CHOOSING A SCHOOL

 

WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING WHERE TO LEARN AND GET CERTIFIED

As wonderful as it is to decide to acquire a skill, it is important that you choose carefully and correctly when choosing the right school to learn. Read more to get healthy tips on making that right choice

As it is generally believed that everyone is as good as the training they receive, this article provides a guide on what to look out for in choosing where you could get premium learning on relevant skills at no tuition cost

Now that you know why you should get a skill and get certified, and you also know what skills you could learn online, let’s talk about the WHERE of your learning, your actual training centre.

The internet today, is replete with excess materials and platforms that promise to give people the best training available on IT required skills. It’s on your Whatsapp status, in Facebook ads on your web and app, on Instagram, Twitter etc. Some are free, some are paid, and in a world of multiple choices, the biggest question is: “Where should you learn?”

There are at least 5 things you should look out for when choosing a school online. They are:

1. Syllabus/Curriculum

Does the curriculum of the school for the course you’re about to learn fit or exceed what you’re looking to learn? There’s no NUC here to regulate what is taught, so you should check to ensure that you’ll be served the right content. You hardly find everything you want to learn on the internet for free in one place, but ensure the foundational basics at the very least, are taught the right way.

2. Recognition

How popular is this school? Are they known nationally, across the continent, or globally? Or you can’t find them on Google? Ensure that the school you choose has a respectable reputation, it helps. It’ll be better accessing learning materials from a well recognised school and not get certified by them, than claim to be extensively trained by an obscure school. Let’s face it, even a person who spends just a year in Harvard is blindly regarded as being smarter than a degree holder from a public Nigerian university.

3. Instructors

Who are your instructors, your teachers in the course? Are they an authority in their field? Can you find them in relevant professional spaces? How much experience do they have and where have they worked? Be careful to scrutinise your coaches as if you’re interviewing them for employment. Remember, they’re shaping your future!

4. Student community

Just like the physical classroom, your online learning environment should be a community, where you can meet with other students and share ideas, make significant connections, network yourself, and even make friends. Like the physical community, online classes have people with various backgrounds, and you could get your lucky break by meeting with people there. So, any school that isolates you while teaching you, that’s a red flag.

5. Classroom support

Any questions, any comments? A lot of people look forward to having their grey areas cleared while learning, they want to go from just general learning to specifics, and imagine a class where you can’t ask your questions, sad right? Avoid the trap of being stuck in such classes, look for schools whose app or websites have functional and timely student support systems.

 

Now that you know what to look out for when making your choice of a school, let’s look at 3 top schools you could learn from for free. I’ve attended a number, but these are the pick of them.