If I wanted to learn how to drive, would it be prudent of me to learn to drive a car or learn how to drive a bus first? I'm assuming I can't drive and therefore looking to learn, the most suitable way.
The obvious answer is learn to drive a car first, as driving a bus would be very difficult for someone who's inexperienced. Likewise would you consider doing a difficult IT course or one which introduces you to a particular technology and methodically builds the knowledge during the training?
Again, it's obvious that for someone who has no previous IT experience, the best way forward would be to do introductory training, which builds up knowledge as you progress during the training.
So what relevance do the driving and IT training examples above have? Well, they try to show the importance of doing things in a way which maximises someone's chances of succeeding. It's akin to the old saying of learning to walk first before trying to run.
Unfortunately there are some IT training companies which may try to metaphorically get you to run before you can walk. They do this by trying to sell prospective learners training which they are not suited to. That is training which is designed for experienced people.
They know they can charge more money for these advanced IT training programmes, compared to the introductory training and therefore through shear greed try to capitalise on higher revenues.
The quality IT training companies will follow the guidelines which are set by those who developed the IT training including their own guidelines on who can take these training programmes.
These are known as pre-requisites, so just as learning to drive a bus for example, a pre-requisite of being able to drive at least a car is required. Likewise learning about web servers, requires some pre-requisite knowledge about the world wide web and the associated standards.
These pre-requisites determine suitability and are designed to ensure those undertaking the training are getting the right training. Plus they are getting value for money as trying to learn something advanced, without satisfying the pre-requisites will be a waste of money.
Those who know relatively little about IT and/or very little experience of working in IT, need to consider doing some form of introductory training first. So if I wanted to learn about databases, starting Oracle 11g, Microsoft SQL 2008 or IBM DB2 training would be ill advised.
As the these training programmes would probably all assume some understanding of relational databases. Instead a better option might be to, take training in Microsoft Access 2007 and learn about database tables, relationships and queries. Such a course could be done relatively inexpensively at a local college.
Armed with this database knowledge will make the transition into the realm of the heavy hitter's databases such as from Oracle, Microsoft and IBM easier.