[UPDATE: since writing this post, there have been many comments below, including several from the Managing Director of Cerco himself. It's well worth reading all of them.
ALSO, since writing this post, Cerco have amended their TV advert so that it no longer claims the average wage of £37k. Steven Emden, MD of Cerco, has given me the link to the new advert which I have agreed to post here. His dedication to Cerco's company reputation is certainly refreshing in this day and age. Here is the advert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6DKF8S5ou4.
Whether or not the contents of this page solely motivated the decision by Cerco to drop the average salary, I don't know, but there is certainly plenty of evidence here to show the power of the consumer opinion on the Internet.]
Original post:
I’m fed up with seeing this company advertising on TV and implying that the IT industry is overpaid and easy. They claim the average salary for an IT support professional is 37 grand! Yeah right. This is no more than a useless statistic engineered to sell their training. I know lots of IT support professionals, most of whom being MCSE and MCSA qualified with many years’ experience, and none of them makes £37k. I just had a quick look on Monster, and there are jobs in central London for “senior IT support” at just £25k, which for London is a pittance.
Frankly, IT support people are generally pretty overworked and underpaid in my experience. Yeah, you can make good money in IT… if you’re good and you have loads of experience. Your average Windows network support guy / gal is going to be lucky to see north of 20 grand. If you’re not already in IT and Cerco are telling you that one of their training courses is going to open up a big money job for you, forget it.
Let’s do another test, this time with TotalJobs.com. Putting in a search for IT Support within 100 mile radius of London reveals 4,495 jobs (as of today). Let’s now apply a salary filter so it will only return jobs paying more than £35k per year. Now it returns 2,066 results, a large number of which get returned despite not actually having any published salary. Put the filter up to £40k, and there’s 1,599 jobs, and again loads of them don’t actually have a salary entered (and I’ll bet it isn’t £37k on offer). Of the jobs that are left that are genuine, the skills listed are Java, J2EE, Oracle, UNIX etc. – the kind of stuff you won’t be learning on a beginner’s training course with Cerco.
Cerco’s course (according to their website) is 20 days. Yep. Just 20. They allow 1 day for “Advanced networking and TCP/IP”. How can you learn anything other than rudimentary basics of TCP/IP in one day? The kind of stuff they are teaching might enable someone to get a junior helpdesk or IT support position, but I reckon £37k would be 5 – 10 years of hard work away.
What I find particularly amusing is that Cerco’s online test on their website only works in Internet Explorer. Because of course everyone uses Internet Explorer right? Surely we ought to expect better from a company offering IT training for others?
[UPDATE: the Cerco quiz does now work in all browsers. You can take the quiz here: quiz.cercotraining.co.uk]
And how much does their magical huge-salary-producing 20 day course cost? Well, they don’t publish the price on their website (presumably they’d rather get you on the phone and do a sales pitch on you), but a search of various training forums reveals the astonishing figure of £4,000!!! You don’t even get a recognised qualification.
Cerco also have an Advertising Standards Agency adjudication against their claims of being able to place their trainees in the workplace.
If you really want to do some IT training, shop around online or speak to your local college or adult training centre. Often there are government subsidies for such courses. But, the best way to learn IT disciplines is on the job and in your own time. For example, if you want to learn basic HTML, you could pay for a 2 or 3 day course and learn less than you would be able to glean from a good book costing £20 – £30. I’m a firm believer in self tuition with books. I have a great library, and I refer to back to it regularly. A much better investment than training in my opinion (with the exception of certified training like MCSE, Zend etc.). And, if you can’t pick up these skills on your own from books, then I’m sorry to say that I don’t believe you will be earning 37 grand as an IT support professional any time soon…
My name is Steven Emden & I am the Managing Director of Both Cerco IT Training & Cerco IT Recruitment.
I can understand anyone’s annoyance at feeling they have been duped by misleading Statements, I know how I felt the first time I saw a Competitors Advert making the same statement as we now make with regard to the average salary of an IT Professional, but our statement together with those of others have been checked and double checked by the ASA [Advertising Standards Authority] and they have confirmed them to be true.
Where Cerco IT Training differs from the rest is when you come to one of our Open Days [a pre-requisite] for being taken onto the Course, or you check our Brochure or Website, we explain how Cerco takes you from being an Entry Level Engineer all the way through to becoming an IT Professional by way of a mix of additional Courses and paid work in the industry, this is the Cerco Fast Track Career Path Programme.
Moreover if you work for Cerco IT Recruitment on Contract Work, again at full market pay rates, they will pay for your additional Courses which include Network+, Server+, Cisco CCNA Module 1, Convergence + and finally Security+.
These Courses are all one week Courses and the normal market rate for taking each one of these Courses is �1000, so the Package of Courses amounts to a sum of 5k which are FREE to our Contractors.
For those preferring to take a Permanent Job role at any stage of The Fast Track Career Path, we will discount the remaining Courses by 35%
Cerco’s motto is “Learn Work & Earn” and we believe that there is no finer way of becoming an IT Professional whose average salary is �37k than by way of The Cerco Fast Track Career Path Programme.
