(PRWEB) January 06, 2014 -- Firebrand Training recently conducted a survey to get the IT industry’s view on the long-debated topic of whether classroom-based training is better than self-study. After collating results from 952 IT professionals, the report concludes an overwhelming 87.2% of respondents are of the opinion classroom-based training gives you a better chance of passing your exams, compared with self-study.
When asked why self-study was worse than classroom-based training, 59.5% of respondents reported that self-study material alone was not sufficient in preparing for a professional certification. Ease of distraction and the lack of a certified instructor were also highlighted as popular reasons as to why self-study is a poor substitute for classroom-based training, with 75.8% and 71.5% of respondents selecting the detractors respectively.
Training companies charging students to fail
Firebrand Training Co-Founder and Commercial Director, Robert Chapman says, “At Firebrand, we don’t believe that self-study alone is a viable method of learning. The compelling results from this survey show we are far from alone in this opinion. Companies should not be charging thousands of pounds for eLearning and self-study resources, while effectively setting up the student for failure.”
Firebrand has recently launched a free self-study platform called Learn, where students can access all the materials available on the organisation’s flagship product, the PMI Project Management Professional (PMP) course.
Self-study without the financial risk
Robert says, “While we wouldn’t recommend self-study, Firebrand respects each learner’s decision to choose their own pathway to certification. In launching the Learn platform, students can experience self-study for free and without risk. Should they be unsuccessful, the student has only given up their time, and not their money.”
The new Learn platform comes complete with a range of self-study resources, which will enable students to work through:
• All the courseware available on Firebrand’s accelerated 4-day PMP course
• A series of practice exam questions, complete with answers to benchmark knowledge
• A range of exercises designed to test real-life problems
• Additional resources including books, videos and resource websites.
Launched on September 16th 2013, Learn now contains all the course material and a range of associated exercises for the PMP course. Over the next few months, Firebrand will be adding to the platform with a series of practice tests and additional resources. By January 2014, students will have everything they need to trial self-studying for the PMP exam.
To try self-studying PMP for free, head to: http://www.firebrandtraining.co.uk/learn/pmp
You can also find the full results from Firebrand Training’s “Classroom Training vs. Self-Study survey” on the Firebrand Blog: http://blog.firebrandtraining.co.uk/2013/12/it-professionals-prefer-classroom-based-learning.html
About Firebrand Training
Firebrand is a leader in Accelerated Learning, and has training centres in the UK, DACH (Germany, Switzerland, Austria), Nordics (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland), Benelux (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg) and the Middle East.
Since its inception in 2001 the company has grown at an incredible rate with over £100 million training completed by more than 35,000 students with over 96% of our students reporting that Firebrand exceeded their expectations.
Firebrand Training runs more than 165 courses, from Microsoft Windows, Windows Server and IT support courses, through to Cisco, Oracle, Lean Six Sigma, PRINCE2, PMP, ethical hacking and Agile.
Firebrand Training has been named consecutively for four years running in the Top 20 IT Training Companies in the World by TrainingIndustry.com and has won the Institute of IT Training – Training Company Of The Year for four consecutive years. It is a Microsoft, Cisco and PMI partner, and Firebrand Training Nordics is Microsoft Learning Partner of the Year (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013) and is the first Microsoft partner business to achieve this award four years in a row.
Edward Jones, Firebrand Training, http://www.firebrandtraining.co.uk, +44 2079077849, [email protected]
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