see what it would cost to have them manage the infrastructure and then compare that with what it would cost to have you attend training - so you could show the higher-ups that you are not blowing smoke - and that they would be better financially served by sending you to some training. Good luck - because a lot of organizations/towns look to cut in their IT budgets, or level-fund them when they think nothing of adding another mid-level manager in finance, marketing person or curriculum specialist. It is crazy how they do not value IT. Ask TJX how the 1.5 billion dollar (or more) gaffe they made in failing to secure their wireless network in MN worked out for them - data thieves setup outside their Marshalls store there and got a lot of data that cost a lot of people a bunch of time and aggravation.