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[tigers_gonads]

As above

My lad is nearly 16 ( leaves school next June) and is mad on anything IT 

Yesterday, he started his 2 weeks work placement at a local IT firm.

Now here I was expecting him to be making the tea and coffee for the next 2 weeks but it would seem Ian ( the boss ) has thrown him strieght in at the deep end and much too there suprise, he isn't just swimming, he is out swimming a bloke who has been there 2 years and in the last 2 days, has put together ................
2 pc's
Fixed 3 customers laptops
Being out on site with the boss to sort out some sort of server problem. 

Bottom line is the boss is rather giggleing and can't believe he is picking it up so fast.
Ian is a friend of mine ( my lad doesn't know this ) 

For those who work in I.T
What sort of qualifications does he need to advance ?
Anything I can do to help him progress ?

Any idea's or advise welcome

[blackviper90210]

Not a proud father at all, are you!! 

Best of luck to your son in his future career, not that he'll need it, he'll be the boss's right hand man by the end of the week! 

[Vamps]

Not sure about the qualifications, there are so many, but it sounds like he might be half way there, will the company not take him on and train 'in house' with college release? Good for him anyway and good luck..

[VXL V6]

Qualifications all depend on which area he wants to concentrate on but a good starting point would be something like CompTIA A+

[cem_devecioglu]

there are many microsoft certified X (http://www.ucertify.com/vendors/Microsoft.html ) programs that can help him.. However , nothing can replace real job experience..

And I must note when he becomes over 40, his interest on IT wont be same and as the subject internals change from day to day he'll struggle to follow :-/

[tunnie]

"IT" is a name that covers huge selection of jobs, from Developer, Analyst, Technician to almost anything.

Needs to select an area, sounds like Network Admin type route. If he can get a job where he is now and work up, you get the company to hopefully sponsor some Microsoft or Cisco type accreditations 

[Martin_1962]

Experience is the most important thing.

Service & Repair - Experience
Admins - courses
Programming - courses and real life experience

[TheBoy]

Depends what he wants to do.  If he can stay there for a bit longer, be it on minimum wage and/or free for the holidays, as relevant experience is more valuable than qualifications.  When I used to interview people to work for me, many had the required CCNA and MCSE qualifications (it was a Windows based role that needed an in depth knowledge of networking), but I usually found they were unsuitable.

Virtually no employer will offer instructor led courses any more, so college or self-study.

Generic courses might help get helpdesk type desktop support jobs, any form of specialism will need specific experience or training.

Additionally be aware that large companies have different requirements to small companies, so basic PC building is of no use if he wants to work for the big corporates.  And corporate skills are no good if he prefers small companies.


Good luck, but keep in mind its quite a volatile industry to work in.

[Banjax]

he'll also need a bluetooth implant, an M3 and an ability to click "download" in my experience 

seriously tho, i have several mates and a close family member, all mortgaged with kids and the work is getting harder to find once you need a certain income - luckily they're as old as me hence have vast experience - but you still sweat between contracts and going PAYE used to be the safe, albeit less well paid option - now its just as dodgy 

but heck - its a s good a field as any - certainly pays better than civil engineering and you dont need to study for 5 years 

[tigers_gonads]

]Not a proud father at all, are you!!  [/highlight]

Best of luck to your son in his future career, not that he'll need it, he'll be the boss's right hand man by the end of the week! 

 

Yeh, well proud of him 
And to think that last year, his teacher banged on the door one wednesday night ( when he was at footy pratice ) and asked if everything was ok because she thought he was quite and lacked confidence 

Thanks for the opinions and advise lads 

He came home a couple of hours ago with a right look on his face  :-?
Turns out that he couldn't finish building a customers pc because the shop had run out of type of RAM he needed 

He is not doing that good at school at the moment.
Basicly, if he likes the subject, he is great but those he doesn't like, he basicly can't be arsed 

He enjoys maths, history and anything to do with tech but his handwriting is about as good as my spelling 

I have sugested that he offers to go in on a saturday morning to help out 

[CaptainZok]

]Not a proud father at all, are you!!  [/highlight]

Best of luck to your son in his future career, not that he'll need it, he'll be the boss's right hand man by the end of the week! 

 

Yeh, well proud of him 
And to think that last year, his teacher banged on the door one wednesday night ( when he was at footy pratice ) and asked if everything was ok because she thought he was quite and lacked confidence 

Thanks for the opinions and advise lads 

He came home a couple of hours ago with a right look on his face  :-?
Turns out that he couldn't finish building a customers pc because the shop had run out of type of RAM he needed 

He is not doing that good at school at the moment.
Basicly, if he likes the subject, he is great but those he doesn't like, he basicly can't be arsed 

He enjoys maths, history and anything to do with tech but his handwriting is about as good as my spelling 

I have sugested that he offers to go in on a saturday morning to help out 

Good idea, that's basically how Tonygnome got his apprenticeship. He did work experience at a small garage who couldn't employ him but were that impressed they passed his name on to his present employer who took him on as a Saturday/ school holiday lad.
When he finished school he was taken on as an apprentice and trains on the job and day release at college. Another two years and he will be a trained mechanic.

[VXL V6]

If he wants to work on the networking side he will really need a maths qualification. Networking is all about 8 bit numbers!

[tigers_gonads]

Noted 

cheers 

If he wants to work on the networking side he will really need a maths qualification. Networking is all about 8 bit numbers!

[aaronjb]

If he wants to work on the networking side he will really need a maths qualification. Networking is all about 8 bit numbers!

Can't say we've ever looked for a Maths degree on anyone we've hired into a network engineering position.. IT degree perhaps, but more importantly experience and/or relevant industry qualifications (Cisco CCNP & CCIP mostly).


For the OP, though - generally speaking there's break all money in what he's doing right now (building PCs, SOHO servers etc) - if he wants to earn a decent wage then get into networking & application security, core networking or development (in decreasing order of salary potential, from what I see when I look around at jobs - I fall mostly into the app sec & core networking area personally).

Having said that, doing what he's doing now is precisely how I got into the industry - work experience at a SOHO IT support place turned into a job supporting Novell Netware servers (3.12, mostly, for those who remember that far back) which morphed into a job writing accounting software models. That turned into a job writing software for the travel industry when I moved down south, which turned into a period of self employment and then eventually to a job at F5 Networks - one of the largest network hardware manufacturers & vendors in the world (I forget what our market share is, but we usually place second to Cisco in most product areas).

One thing to keep an eye out for are entry level jobs where he can progress upward. Take F5 - we have a position called "Technical Support Coordinator"; it's largely non-technical and involves getting problem descriptions down from customers, finding e ngineers to work the issue and occasional non-technical problems - but people regularly can and do progress from TSC to NSE (Network Support E ngineer) and then from NSE to ENE (Enterprise Network E ngineer) and upward.. (I went from NSE to ENE and then swerved off to Data Analysis for a change of career). We regularly hire people into the TSC role who can demonstrate a history of working customer support roles but not necessarily with the technical acumen to work an NSE role..

[VXL V6]

If he wants to work on the networking side he will really need a maths qualification. Networking is all about 8 bit numbers!

Can't say we've ever looked for a Maths degree on anyone we've hired into a network engineering position.. IT degree perhaps, but more importantly experience and/or relevant industry qualifications (Cisco CCNP & CCIP mostly).

Yes sorry, didn't really mean a degree, was more that he needs to get his maths GCSE (or whatever they are these days!).