There are many IT career aspirants interested in networking and planning to choose CCNA. CCNA is Cisco Certified Network Associate, which is considered as a global certification for aspiring network engineers to get into a successful networking career.
However, while planning to learn CCNA course, there are a few things one must know to stay away from the ‘training marketing gimmicks’ and ensure the best value for the money you invest into training. Here are a few things to consider while choosing a networking training institute.

Is there any significance for your virtual driving experience in video games (even if you win all online car racing games) if you have to drive a real car on a real highway. Similarly, there is no point in learning Routing & Switching by using virtual software like Packet Tracer while you have to work on real routers and switches in networking jobs.
Majority of the training institutes offer CCNA training using such free virtual software as real routers and switches are costly. Some training institutes may be giving a one-day exposure towards the end of the training, but that is also not enough for you to gain expertise.
Ideally, you have to take CCNA training from somewhere where they don’t use packet tracer at all, but gives you exposure to real routers and switches throughout the training and gives you practical exposure to end-to-end tasks of network installation, monitoring, and troubleshooting.

Exploiting the demand for networking training, there are thousands of training institutes at the nook and corner of all cities and towns, luring students with a lot of ‘so good to be true’ offers as job assurance etc. In fact, for a fresher who is trying to get real employability skills to seek for a job, the requirement is to gain confidence and exposure than a mere training certificate.

One thing you may notice is that most of these training institutes may be situated at the top floor of a random shopping complex as the rent is the lowest on the top floor. You may hear them saying job assurance, but with an inexperience trainer from the previous batch of the same institute, no real infrastructure, conventional classroom + lab, how do you think the ‘job assurance’ works out?

In fact, a potential employer is not going to recruit you for the money you’ve given to a random training institutes to get a certificate, but for the actually employability skills you gained. The term ‘placement assurance’ is simply a black-hat marketing technique in training industry, which everyone use to sell, but cannot fulfil. Your actual need is not to get such a ‘namesake’ placement assurance from the marketers, but to become skilled and confident to really become an employable professional and naturally get hired by employers.

So, How to choose a CCNA training centre?

Check the below things to ensure that you are getting into the right place for networking training.

1. Availability of individual routers and switches for training.

2. Number of working condition racks for trainees to access.

3. Qualification and industry experience of the trainers.

4. Sizes of batches (5-7 may be ideal in technical trainings)

5. Learning environment of networking (avoid typical classroom-board-note taking style).

6. Personally visit the training centre to check the facilities before you commit.

7. Of course you can ask for genuine placement assistance, but don’t fall prey to any blind job assurance.

In Kerala, STEPS IT training hub is one of the centres offering CCNA training using individual routers in a real-time networking environment inside a functional IT park. Students get a practical exposure and hands-on skills to work confidently as a network administrator through such training programs. All the best

Author: STEPS