Suggest an Absolute beginner course to Computers!

Mortymoose

Mortymoose

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I have a worker, who comes from a remote part of the country.

He is a young chap with real basic education.

He is employed as a Retail Assistant.

I feel that there might be more to this chap and would like to encourage him to take a distance education course.

He reckons he will enjoy computers and was keen to choose programming.

I ain't convinced that he can just jump into this field and want him to first prove his worth in a very simple and basic course,

Like introduction to Computers , something really cheap and meaningful, seeing as I will be paying for this, I don't want him to jump in at the deep end and "waste" my dosh.

It has to be something that he can do via the postal service...... Can you suggest something to start him off......?

:confused:
 
Uhm, there is no real basic introductory course to computers than being thrown in at the deep end.

Either you sponsor him to take a course that will cost you a couple of thousand rand or you convince an owner of a local PC repair shop to employ him for a year for little to no salary and you volunteer to pay for whatever damage he causes.
 
Do you have space to set up a PC to let him muck about on? I'd work outwards from some apps which could help in at work, such as Office.
 
No actual experience with this course though Intec has been around awhile - http://www.intec.edu.za/course/K-0886/intec-introduction-to-programming-certificate/

Programme Type
The INTEC Introduction to Programming Certificate is part of the INTEC Career Starter Series. The INTEC Introduction to Programming Certificate is an INTEC certificate. This programme is approved by the INTEC College Academic Board.*

Entrance Requirement
Grade 10 (Std 8) or equivalent with PC Literacy using Windows operating systems or relevant work experience.

Course Duration
You should be able to complete this course within 12 months.

Course Content
• Program Design • Pseudocode • Developing an Algorithm • Selection Control Structures • Repetition Control Structures • Pseudocode Algorithms Using Sequence, Career Starter * This programme does not lead to a qualification on the NQF. 3 • Selection and Repetition • Array Processing • First Steps in Modularisation • General Algorithms for Common Business Problems • Communication Between Modules, Cohesion and Coupling • An Introduction to Object-oriented Design • Object-oriented Design for More Than One Class • Object-oriented Design for Multiple Classes

Assessment
You are required to complete and submit all the assignments to the college for marking. All assignments must be successfully passed in order to obtain the award.

Award
On successful completion of this course, you will receive your INTEC Introduction to Programming Certificate.

Course Fees
Normal Price: R 5,271
Web Only Price: R 4,744
You Save: R 527 (10%)
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My company has been paying for my studies for awhile so I've lost touch with the actual economics involved - is that a reasonable cost for a certificate program?
 
I agree with setting up a pc and let him do a whole bunch of courses like this:

https://www.coursera.org/course/cs101

IMO science skills take time and if you just dump him into a distance learning degree he will be way out of his depth. If he likes what he sees in the intro CS course then start with the core skills like maths, accounting etc couses before he starts the degree. Explain to him that he missed a lot and his chances of succsess are way better if he gets the basics down first.
 
If he thinks he would like to try his hand at programming why not let him register an online course like codeacademy. Its free and he can start with something like html and css. That is supposed to be the easiest to learn. You can also download pdfs like "html for dummies" as reading material. It's very basic stuff but i'm sure you could gauge from there how he is doing and if it is worth paying for proper courses.
 
I'd say if you can sort him out with a pc and let him try those basics then great. People very easily miss how maths and logic go a long way when it comes to computers and even more so for programming. It may seem nasty but I've tried to help people like this before and because of their poor quality of education it takes weeks/months to grasp what other might take hours/days to. It can be frustrating and even a waste of time as they then have very limited value in a workplace that involves programming as they need to be able to adapt and learn new skills very rapidly. You do get the odd surprise though and he might pick up the skills quickly in which case it would then be worth investing a few grand into his education if he shows potential.
 
ichigo said:
Do A+, N+ then MSCE/MSCA
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To be dead honest, ive been talking to some people at my college that are getting rekt by the A+ exams (801/802) because unlike me they were never brought up using computers. I was brought up using computers from a very young age and I creamed the A+.
 
Rickster said:
To be dead honest, ive been talking to some people at my college that are getting rekt by the A+ exams (801/802) because unlike me they were never brought up using computers. I was brought up using computers from a very young age and I creamed the A+.
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Found it easy and helped the people who were new to computers to understand it :D
 
Kids these days don't know how good they have it when it comes to setting up PCs.
 
^^vampire^^ said:
I'd say if you can sort him out with a pc and let him try those basics then great. People very easily miss how maths and logic go a long way when it comes to computers and even more so for programming. It may seem nasty but I've tried to help people like this before and because of their poor quality of education it takes weeks/months to grasp what other might take hours/days to. It can be frustrating and even a waste of time as they then have very limited value in a workplace that involves programming as they need to be able to adapt and learn new skills very rapidly. You do get the odd surprise though and he might pick up the skills quickly in which case it would then be worth investing a few grand into his education if he shows potential.
Click to expand...

This is along the lines of what I was thinking....... Worried that I pay for his course and he finds himself out of his league.....wasting time and money.... I am going to call him in today and see how strong his maths skills are....

Wondering if I should'nt let him do some retail courses aiming him towards business seeing as he is in the environment......
 
I am not sure that a progamming course is appropriate for someone who is PC illiterate. Maybe start with an introduction to computers course.
 
Kilgore_Trout_Redux said:
I am not sure that a progamming course is appropriate for someone who is PC illiterate. Maybe start with an introduction to computers course.
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Alright, Introduction to Computer course, show me a link for a correspondence course......

If he wish's to go into the field, let's test him out at the start, if he performs then I have no issue paying him to go further.... nothing ventured, nothing gained......
 
Mortymoose said:
I have a worker, who comes from a remote part of the country.

He is a young chap with real basic education.

He is employed as a Retail Assistant.

I feel that there might be more to this chap and would like to encourage him to take a distance education course.

He reckons he will enjoy computers and was keen to choose programming.

I ain't convinced that he can just jump into this field and want him to first prove his worth in a very simple and basic course,

Like introduction to Computers , something really cheap and meaningful, seeing as I will be paying for this, I don't want him to jump in at the deep end and "waste" my dosh.

It has to be something that he can do via the postal service...... Can you suggest something to start him off......?

:confused:
Click to expand...

When he's proven himself, you can look at the following short courses from UNISA: http://cs-cert.unisa.ac.za/
 
Thanks for all the feedback, it is appreciated and noted.

I have an old xp box lying around here somewhere that I can give to the lad,

Anyone got a link to a SA company that offers the course ?

:confused:
 
Wow! got a fright on pricing of these correspondence courses. R4500 average for an introduction to Pc's (Win 7) ! :wtf:

Back in the day I recall Comptia A+ was going for around R1200........

Guess I am out of the loop for a good decade.....

This chap better perform or I shall be pissing money into the wind........

Wondering how these online colleges justify their pricing~ :confused:
 
https://www.udemy.com/computers/

Something like an online training/instructor course might be a good starting point? Unless you are specifically looking at getting him some certification in the process...

I can't vouch for it though as I haven't tried it myself.
 
Mortymoose said:
Wow! got a fright on pricing of these correspondence courses. R4500 average for an introduction to Pc's (Win 7) ! :wtf:

Back in the day I recall Comptia A+ was going for around R1200........

Guess I am out of the loop for a good decade.....

This chap better perform or I shall be pissing money into the wind........

Wondering how these online colleges justify their pricing~ :confused:
Click to expand...

I paid 5k and included all the courses I mentioned including the introduction to Word/Excel etc. in 2005 not sure how much it would be now.

Also sometimes the University has courses for computers, I did my GIS and CAD course through them.
 
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