We welcome anyone interested in becoming an IT Professional to come to an Open Day, be tested for their suitability to be trained on the CCSN Course and for a career in IT.
Please don’t knock us or compare us to others, till you read what we say about how we believe you can command that salary, it’s clearly seen in all our Marketing Material and to be heard at our Open Days.
I look forward to welcoming you at some future date at Cerco IT.
Steven M. Emden
Managing Director Cerco IT Training & Cerco IT Recruitment Ltd.
In the interests of fair debate, I am publishing Steven’s comments and thank him for caring enough about his company and reputation to get in touch.
I stand by my assertion that the average IT professional does not earn £37k per year, and I could call up pretty much all the IT support guys I know and confirm that they earn less than that. Statistics can be made to support pretty much any viewpoint, but I don’t believe it is fair to intimate that ours is an easy industry to get into and make loads of money in. Again, the ASA adjudicated against Cerco’s claims of being able to place most of their trainees into the workplace. It is not necessarily the case that someone who pays thousands for Cerco training would be assured of employment.
Anyone looking to get into IT as a career should consider whether they have the aptitude for it, and test this with free / cheaper locally run courses before committing to large expenditure on a qualification that is not universally recognised. For the price of the Cerco training, one can travel to India, and complete a MCSE or MCSA course in a relatively short period of time. This is universally recognised and will open employment doors, but without on-the-job experience, don’t expect to be paid £37k, because you just won’t get that much.
Thanks David. I am one of the many whose trade is faultering in the UK, so having decided to train for the future I was looking to Cerco. I’m no mug, and I thought the whole training and ‘employment found’ was sounding just a little too good. As you rightly stated, the inital phone call from Cerco no mention of costs for the course were discussed as everything would be detailed at the forthcoming open day. I was preparing for the ‘hard sell’ campaign following the presentation. I think I shall be looking elsewhere for my further education, or at 51, maybe I should just wander off into the sunset.
Again, thanks for the heads up, I sincerely hope others get to read the piece you have posted. Rgds, AS
Is it a coincidence that Cerco sounds like Cisco? Is is this me being a little cynical? The more I delve into this ‘training’, the more I’ve started to feel that I was about to be mugged. Rgds, AS
Ande,
Thanks for your comments. I have no personal experience of Cerco and based this article on their advertising, the ASA report and the numerous forums I have visited. I suspect Cerco have a few large companies with IT call centres that they feed staff to, and that’s how they place most of their trainees in employment. This type of job does not pay £37,000!
There are plenty of good quality training courses out there. If you have good IT literacy already, there are plenty of options for the same price or less than Cerco charge. I can’t comment on the similarities of the name, but as you mention Cisco…
http://www.ncat.co.uk/cisco-training.htm – these guys do 4 courses over 16 days for £3499. Cisco certified professionals do get paid well.
http://www.ptr.co.uk/redhat-certification-course.html#dates – if you fancy an adventure, what about Red Hat certification? Less jobs around, but again, great pay. These guys have courses from £1700.
Those are just two companies I found with a bit of Googling, so I can’t vouch for their training abilities and I’m not recommending them.
http://www.koenig-solutions.com – these guys do everything. Microsoft, Cisco, Red Hat, Citrix, Java, Oracle, CompTIA. I can vouch for them as a colleague of mine did his MCSE and MCSA with them. The only downside is that they are in India. But, the course includes accommodation, is very fast, and much much cheaper than the UK. You just have to pay for your flights. You can pay more for better accommodation if you like. But for £5000, you could pay for your flights and get fully Microsoft certified – getting a job on £23k – £35k shouldn’t be too difficult with that behind you.
Don’t give up!
Regards,
David
Hi David,
Just my feelings about Cerco.
I wanted a change of career (or even just a proper career), having suffered from severe depression, and having managed to “get out of the rut”, I decided against going back into Public service work (previously having been a Post office transport manager), and decided to take the “Cerco Challenge”.
I paid the 5k for a fast track course, having many PC builds already under my belt, and achieved a 100% pass in both practical and theory, and was presented with the Cerco CCSN certificate.
I then was informed that I would be placed into work as soon as Cerco found me a placement near me (I lived at the time in the village of Selsey on Sea, West Sussex, and the waiting for a placement seemed to go on and on, In the end , I got fed up and started applying locally, and was lucky enough to find a small industrial/military computer assemble, confuguration firm in Chichester, and am still happily working with them after nearly 3 years, but Cerco eventually found me a placement withing a Service centre company based in Stevenage, but working from home around the south coast.
I attended the interview for this position, but would have been earning less than with Kontron UK (my present company), and subsequently refused Cerco’s offer, and with that, they stated that I would not be found any further jobs from them.
During the interview for the Cerco contract, we (there were about 30 or so Cerco guys / gals), were given a test to confirm out suitability for the task in hand (changing hardware from Server racks in Banks at weekend’s) and the answers of the test were told to us to fill in. This smelled heavily of a scam to me.
Also, Cerco not only make the 5 grand per time from the student fee’s, but also earn far more from the contractee’s than they pay out, therefore , I cannot help but feel slightly “ripped off” from the whole affair.
