Computers have really stormed the world. Its now become a part of life that cannot be shrugged off or neglected. While I was in HSC, we had a new vocational stream called as Computer Engineering and this was the time when computer education was gaining momentum. It was the time when my dad had taken a loan and “secured” admission to Aptech Computer Institute. The course was a dragging 3 year course with a fee of Rs. 30, 000. Ever since there was a surge and institutes started sprouting rapidly. There was Informatics, Boston, Edit, CMS, Arena, Network Institute etc. Soon enough we had students passing from this insitute and opening their own training centers and we have Sai Computer Institute, Hari Computers etc. and institutes that are only 80 sq. feet and having 2 computers and one illiterate teacher. Things went from bad to worse. Quality of teaching went down but institutes kept on roping students offering them a debatable 100% placements and 1 pc/person etc. Students lost faith and interest mid-way but parents continued spending anywhere from Rs. 5, 000 to Rs. 50, 000. Besides the field is also so volatile that any knowledge gained was made redundant within 6 months. So what was the efficacy of a 2 year course? Institutes kept on changing focus from C, FoxPro etc to C++, Oracle, VB but continued admissions for Dos and WordStar (amazing!). Even now you can see the shift from E-commerce and Java to C# and .Net.
So what is present scenario? Aptech is in hospital with Oxygen and Saline but still breathing and recuperating whereas WinTech is a shameful story of using pirated software and absconding owners living the students and parents brooding. So currently there are two strong contenders who are hale and hearty – the old and experienced NIIT and the young and dynamic SSi. Yet you will find praises and bad words for both these institutes. So again it varies from Centre to Centre. If you read what Jilmil has to write on NIIT, you’ll be shocked. So do read it.
But my experience with SSi is different. I joined the Java@ SSi batch because I wanted to learn Java since it was gaining popularity as a powerful language for distributed environment. But why SSi? I did a little research of my own and here are the results:
1. Software Solution Integrated Limited, Chennai is one of the emerging institutes offereing advanced Technology training and Consultancy Services. (Young and Dynamic)
2. The company has in-house ISO9001 approved Content Development Group with partnership with software giants like Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Oracle. (Which means original licensed software)
3. SSi is rich. It has acquired Indigo Technology Inc., USA, involved in 50:50 partnership with Nasdaq in developing trading software. Besides, it has acquired 3rd Agenda (leader in web development), Indsoft Systeck (manufacturers of training CDs) and is currently acquiring AlbionOrion Company LLC of Delaaware, USA (developers for CRM and supply chain solutions). This implies more benefits in course, more centers, more investments in institutes.
4. SSi is rated by Dun and BradStreet in Top 500 publicly listed company.
5. It runs more than 400 centres worldwide such as in India, Sri-Lanka, Nepal, Malaysia, United States and even in China.
ARE YOU IMPRESSED?
Locally I learned that all teaching staff is not recruited by franchise centers but from SSi main center. Also all exams are conducted and certificate awarded from SSi, Chennai.
So I joined the course at their new center in Matunga, Mumbai for Rs. 13, 000 with Rs. 500 as library deposit.
Plus points:
Good administration, decent space, two computer laboratories, nice collection of books in Library, nice compiled course material, 1 pc/person. The great advantage is nice, tolerant faculty. Basically java is vast and hence it is not possible to cover al of it. But the faculty here tried to cover most of it in great details and supported the concepts by demonstrating the examples and code written by themselves. Why tolerant? This is because we had students who should have chosen E-Commerce but had joined Java because of the hype. So between important discussions the students kept interrupting with unrelated questions like “What is Kava?”, “What is BizTalk?”, “What is ASP?”. These interruptions irked me to the largest extent possible but the teachers remarkable kept their cool and answered these questions as they kept coming and to the best of their abilities. The course contents are also well-designed. We had advanced Java in our second module and EJB was something new in the market but they updated our syllabus immediately to cover this topic. Talk of dynamism!!!
The Matunga Centre also celebrates festivals and enjoys a playful atmosphere. Recently they had an exhibition of projects in Web Designing, Java and C++, where these projects were made by students (mandatory in their course). The students participating had to explain their projects to the outsiders like school/college students, parents and industry people. This was largely a marketing effort for them but it did benefit those participating and the students visiting since it gave them an inside view. (I got 2nd prize for civil supplies project made using the JFC architecture of Java)
Minus points:
We had trouble fulfilling formalities and getting book from libraries as we were Sunday only batch and the staff (such as Librarian) wouldn’t come on Sundays. So many times we had to come on weekdays. (Of course, later on they did arrange for books etc on Sunday by keeping the required books with faculty, after informing them on Saturday). Then again the classrooms are a bit smaller and a few computers are in bad condition (no display driver or faulty mouse etc). The project time allotted is less.
But overall I am satisfied with the course and my certificate has ‘A’ grade (84%-highest in SSi so far)…. Bragging again!