Google IT support course offered at 25 community colleges

https://www.educationdive.com/news/google-it-support-course-offered-at-25-community-colleges/526539/


Online, through Coursera.

 

I took this course. Finished it about a month ago. I enjoyed it but the labs that were required came with step by step instructions on completing them and did not rely on the student having learned anything to get them through it. I thought some of the material was too advanced for people with zero IT experience. The lectures were very short in duration. They included "supplemental" reading after the lectures but most of those links took you to Wikipedia pages.

One of the courses that was required in this program was an automation course that taught programing/scripting. There was no chance that someone with zero IT experience would get through that course. I've been in IT for years and struggled mightily with it. When I was halfway through that course, I got an email that they were removing it from the program at the request of both students and companies. It really did not belong there. I would venture to say that most inexperienced people enrolled would not have been able to complete the program if that course remained. Or, people would have just cheated, found the answers online and learned zip.

I found most of the Google folks who recorded the lectures to be really good. I seriously question that a person with zero experience in IT is equipped to get a job after this course unless they are hired into a training program that will provide a lot of the foundational skills that are needed.

 

Thanks for the review, gbrogan. This site doesn't often get that.

 

You're welcome. My initial post was a lot longer but I wanted to avoid the tl;dr. Happy to answer any questions about it. It was worth it for me because I was able to get through the 5 courses in two months because of my experience in IT and because I am out on disability from work and need stuff to do during the day as I deal with treatment. Someone with no experience would take a lot longer at $50/mo. Hopefully, those taking the course actually put in the work to learn the stuff so they may get an actual job. I would think that these companies that will look to hire the people getting this cert will test the applicants to ensure they didn't just look up answers or whatever.