I should have paid for my MCSE in India, but by working hard, and for a good company, now have resonable job security, satisfaction and have gained my compTIA A+, Network+ and an embedded hardware certification, all with Kontron UK, and enjoy occasional travel to Germany (Munich) to boot.
Kindest regards,
Martin Schwanke (Portchester near Portsmouth UK).
Martin,
Thanks so much for detailing your experience. Shame about the £5k, particularly as it appears to be your hard work and not Cerco’s that’s got you to where you are now.
Cheers,
David
Hi all
I am a Cerco graduate and would only recommend their services if you go into it with your eyes open.
I come from a recruitment background, specifically in IT and have seen IT Professionals earning avergae earnings close to that claimed, however as is mentioned previosly, this is after many years of experience, several certifications, and a lot of financial investment later. There is certainly no IT Support positions earning this much.
That said however, I would not have got into IT without it.
Whilst the course is not difficult there is some really interesting points within the course material and gives you a starting point for entry into IT. Because I had previously not had hands on experience in IT and had no IT certifications this was invaluable and i believe they are the reason that I got my first IT job.
Their recruitment service, however, is not great. I did a 2 day contract for them and was paid but at a really low rate and then received no further contact from them regarding permanent opportunities. I strongly suggest not relying on the recruitment team if you complete this course, but I managed to find a permanent position, with a better salary than I was willing to drop to working for a national organisation.
This was almost 2 years ago and since then I have gained a lot of experience and am using this initial certification to launch my IT career.
Overall: I recommend the course as a first step for getting into IT but would certainly do the recruitment yourself and do not expect the average salary on day 1.
Mike
thanks all. appreciate all your comments.
I am also a Cerco graduate & had two tests ( after the initial online test ) at their centre in the Barbican area. I found the course intense as you are learning in 20 days what is really at least a ‘years’ learning in realistic terms for someone totally inexperienced in IT. During the 20 days training ( effectively 4 weeks ) you have two tests per week which you have two attempts to pass; failing at any one of these tests is an automatic disqualification from the course. I nor any one else on my course were ever given the answers to any of the questions other than the information given during the training and there was an emphasis on problem solving and resourcefulness which the instructors felt were imperative for working in an industry that is forever changing.
Prior to attending Cerco I had worked in the family business and had to deal with IT related matters on numerous occasions. As a result of these experiences which I really enjoyed
( sounds geeky I know ), I studied from books and forums and obtained more experience from repairing, building computers and setting up home networks etc. for friends and paying customers and found IT an enjoyable hobby. I do agree it is ridiculous to assume that they can train someone to a professional level from scratch, hence the initial tests to establish the level of knowledge of the various applicants. I am sure that on occasion they admit students who are not of a level to pass the course in the given time, as two failed on my course and no selection process is 100% foolproof.
Any course in IT be it with Cerco or Microsoft is going to be dependent upon the successful graduate gaining subsequent work experience and further training. I and most of the other Cerco graduates on my course found jobs and some with very good companies albeit not at the salary level advertised, although I was only 7k off the advertised salary.
In conclusion, it is an invaluable introduction to the world of IT and should be seen as such. They offer training, guidance and at least in my experience recruitment into a industry which is seeing a monumental growth and will continue to do so in the future. This will only attract more IT wannabes and if a salary of 30k + is to achieved, then it is only logical to assume that if the market is saturated with IT professionals there will be a need for greater experience and qualifications from previous years.
Hi guy’s
I have had my fair share of failed attempts at getting into the IT industry with companies like computeach, and skills train. I was thinking about Cerco, but after reading these post’s, I think I’m going to do my A+ at my local college. it will cost me £500 including the exam, and I also have the option of doing my N+ too.
I have one question. Is Cerco certification, is equivilant to an A+? MCSE? how does it stack up against the more mainstream certs?
Thanks in advance.
Eon,
MCSE is a recognised industry certification and is generally considered the de facto standard for IT support in a Microsoft environment. As far as I’m aware the Cerco certification is not a recognised qualification, although employers may well take it into consideration. But at £5,000, I’d spend my money elsewhere.
Cheers,
David
Thanks for everyone’s comments so far. The input has been invaluable for me as I am ready for a change of career and having some basic interest in IT decided to find out more about the Cerco course from a link given by civvystreet.org. I took Cerco’s online test and only scored 43% on my first attempt, but was told that I had scored enough to consider taking the course. To me that doesn’t seem high enough, but there you go.
Being nearly ‘ripped-off’ by Skills Train I decided to run a Google search on “Cerco IT Training” and have gladly ended-up on this site. The Indian Microsoft course sounds very interesting, but I am not a keen flyer so that’s out.
Plenty more online IT shopping to do so if anyone else has any more useful course links that’d be great!
Anyway, to David Hurst…thanks for the links, I’ll try them out.
Hilz
You sound bitter angry and not well informed. No job in any industry allows you to make large sums without there being some dues being paid. The same is true for IT. If you want to have a go have one but be clear about who and what you are arguing about.
Any discipline requires you learn basics, intermediate level applications and later expertise in a given area. That includes IT.
