Gikki

Hello all,

Intro
I attended a Zenos academy in the Bed and Bucks area earlier this year, the experience as a whole was beneficial for me (in a 23k a year job and I'm 18). Although I believe Zenos' role in getting me into this job was non exsistant and many of my friends on the same course acheived the same qualifactions and are still looking for jobs six months onwards.

First Impressions
The academy I attended was well presented, my first impressions were of an office job which was incredibly relaxed (in terms of atmostphere). On the first day the group of 55~ were whisked into two different rooms and shown the ladder of Microsoft certifications we were starting from the bottom of and how as we escalated up the money escalated with it. Zenos really know money drives, and they're not suttle about it, none of the lectures we recieved from trainers or area managers involved being happy or content (not that I'm a soppy person or anything) it was about cold, hard, cash which grabbed everyone's attention and motivated them.

The trainers themselves reminded me of teachers who somehow got the idea they would be a "manager" of a group of "young professionals". Each seemed pretty down to earth, you could have a laugh with them and not one of them was a super nerd which was a relief to the majority of not so teched up people attending the course.

The academy manager reminded me of a receptionist / headteacher who's job it was to chase up people on absenses, pay everyone and generally make sure everyone was up to scratch.

At this point it became apparent that Zenos is more of a college environment than their adverts claim to be.

The Course Itself
The first six weeks of the course are easy, as is the course itself, if you left school with straight C's you will walk Zenos without a doubt. The first week we spent going through Microsoft office, the basics; toolbars, tables, fonts, macros etc. There was no real challenge and it was a bit of a laugh. The next five weeks were based around VERY basic IT, I'm talking about setting up user accounts and password strengths. (At this point you'll probably start ADITP and NVQ's)

After the six week probation (which is kind of a test on motivation - going to Zenos for six weeks without pay) we started A+. A+ was the first test to who did and who didn't have a nack for IT, I could have probably gone back and predicted 95% correctly who would pass and who would have failed just by their IT knowledge in general.

With A+ and an increasing amount of NVQ's and ADITP's out of the way the programme starts to move up to the slippery slope of MCDST. I must stress at this point MCDST is A+ with a few extra questions thrown in, if you passed A+ you'll walk MCDST no matter how hard the trainers say it is.

The NVQ's and ADITP's are basic coursework, the trainers themselves get pressured by their bosses if your work is outstanding, so if you struggle they'll basically walk you through it if you just put in minimal effort.

The kick out period
Ever wondered how Zenos have such a high rate of sucess when the course is suppose to be a challenge, the answer to that isn't the trainers and facilities are amazing, it's a process that occurs about a month before the course finishes. During this week stint, if there is any chance of you failing the course (aka not getting a qualification) you are removed.

However Zenos aren't that silly enough to waste all that money on you and let you leave just like that. Zenos wait for you to get your ADITP - this basically means they get the money from the government for funding you. (NOTE: I found out whilst at Zenos 60% of the governments apprenticeship budget is given to Zenos for training people like you. And to be honest Zenos do a pretty poor job the majority of the time). If you leave Zenos without the ADITP or another qualification Zenos get no money at all, at the academy I was attending a lad their quit, received a phone call from higher teir management asking him to return to finish his ADITP in exchange for extended attempts at A+ free of charge.

TL: DR - if you have poor attendence and don't want to be kicked off the course, do 90% of all the coursework set, so you can acheive 100% at the end of the course but you can keep on receiving £100 a week whilst there. They won't kick you off because you're still worth something to them.

A few tips and tricks
- USB ports aren't blocked, no matter what your trainers say.
- To break out of any iTalc lock placed on your machine do shift - alt - printscreen so you go into high contrast - then ctrl - alt - del, this allows you to close iTalc.
- Pull your network cable out of your machine to disable iTalc.
- BRAIN DUMP, every exam, its 10% of the effort for the same result as studying.
- Apply for jobs early, before you have the qualifications, to maximise your chances of getting one.

And to conclude...
Zenos is a nice easy way to convince people pressuring you into studying / college / work that you are doing something with your life, when you're really not. All in all the £1,600 I recieved from them was worth every penny for completing GCSE difficulty course work and multiple choice exams.

an0n

USB ports are blocked in the way that you cannot load drivers for any "Mass Storage" devices

USB ports are powered so you can charge your phone etc on them. (Not that your allowed to)