| By Yakov Fain |
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| September 23, 2005 08:15 AM EDT |
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18,584 |
Back in the '90s, we became accustomed to receiving half-inch thick glossy brochures from various training companies. Five days of such instructor-led training would cost more than $2,000. For corporate employees this was "other people's money," and usually employees were entitled to at least one week of such training annually.
In '98, I was finishing my PowerBuilder career working as an independent contractor and decided to switch to Java. I had learned the language by reading dozens of books (yes, we used to buy technical books in the last century). But when you switch from one language to another, the most valuable knowledge is not in the books. I needed to know how real-world Java projects were designed and developed, so I paid $2,500 for a week of WebLogic training, and it was worth every penny. The instructor was a knowledgeable guy and this course was an eye-opener. I figured out what had to go in servlets and what went into EJBs, what is a Façade pattern, and what to watch for. This training worked out well, because of my motivation: I needed to pay my bills, and when you apply for a Java position, your previous PowerBuilder experience (other than an understanding of OOP) doesn't count.
In 2001, the U.S. economy went into a long recession. When an enterprise goes through difficult times, its management lays off some people and immediately cuts the training budget. The mandatory trainings like Six Sigma or CMM will always survive, but the real stuff gets frozen. In the beginning of this millennium, those training companies that managed to survive reduced tuition costs and their fat brochures turned into flyers. Course enrollment dropped drastically. They would even run classes for just three students. If the course was designed for five days, the corporate clients would ask for it to be delivered in three days.
Less expensive online training came into the picture, but it proved to be boring and less effective than classroom training. However, since the economy remained in recession for three years, many people suspended their computer education and started to whine about outsourcing.
It's now 2005 and instructor-led training is back, and tuition is getting higher again. Guess what the most expensive training is these days? Some companies that make open source (free) software, charge a premium for training: $3,000 for a four-day course. Well, they need to make money somehow, but I'm sure this won't last long; a new breed of startups that sells support of the open source tools will balance supply and demand by offering more reasonably priced training.
Who Is Teaching
When I was doing contract training, it worked as follows: I was getting an e-mail with the title of the class, airplane tickets, an overnight package with a training manual, and a CD with code samples. Smaller training providers don't develop their own manuals, but purchase the courseware from third parties. Once I had to deliver a one-day, MQ Series training. The manual was poorly written, but since I was right off a messaging project, I had lots of things to say on the subject. The students were happy and the class was saved. But I have to admit that in some cases, I've also taught technologies of which I have only book knowledge. Some instructors just read the manual aloud. Their version of the manual may include additional comments that you don't see, so it looks as if they know more than you.
Finding Quality Java Training
Most of the large corporations have a list of approved training vendors and courses to choose from, and it seems that there is nothing you can do about it. Wrong. Instead of using training vendors, find a Java-related conference or a seminar. Such seminars always have technical sessions on Java technologies with first-class speakers who are practitioners, and many of them are book authors as well. These seminars usually run training over parallel tracks so you can pick the classes that match your objectives. These events are less expensive than comparable vendor training, and the quality is better (just try to avoid marketing presentations, unless you are really interested in a particular product).
Here's the list of some of the training events to consider for Java developers and architects:
Pick a conference and remind your boss about all those long hours you've spent on the project. You need and deserve quality Java training! In some cases your company can even invite the entire seminar to your town.
Recently I've asked a couple of seasoned Java programmers what the acronyms AJAX, AOP, and JBI mean. They didn't know. How about you? Ask your colleagues the same question and see for yourself. There are plenty of great programmers who just write Java code for their employer day in and day out. Raise your head and look around. The Java community is exciting and vibrant and something is happening all the time. Be a part of it.
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