Cerco is a starting point, no more, no less. You can only earn according to your ability and the opportunities that open up. No one forces you to go onto a course and no one can force you to go in any direction.
Salaries are dependent on ability, experience, opportunity and the ability to seek out meaningful employment. Maybe this is where you failed.
Hardly. My dispute if you care to actually read the article is twofold: firstly, insinuating that people can earn £37k after completing a Cerco course, which is utter nonsense, and; secondly that the cost of £5000 for a qualification that is not industry recognised is excessive.
The ASA has upheld complaints on Cerco’s advertising, and particularly their claims of being able to place students.
As someone who has succeeded at IT, and as an employer who would not consider a Cerco qualification as being any more than a basic level IT proficiency certificate, I have posted my comments to help others who want to get into the industry make an informed choice.
Clearly I have succeeded in the IT industry, and I do earn good money. That’s because I’ve put in 12 years hard graft.
I get very frustrated by people like you who just fire off comments without actually bothering to read anything.
I attended the Cerco course back in 2005 at their Nantwich base and passed it. I waited months and months for any job offers to arise as there were none in my area ( I live in Liverpool!). I was then offered a fixed term contract with a company which didnt even make use of the skills i had learnt. I was installing software and training the users on it, simple as that. After the 6 months the contract ended so i got back on the phone to Cerco and had a really heated debate with the useless sales guy on the phone. He basically said i had had my chnace now and that the new graduates were his priority. He said that he wasnt aware my contract was a 6 month fixed term and that was the end of it. Its a big con. Stay well away
I have been following this thread for some time now with interest and find it amazing how easily people can be mislead by the claims of high earning salaries for ease (relatively speaking) by following a training scheme which lasts for such a small amount of time.
I too work in the IT sector and have around 12 years under my belt, starting at the bottom and working my way up through by gaining experiences and knowledge. Back in 2003 I decided that I had enough experience to get the most out of attaining a recognised qualification and proceeded to study towards and take my MCSE and MCSA credentials. Let me make one thing clear here and now, after over 5 years in the industry, these were no walk in the park! I spent 4 months studying everyday for these exams, the workload was exhausting and very intense, I had no idea it would be so hard. In an ideal world even I would have chosen to have studied over a much longer period of time, there really is THAT much to take on board. At the college I studied at, there was a mixture of experienced IT personnel like myself and people who had decided they were going to have a career change and try attacking the IT sector by gaining one of these sought after qualifications. We had a saying for these people; ‘Paper MCSEs’, after all, anyone can with practice revise for a series of exams by digesting the course material but does that really qualify them to be recognised in the top % of the workforce? Imagine the scene, you are admin for a large corporate with let’s say 2,000 employees across 5 sites. When disaster strikes and it’s YOU who has to deal with it or suffer the consequences, how would you react when you have no real world experience? I put it to you that a 19yr old IT tech with 2 years experience would probably deal with the situation better than someone with little or no experience but with an MCSE. Working in IT isn’t an easy ride, yes, there are good salaries to be had but as with any career path, these are structured and come with time and experience. In keeping in touch with some of my fellow students from back then, it’s interesting to note that a lot of them who had hoped to get into the IT sector were unable to find work, employers aren’t that stupid and know which questions to ask at interview to work out who actually knows what they are doing as well as who has the bit of paper!
I have no personal experience with Cerco or any other outfit which claims to be able to turn you into a high flying IT person ‘overnight’ apart from a little research I carried out when I was planning my own training. I chose then, and I’d still chose the same today, to steer well clear. If I told you I knew a way of making you a brain surgeon or a pilot in a couple of months, would you smell a fish? The truth is it’s not really possible to gain the experience you require in the real world starting from a blank sheet in such a short period of time. That’s not to say I am suggesting you shouldn’t aim for a career in IT, I think it’s a great career but I just don’t want to see anyone waste their money and end up in a position where they are out of their depth and regret ever coming into the industry, and that only applies to the minority who could ever hope to achieve the salaries quoted (we are in recession after all), for the most, I suspect that after completing one of these training courses the best you could hope for is working as front line support engineer behind a phone which let me tell you, isn’t glam and doesn’t earn the big bucks.
There is no substitute for experience, there are no short cuts. My advice is to start at a junior level in a progressive company that with give you the experience that you need to prepare for one of the sought after qualifications, then and only then, when you are ready speak with the company and see if they have any opportunities to sponsor the cost of the training, most will at least consider this option. With some hard work and determination, there is no reason why you can’t earn some good money, but it will come with time, please don’t be fooled into thinking there is a quicker way; there isn’t.
As for Cerco, for those who don’t know a lot about then, save yourself the effort of doing the research, keep an eye on Watchdog on the BBC, I’m sure they will be making an appearance one day soon.
Working in IT is all about using and applying logic. If you really think you can earn this much in such a short period of time and be as good as guaranteed a good job, I’d have to question your logic and question just how suitable you are for a job in IT in the first place.
