The.Truth

As a former Zenos Student of the Last Year I feel that I should point out some things For prospective Students.

Much of what is said what is said at a open day and in a interview can be false.

I'm not calling them Liars but it seems that they don't know what their own qualifications are good for!

Zenos offers the following qualifications:

• Key Skills level 2-3
• NVQ level 3
• Comptia A+ Certification
• Apparent "Key Buissness Skills"
• Comptia N+ (must be self paid for and is not tested in the centre)
• MCDST
• ADITP (advanced IT practitioners, a fairly usless qualification)

and if you get all of these a Advanced Apprenticeship in IT

The question you should be asking youself is this:

"What do these qualifications mean in the real world?"

Im not going to say right out they mean nothing, the training is a little useful if you want to go into IT support (that is call centre work, starting right at the bottem and not in any type of real role looking at a high of 12-15k for being a very proffesisional student, your average student will NOT be getting this if they get a job at all!).

The qualifications would help you to get a job straight after the course, but what will you do from there? With the limited qualifications you are unlikely to get higher then 20k a year for the rest of your life and that's with a lot of work. You would most likely have to go back to University if you ever wanted to get a real job that pays a decent salary.

But however, what Zenos do claim to have is the ability to send you to University in the quick space of a 5 moth course. This will not and cannot come true. I myself have applied to and spoken to numerous (more then 10 of the country's best IT university's including Hull, Newcastle and others) and they will not accept the qualifications for getting onto a Computer Science Course.

Its possible that you may be able to get onto a Foundation Degree course which is a more basic course than a real University course and can take much longer with a second rate degree in the end. Plus Foundation degree course's are not in many of the other fields and speciality's that a real Uni would offer.

This is because NONE of the qualifiacations on the course are accredidted with UCAS points. Dont belive me? check out the link below.

[Only Registered Users Can See LinksClick Here To Register]
(This link is to the UCAS Tariff Tables if your not a registered Member)

(www. ucas.ac.uk/students/ucas_tariff/tarifftables/#adip)

"Oh wait" I hear you saying, "I see the Advanced Diploma on there wont I get points for that Mr Truth?" Well sure you would but look how much. The maximum you would get from that is 40 UCAS. How much from a Lowly BTEC National Diploma?

Maximum of 360 points, the equivalent in case you don't know of 3 A Levels (Full ones) at A grade, a impressive amount.

OK fine, you don't want to go to University, but do you want to be successful in the IT industry and get a good job? Isn't that why you want to go to Zenos?

Well I did and now I'm working my way back up the ranks with the normal qualifications. I'm not saying that they are better, but make sure that you know what you are getting into before you sign your next year away for a quick £100 and a poor job.

Sincerely to all you poor people at Zenos,

The.Truth

BigMiniMe

Haven't got much time to type up a full reply right now, but I'll try to later.

1. Read the UCAS page again carefully...
Advanced Diploma = Progression Diploma plus Additional & Specialist Learning (ASL)

You're were reading the wrong section.

2. I guess it depends what IT role you're interested in going for. Zenos clearly state in the interview, induction meeting and their website that the possible job opportunities after Zenos are Customer Support, IT Technician, Field Technician etc.

The.Truth

Hey BigMiniMe,

1: Ok, even If I am reading the UCAS page wrong, which I may be, why dont you direct me to the right one. Regardless however of whether I am wrong or not, you can not get into Uni with the qualifications that Zenos offer as no Uni will acccept them!

2: Sure it depends on what IT role you're interested in, but is it right to give false promises that someone could do anything other then a Call center job, becuase thats the only role you could get.

Do you really believe that you could get a "Zenos clearly state in the interview, induction meeting and their website that the possible job opportunities after Zenos are Customer Support, IT Technician, Field Technician etc." role without the nessasary experience that you would need that Zenos do NOT offer?

A Hobbit

Hi, completely agree with what you've said. In-fact laughed at some of it as what you've said is what I've been experiencing and come to realisation firsthand over the past months.

Zenos have found me 3 interviews since February. Which is okay, but only one of these has been for a computer support role - they also haven't supported me with interview techniques and such likes and the "after support" person comes up with very feeble excuses for cancelling meetings to discuss techniques.

Although, riding on just the Zenos qualifications I have managed to get unconditional places at 2 different universities - on Bsc honours computer science and Bsc honours computing. So now as it's rather obvious I'm not going to get a computer support role that I'm going to uni. Although I did want a job and I didn’t want to be going to uni... Currently looking at joining the forces as an officer afterwards as this whole thing has put me off the computer support shizzle, yes sad I know!

Good luck in finding something to do if you haven't already,

A Hobbit.

Patch

Found this out today.
Called 5 universities and none of them will take me.
Fun times.

smorg

It seems some uni's around croydon have been making a deal that if u get over a certain amount of distinctions they will accept you. Some of the students in my class have already been accepted into uni's