Shaw Academy courses & lifetime membership

[DarkStorm]

Hi everyone, just want some advice.

Been doing this http://www.shawacademy.com/mobile-app/course-details.php at Shaw academy (received nice discount voucher on it), and must say pretty decent for an Intro course ( good amount of content and very good instructor, going step by step and making it as easy as possible for everyone, as well as student interaction via mail and phone to find out how everyone is doing and course related questions.

Almost finished with the course (only about a month) and now they have a life time membership deal running for about (in the mail i received they state it being R4000 as special offer.) which in a nutshell gives you access to all the Advanced courses and all future courses on the web site, (lifetime key to the website and content basically)

The Advanced course: http://www.shawacademy.com/mobile-app/advanced-course-details.php

Furthermore they also help with career research, possible job placement etc etc...and do have SA admin offices.

After every course you do get a Diploma (basically send you a link where you download it), and they are also accredited at a few institutions ( accreditation, but unfortunately none of whom i recognize as IT institutions.)

http://www.shawacademy.com/continuing-professional-development.html

But all in all everything seems like quite a sweeet deal, but now the doubts are settling in and better safe than sorry one does ones research.

I can't really seem to find any real reviews on them, apart from a few write ups and testimonials on their site.
Also what bothers me, it is all good to have life time access to an abundance of courses, accross all areas ..but don't really see myself doing courses on nutrition or metal trading for example.

And lastly im not sure how much worth these diplomas when trying to land a job, how do they compare to a Univercity degree / diploma. How widely is Shaw recognized in the workplace locally and Internationally...etc etc. ?

Is it worth spending the time and money on or is it better to rather do something at Coursera / local University Diploma ?

I feel a bit like these type of online courses are more aimed at increasing knowledge upon already attained degree.

Thanks for reading and in advance

Peace

 

[TheKuzin]

My thoughts exacly .. doing the same course as well. Thought it was a bit "unethical" to spend 20 minutes advertising the LIFE TIME membership during a lesson :-( The catch is, you have to be a life member to do the Advance course. I also dont see much write up about them, and I personally would rather do another course with recognised institution. Even with discount, still pretty steep to become a member!!

I am enjoying the course though, and it has given me a good insight into Mobile App Development, and how everything fits together. For R19 via DaddysDeals, been worth every cent.

Good luck with the last phase.

 

[DarkStorm]

Thanks for the reply, nice to find someone doing the same course and share opinions with.

Exactly ! also find it a bit "unethical" to spend half the course advertising, drawing only one winner and furthermore the catch of lifetime member to get access to advanced content.

The assignments seems a bit easy mode, all multiple choice and you can repeat as many times as you want.

I am enjoying the course though, and it has given me a good insight into Mobile App Development, and how everything fits together. For R19 via DaddysDeals, been worth every cent.

Also used voucher from DaddysDeals, and totally agree !

Learnt quite a lot, and definitely seems like something i would like to study into further.

Maybe in future there will be a voucher for the advanced course, then i will make full use of it, but for now seems a bit steep for something somewhat of an uncertainty.

Good luck to you too !

Peace

 

[simonfishley]

Hey guys

I started this course last night. "Easy mode" is a good way to describe it. The 1st lecture was very light in content. He spent 20 mins describing 5 popular mobile apps.

That being said I will persevere but I wonder if you could help me out. The lecturer *refuses* to give out the software requirements - he says he prefers to do it in lecture so everyone can install it at the same time. I am on 2 MB adsl at home and I sincerely doubt I will be able to download whatever he says in a decent amount of time and still stream the webinar.

He mentioned Android Studio and PhoneGap but are there any other things you recall I can download in advance?

Thanks
Simon

 

[DarkStorm]

Hi Simon

You must definitely persevere, the first 2 lectures might seem boring, since it will mostly be introductions and course layout related.

Believe me it does get more interesting, also keep in mind it is an Introductory course, so don't expect too much.

That being said regarding the software Android studio, Phonegap, Notepad++, and MyEclipse, Nodejs are all that we used , where Android Studio was probably the biggest download related.

It helps to have the software pre installed, but keep in mind there are sometimes certain prerequisites and settings that have to be configured, like i know for Android studio you have to have set a Environment variable in your Advanced System settings.

I must say i really enjoyed it and learned quite a lot, would have loved to do the Advanced course but just don't have the cash to afford the life time membership...

That and the fact that my current studies are a bit demanding.

All in all , hope the above helps, good luck and enjoy it !

Peace

 

[simonfishley]

Thanks for the reply. I will just download the packages and install them when needed.

Cheers
S

 

[Random Hero]

I am doing the Digital marketing course with them. they are also running the life time thing giving you access to everything. the offer runs until 26 June for me... and it costs R3450... what do you guys think? the webinar was interesting and very informative. but are these recognized by SA or are they just good for skilling up?

 

[SilverSabre]

I am doing the Digital marketing course with them. they are also running the life time thing giving you access to everything. the offer runs until 26 June for me... and it costs R3450... what do you guys think? the webinar was interesting and very informative. but are these recognized by SA or are they just good for skilling up?

I got the membership, for a lifetime of courses it seemed like a great deal, even though they did hype it quite a bit during the lesson

The advanced courses can actually be bought separately, for example here's the link to the Mobile App Dev Advanced course:
http://www.shawacademy.com/mobile-app/advanced-course-details.php
and at 10k for the advanced courses, buying the lifetime membership seemed a lot better value...

 

[U4RIA]

Hey Guy

Did any of you apply for jobs with the Shaw Academy diploma.Does is hold any weight and is it legit .

Information will be highly appreciated.

Kind regards

 

[DarkStorm]

Hey Guy

Did any of you apply for jobs with the Shaw Academy diploma.Does is hold any weight and is it legit .

Information will be highly appreciated.

Kind regards

I applied for a few jobs with the Diplomas referenced on my CV, but to be honest in my opinion it did not hold any weight.

Especially if you only did the basic and not advanced part of it. I feel these courses are more geared towards a supplementary certificate on already solid foundation, like an extra module of some sort, or otherwise serves as a basis for future career paths.

Like for me with programming it was nice to learn a bit what Android app dev. entails. before spending some large amounts with Unisa or other FET places. |

I cannot speak for the part of the courses, but imo here in SA it won't hold too much weight on it's own since i still reckon the advanced part is pretty basic still and without the membership benefits you will learn soooo much more with Udemy or Coursera courses for examples.

Just my 2c