In summary, IT is a great career path. I enjoy what I do greatly and find a lot of reward, both financially and in terms of job satisfaction but it has taken me 12 years to get where I am today. It has been damn hard work with a lot of personal struggles along the way. I’d encourage anyone to give it a go, but would suggest you go about it the right way and put experience above the promise of anything else. In time you will know enough to attain a proper industry recognised qualification, not some useless piece of paper which essentially says ‘sucker’
Please note these are just my personal views based on my own experiences and knowledge of the industry, I’d suggest anyone who is interested do proper research and make up their own mind before committing to anything.
Thanks for that Mike – very detailed. Just out of interest, as a qualifed MCSE MCSA, with 12 years behind you, how does your salary compare to Cerco’s “average”?
I only ask because it took me 8 years just to get to 30K. In order to get past that and the Cerco “average”, I had to start my own company and make it successful.
Well, it’s difficult to quantify exactly without going into detail as my package includes various benefits, but, it would be fair to say my basic salary is considerably less that what Cerco claim, and I have been in the industry for 12 years. My current role see’s me managing the entire ICT department within our organisation with encompases responsibility for 27 sites nationally.
I’d be interested to see what Cerco could claim they could offer me in one of there placements, I’d imagine with my skillset and experiences they would claim over £100k
LOL
Agree with your comment David, to get anywhere near the Cerco ‘average’ would, in my opinion, take many years, certainly 5 if you were very lucky but most probably at least 10.
That’s not to say there wouldn’t be a few who make it a lot quicker through being in the right place at the right time but we are of course talking about Cerco claim of an AVERAGE salary…
hi guys every single word about that flase advertisment is true. I will never pay 5000 for CCSN, i can do CCNP in that amount and anyway will anyone tell me what the hell that CCSN stands for.
As the MD of Cerco IT Training and Recruitment, I have been reading the Blogs concerning Cerco and feel that the time has come to correct a lot of misinformation that has been put out by a number of people who have expressed an opinion, without bothering to be really informed as to what Cerco claims & does.
Firstly may I state that the figure quoted of £37k as being the salary of an I.T Professional, is the same figure as quoted by our Competitors and has been rigorously checked and double checked by the ASA [ Advertising Standards Agency] prior to our and our competitors’ adverts going out.
Secondly if you read our brochure or look on our website under the heading Career Path, you will clearly see that under no circumstances do we suggest that you are going to be earning £37k after finishing our 15 day Fast Track Course. In fact what we say is that for every 4 months of Contract Work, working for Cerco’s Contract Division, you will be given Free of Charge, further I.T Courses that over 36 months will lead you to becoming an MCSE I.T. Professional whose average salary is £37k, this whilst earning full market pay from Cerco.
An MCSE without the corresponding work experience is pointless but with the right work experience is something to be valued.
We furthermore clearly state at our Open Days that the starting salary if you work for our Contract Division is £20,800 [annualised] and if we find you a starting Perm job role, expect about £16.5k.
You may be attracted initially by our and others’ adverts as to what salary is possible in the future but by the time you have been to one of our Open Days you will have no doubt as to what you can expect after completing our Course.
With regard to the Cerco Course not being a recognised Course, well we state that it is recognised by Industry in the UK and should you be invited to an Open day in Crewe, I am more than happy to open our sales ledgers to show you which well known Companies use us, names that you will have heard of as being leaders in Industry. I believe that if you are entrusting £3995 with us to secure your future, you are entitled to satisfy yourself that what we claim is in fact correct.
The reality is that you only require the training so that you can get started in the Industry and the Cerco Course which is vocational rather certification based, is not only the right way but also the fastest way to get started. Certification follows on once you are established in the Industry and if you work for Cerco’s Contract Division you will get all the certification required for FREE, why because the more you learn the more you earn and so will Cerco.
Finally think on this, we only accept 300 a year onto The Fast Track Course, so we can afford to be careful as to whom we accept and consequently before you are accepted you have to pass 2 Tests and a personal interview. Why do we do this? Well put simply we know the calibre of the person our Employer Partners expect from us and as our Recruitment Side of the Business is 4 times bigger than our Training Side we cannot take chances with our reputation.
I am not going to say that Cerco is perfect but I believe that we are pretty good for what we say on our tin we fulfil.
If you are looking to enter the I.T. Industry give us a try, take the On Line Quiz, to see if you are invited to an Open Day and then ask all the questions you want and that way you will be able to make up your own minds rather than listen to ill informed comments.
Oh by the way we pay you £0.20 per mile to visit us in our Training/Recruitment Centre in Crewe, we do this because we have nothing to hide and everything to be proud of.
Looking forward to meeting you – if you’re good enough.
Regards
Cerco IT Training and Recruitment
Just to clarify…
I at no point disputed the math behind the £37k average salary statement.
As any mathematician knows, mean averages do not always represent real life particularly well. For instance, the vast majority may earn a very small amount, whereas a small minority may earn a particularly large amount. Once salaries go above the higher tax rate, they tend to increase at a much faster rate. In these scenarios, mean averages will never give an accurate representation of the majority.
