Learning Trees (Learning Tree)

Member Name: hvallian

Product:	Learning Tree
Date:	18/06/01 (1137 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Food, Lecture Notes

Disadvantages: Varying teaching quality

I have been an IT developer for 3 years now and have had the pleasure of attending many courses at various centres. I attended a 5 day SQL 2000 course at Learning Tree a few months back and have since had the opportunity to compare it to several other providers.

Firstly, the courses ain't cheap. I know the training centre is next to Euston Station and they have an on site canteen but I'm not sure this justified the extra 20% they seem to charge for similar courses. If you are paying for this yourself you may want to consider QA (also in London). They also do not cram as much into the time as some others. This can be good and bad - it gives you more of a chance to learn and a more relaxed atmosphere but it also means they can charge for the extra day.

The teaching quality was, however, excellent and only slightly worse than the best i've had. My colleagues at work however have given slightly less than glowing reviews and it seems that I was lucky with our lecturer. He was also the one that produced the course material and his topic knowledge could not be faulted. He used the tried and tested method of teaching/demo/DIY method which all providers seem to use nowadays. The demos were fine and the lectures only got boring towards the end of the week (although the coffee breaks helped).

Break times were longer than anywhere else (don't tell the boss). The canteen was very good although got boring by the end of the week. The PCs they give you to work on are also better than other providers although this sometimes hides speed issues you may encounter back at the office.

They support MCSE so thats good if you're doing it.

Overall, it seems that the teaching quality varies which is just not good enough for somewhere that charges this much! If you're on a budget look elsewhere for guaranteed quality.

Summary: