Traineeship in Network Engineering with IT Career Switch

Traineeship in Network Engineering

It came to pass that I'd finished my Traineeship in Network Engineering at Robust IT in Harlow and I wasn't getting a single offer of work. I saw an advert on the Colchester Jobs forum to pay £1100 over 10 months to gain another traineeship this time with a job guarantee to expand on some of the work I've already covered with Robust. Basically IT Career Switch do not require you to pass all the exams externally, but they leave the option open for you to buy your own exam voucher and so them externally. If I complete all the courses they want me to complete I should have 7 IT certifications by the end of 2026 and 8 by the end of 2027. The qualifications we study for on this course that we can take are as follows:

The Full Programme I'm working on:

  1. CompTIA Tech Plus
  2. CompTIA A+
  3. CompTIA Network Plus N10-009 (exempt for passing with Robust)
  4. CompTIA Security Plus. (which I'm doing with Robust as well)
  5. Cisco CCNA
  6. Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ900 exempt as a passed with Robust)
  7. Certified Ethical Hacker (which I'm doing with Robust)
  8. Microsoft Security, Compliance & ID Fundamentals (SC900 I've passed)

1. CompTia Tech Plus (FC0-U71)

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This exam covers all computing basics. Some of which are relatively simple but there is a lot that is fundamental and very useful knowledge to a budding network engineer. I've passed the internal knowledge check already with 89% but when I moved on to doing some passed papers for the external exam there weer still plenty of things to work on. Teaching consists of videos with IT Career Switch but I've purchased some mocks for myself to learn with from Pocket Prep. There are 600 questions to play with on there and some other papers on Udemy. I'm looking to complete the video course this week so I can concentrate on the past papers.

The syllabus consists of the following primary learning outcomes:

 

CompTIA Tech+ (FC0-U71) Exam Domains

 

The following are the six domains for the CompTIA Tech+ (FC0-U71) exam and their respective weight on the exam:

  1. IT Concepts and Terminology (13%):
    • Covers the basics of computing (input, processing, output, storage).
    • Includes notational systems (binary, hexadecimal, decimal, octal).
    • Covers common units of measure (storage, speed, throughput).
    • Explains the troubleshooting methodology.
  2. Infrastructure (24%):
    • Focuses on setting up and managing IT infrastructure, including hardware and networks.
    • Covers computing devices (smartphones, servers, IoT devices) and internal components (CPU, RAM, storage, NIC).
    • Includes storage types, peripheral device setup (printers, scanners), and device interfaces (USB, HDMI, Ethernet).
    • Covers virtualization and cloud concepts (IaaS, SaaS, PaaS).
    • Explores networking basics (LAN/WAN, IP/MAC addresses, routers, switches) and wireless networks.
  3. Applications and Software (18%):
    • Covers operating systems (mobile, desktop, server, embedded) and their components (file systems, interfaces, utilities).
    • Explains different types of software (productivity, collaboration, web browsers) and their proper use.
    • Covers web browser features, and common uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) like chatbots.
  4. Software Development Concepts (13%):
    • Introduces programming languages (interpreted, compiled, scripting) and basic data types.
    • Covers fundamental programming concepts (variables, functions, objects).
    • Explains organizational techniques like pseudocode and flowcharts.
  5. Data and Database Fundamentals (13%):
    • Explains the value of data and information in a business context.
    • Covers basic database concepts, structures (flat file vs. database), and purposes.
    • Includes data storage, persistence, and availability.
  6. Security (19%):
    • Covers basic cybersecurity measures and best practices.
    • Explains security concepts like confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
    • Focuses on methods to secure devices (anti-malware, firewall, patching) and authentication concepts (single-factor, multi-factor).
    • Discusses encryption, password management, and security awareness.

This certification is designed to provide a broad foundation of tech literacy for those new to IT or those in tech-adjacent roles.

Pocket Prep and udemy Mocks

Pocket Prep give you a breakdown of where your strengths and weaknesses on the syllabus lie. They guarantee a pass if you get you average up to 80%. At the moment early on in the drilling of the information it's a creditable 63% overall. You can see the main weaknesses are in programming and databases that I haven't covered yet. I'm hoping to sit this by the end of in my favourite test centre in Little Braxted near Witham and pass.

COMPTIA Tech+