Take a simple example with 10 IT professionals:
Person A is a junior support technician and earns £15,000
Person B is a front line support team leader and earns £18,000
Person C is a front line support technician and earns £16,000
Person D is a front line support technician and earns £16,500
Person E is a front line support supervisor and earns £20,500
Person F is a junior support technician and earns £15,750
Person G is a junior programmer and earns £19,000
Person H is a senior consultant programmer and earns £98,000
Person I is a systems analyst and earns £60,000
Person J is a contract Java developer and earns £100,000
The mean average salary from the above pool is £37,875. It would be “correct” to state therefore that the average salary for an IT professional is £37k, but it wouldn’t really be accurate or a fair reflection of the facts. The term “IT professional” can encompass these very junior positions where a minimum level of skill and competence is required, but it can also encompass highly skilled positions that the vast majority of IT professionals will never attain. The phrase also encompasses basic disciplines, such as IT support (the sort of thing you learn from these sort of courses), but also highly skilled programming and analytical disciplines, for which a vast amount of experience, knowledge and skill is required.
I think this post, by virtue of the comments, has become a bit of a slagging off for Cerco, which is probably not entirely justified. They are not alone in the market. I have no cross to burn and have no experience of Cerco personally. My objection, and reason for writing the post, is that using spin statistics to sell a product is (in my humble opinion) misleading.
I have had numerous emails from people who feel like they got suckered by the advertising, and so I would love to see Cerco set the lead here. Steven Emdem (who probably hates my guts) clearly cares about his company, so I challenge him to be more transparent in his advertising (and also make his quiz work in Firefox!!!).
I still also maintain that you can enter the IT industry at base level, without spending thousands of pounds. For young people, there are always opportunities on something like modern apprenticeships. Whilst an NVQ doesn’t really mean much in the professional IT world, the experience you gain will be valuable.
I earn good money from IT, and I am not alone, but I have had an active interest in computing since a young age. I was writing BASIC code at age 12. I’ve built upon my skills over the last 13 – 14 years, working initially in IT support, moving into multimedia development, and then advanced web development and SEO. Latterly, I have achieved success through setting up a company. This has been a long process with a lot of hard work, and throughout I have spent precisely £0 on training courses, preferring instead to teach myself from books and just throwing myself in at the deep end.
My comment about MCSE training had nothing to do with gaining the average salary quoted by Cerco, nor did I intimate that such a qualification would lead to that salary. In fact, if you look at Mike’s comments above, you will see that that is not the case at all. I do however feel that a Microsoft certified qualification will be more valuable to potential employers than one issued by Cerco – that’s just my opinion.
Bear in mind also that as a recruitment company, Cerco surely make a commission on your placement, which will ultimately reduce your salary. As a recruiter, if I have to pay out £2k to a recruitment company, I’m afraid the salary on offer will also reduce by precisely that much. That’s life and business unfortunately.
There are comments above from people who rate Cerco, and from those that don’t. There are comments from industry insiders that have no personal experience of Cerco, and there are detailed comments from Cerco’s MD himself. You pays your money, you takes your choice.
Dear Mr. Hirst
In answer to your recent Blog, firstly I do not hate you, because you feel that it is your duty to protect the unwary and for that I respect you. However I do think that there are an awful lot of other training Companies that you could turn your attention to, especially the ones miselling MCSE’s to their customers who do not have the pre-requisite to undertake the Course [experience in the industry] or those Companies that fail to advise their customers what their course completion rate is, because it is so low.
Yes you are correct I care very much about Cerco because I truly believe that we do a good job in starting people on the road to a career in the world of I.T.
We follow what Microsoft say on their website which in a nutshell is “Before embarking on MCP’s first get work experience in the industry”.
Cerco’s CCSN 15 day Fast Track vocational course gives the knowledge and skills necessary to get you started in the industry, our Recruitment Division gets you the jobs and even employs you, and our Career Path Programme further develops your skills with Certification as when your experience warrants it, for Free.
We seem to only disagree about two things, one being the average salary of an I.T Professional [MCSE with 3 years experience] and all I can say on that matter is that the ASA have accepted our figures, and finally is our Website and On Line Quiz accessible using Firefox and once again I am sorry to disagree with you, but when we redid our On Line Quiz in November, remembering your previous downer on us, I paid special attention to making certain it can work with Firefox and it does.
In July last, I asked you to act as a mystery prospective student, I again extend that offer to you, take the On Line Quiz using Firefox using an alias, see how we contact you, come to an Open Day and see how we act. After doing all this please contact me so that we can arrange to meet at which time you will give me your informed opinion of our performance.
At that stage if you are still skeptical of our Course, I will invite you to take it free of charge so that you can see for yourself why so many known Companies choose Cerco Graduates instead of new students who have all the certification but no work experience.
Regards
Steven Emden
Hi
I attended the Cerco course back in January 2007 for the sum of £3995. The only I.T knowledge I had before taking the course was gained from tinkering with desktop pc’s at home and work. At the time I was a very unhappy hotel manager extremely bored with the catering industry.
I can honestly say I was never under the impression I would be earning £37k after the end of the 4 week course lol. I was informed that a full time position would be a minimum of £16k. I was contracting for Cerco after the course and was earning around £20k average.
I was eventually taken on full time by one of the companies I was contracting for and I am still employed by them now.
With hard work and constant studying I firmly believe you can achieve anything the hardest part is getting your foot at the bottom of a very long ladder and for me this is what Cerco achieved for me. I believe in time I will be earning £37k at present I earn a £20k basic which I think is a good starting salary. I am currently studying for my CCNA and I am hoping to do my Server + very soon.
I am now a Very happy I.T engineer extremely proud of my position. Without the Cerco course I would probably still thinking what if…….
Steven,
Firstly, my name is Hurst, not Hirst, lest I should be confused with the former Sheffield Wednesday player.
Thanks for your offer of a free course, but I’m afraid I simply do not have the time to take weeks off from running a busy company to trial your services. Perhaps you could extend this offer to another reader on this page and they could report back?
Of course the ASA accept your figures. You submit simple math with a mean statistic, so they have no choice but to accept it. As I have shown, mean averages do not work well in some circumstances. Let’s just be honest here: you have a neat statistic that improves the success rate of your advert, and so you use it. I, and other hard working individuals in the IT industry, resent the suggestion implied in your advert that ours is an easy industry to work in and earn good money in. Whilst, your candidates may be clearly told what salary to expect during the sign up process, the TV commercial certainly does not make this clear.
And again, I personally do not know ANY MCSE qualified people with just 3 years behind them that are on £37k. Maybe in London, but not in other parts of the country, in my experience.
I wrote this post because the advert on TV irritated me. I am aware that there are other training companies out there making the same claims, but this was never intended to be an exhaustive review of such companies. I never expected the post to be so popular either.
I think you have represented yourself well in the comments on the post, and there is a fair balance of comments from both sides of the fence. I too have made my point, and will bow out of the debate here. Readers can review all the information presented and make the best choice for them.
Thanks for getting involved.
Regards,
David
Some facts about Cerco Training Ltd.
The original Cerco Training Ltd, founded in 1989, went into liquidation. They just shut their doors owing creditors and students thousands of pounds.
Steven Emden did not purchase the comapny only its assests. The intellectual property (course notes) of Cerco Traing Ltd being sold by the liquidators for £1.
Steven Emden then proceeded to advertise the new Cerco using the history of the liquidated company. In 2005 complaints were made to the Advertising Standards Agency who found Cerco guilty of misrepresentation. The ASA ordered Cerco to stop their misleading advertising campaign.
Even now, Steven Emden still thinks that his company has existed for 19 years when he states that Cerco IT Training… “have been training ex-forces for over 19 years”. When will the MD of this new comapny realise he cannot continue misleading people?
It is interesting to note that the quote by B Griggs, Head of MOD Operations, Fujitsu Services on Cerco IT Training’s opening web page has no date whereas all the other testimonials do. This is because it relates to the liquidated Cerco Training not the new Cerco IT Training.
Perhaps more complaints to the ASA are due.
Dear John Doe [only you know if the name is apt]
I have read your blog with great interest and feel that the facts as portrayed by yourself give a very slanted view of matters regarding Cerco. I assume this is either because a) you have some axe to grind with myself or b) wish to take some commercial advantage. Whichever is the case here are the facts as seen from our side. I will then leave it to the readers to judge the situation for themselves.
Firstly, in February 2003 Cerco went into Receivership as instructed by the previous South African owners with whom I have no connection. In March 2003 I purchased the company, including its name and assets from the receiver for the sum of £30,000. I also took over the employment liabilities for all the existing staff, some of whom are still with me to this day. Upon purchasing the company I immediately wrote to all 21 students who had been on the course when the company went into receivership and offered to complete their training for no further payment. I am pleased to say that 14 out of the 21 students took me up on my offer and subsequently completed the course and were found employment in the IT industry. By law I had no reason to take this action, but felt then as I still do today that this was the correct action to take.
You may also be interested to know that rather than buy the company on the cheap and make a fast buck, I and my Pension Fund have since invested over £1.75 million in the Company, nothing good ever comes cheap.
Secondly, with regard to the 2005 ASA ruling stating that Cerco should not have claimed the goodwill associated with its then 15-year history, may I ask you all to think on the following – If I bought the company, the name, the intellectual property rights, employed the staff and also all the equipment all of which has since been upgraded and replaced, would you think it fair to say that the company has been training since 1989? I know that the ASA say otherwise but I believe our new website which is under construction at this moment and our new brochure both due to come out in May will clarify matters both to the satisfaction of the ASA and John Doe.
Finally with regard to B Griggs of Fujitsu and his testimonial not being dated, I am pleased to inform John Doe that B Griggs is still at Fujitsu and has provided a new testimonial that will be used on the new website when it is launched. This time it will be dated.
Cerco IT Training and Recruitment has come a long way since I took over in 2003 and our emphasis is now not only on the training side but also on our recruitment/contract side which is now 3 times as large as our training arm. No longer does Cerco have to give their students away for free to other recruitment companies as was the case when I purchased the business. This is solely due to the high quality of our students and our training programme that we are now able to act in our own right as a recruitment/contract company.
Cerco is never complacent. We are aware that there is always room for improvement. However, if all John Doe can complain about is an undated testimonial, an old ASA ruling, the length of time Cerco has been in business and what I paid for the company, we cannot be that bad.
Whilst writing my reply I had a thought about the 7 students who never took up my offer to complete their course. If any of the 7 are reading this and would still like to be trained or would like to attend our Network+ and Server+ Courses for free then I would be happy to oblige. This offer is made in all good faith as once again there is no legal obligation for me to make it.
Ladies and gentleman, these are the facts as I see them from the Cerco perspective. I now leave it to you to form your own opinion of myself and Cerco.
Steven M Emden
Managing Director
Cerco IT Training and Recruitment Ltd
Further to Steven Emden’s Reply.
My input, as he concedes, is totally true.
* They are to rewrite their brochure.
* They are updating the comments made by B Griggs.
* He bought the name and assests but not the company.
* All employees were made redundant and he did not employ all previous staff as stated, only some.
How can my views be expressed as slanted when they are facts in the public domain?
Lets ask Joe Public … Who do you believe Steven Emden or the Advertising Standards Agency (an organisation set up to protect the public)
I certainly will be looking very carefully at their new website and brochure for any more untruths.
I did a Cerco Course a few years ago when it was based at Nantwich.
I passed with no problems and found the course okay.
My only gripe was the “guaranteed employment” – the only offer I had was working for Mastercare installing and fixing Curry’s and PC World customers PC’s for less than £15K a year.
When I told Cerco that I didn’t want this role, they informed me that they had honoured their part of the bargain and would not strive to get me any further roles.
I certainly wouldn’t pay £5K to do another of their course
I did the Cerco course in back 2002 when it was 6 weeks long, they must have trimmed it down quite a bit to complete in 15 days. I was offered a job via the recruitment arm but it required me to do a further 6 weeks training with the employer in Leeds which I declined as I had just spent 6 weeks in the north and I live near Bristol. Cerco said they had fulfilled their obligation and cut me loose.
Off my own back between 2003-2007 I was lucky enough to obtain security clearance and averaged over £40k a year doing various contracts but since then the IT industry has fallen of a cliff rate wise and I struggle to find work paying half what I could previously command with 6 years experience I might add!
On that basis I too find it quite irritating that training companies continue to advertise such a high salary as an ‘industry average’ as it just isn’t realistic anymore not to mention the huge competition for every job advertised at every level.
I would advise anyone thinking of a career change to think long and hard before they pay for a course as the IT bubble has truly burst due to ‘off shoring’ and ‘outsourcing’ in the IT support sector, that coupled with the government giving work permits to non UK residents because they were wrongly advised of a skills shortage has forced pay down to level of office temp.
If I could spend £4k on training again I’d spend it on learning a trade such as electrician, plasterer or plumber.
Dear Mr. Hurst
I have taken the step of updating our latest TV Advert to prove to you that Cerco does take note of constructive criticism. This advert will shortly be available for viewing on Sky TV.
I noted your concerns about our claim that was upheld on three separate occasions by the ASA, that an I.T Professional’s average salary was £37k. Whilst Cerco and nearly all other I.T training companies use a similar figure, I appreciate that the figure is arbitrary and should an individual I.T Professional not be earning this figure then he/she would feel aggrieved and be entitled to say so.
Consequently our new advert does not mention a salary and likewise when both our new Website and Brochure are completed (hopefully by the end of this month) all references to salary will be absent.
Our new advert concentrates on the facts that have again been checked and approved by the ASA which are:
1] Our 15 day Fast Track Course is Industry recognised. This is proven by the fact that companies such as Fujitsu, BT I.T. Engage, Carillion, DSGI etc. employ both on contract and in permanent roles our graduates. A Cerco student does not do unpaid work placement to gain experience. This is gained through our vocational 15 day training programme.
2] Our Recruitment Division’s is 3 times larger than that of our training arm. Actually, for the first 4 months of this year it was 3.7 times larger, but I decided to err on the side of caution.
These are the facts that I believe are important to those looking for training to enter a new career in I.T. Support. Both of these make us unique in the I.T. training field. As for everything else, our standards of selection remain high and that is why we are successful on our recruitment side. Employers not only like our training programme and methods, they also like the fact that we only train those who we believe are suitable for both the training and a career in I.T. We can afford to be selective because we only want to train a maximum of 340 students a year unlike Distance Learners who are in need of thousands of students a year.
Because I appreciate that your Blog Site is there to protect the wary, I repeat my invitation to visit us in our Crewe Training Centre so that you can evaluate for yourself whether our claims for our training methods and recruitment team are justified. In fact we make this offer to all prospective candidates and actually pay them a mileage allowance to visit us.
Looking forward to meeting you in the not too distant future.
Regards
Steven M. Emden
Steven,
This is fabulous news!
As stated previously, I am bowing out of the debate. My issue was with the salary claim more than anything else, and as I have no personal experience of your course, my comments are based purely on the advertising and what I have read through research.
There are both positive and negative comments on this page and I think that visitors should be able to form an informed opinion of whether this training is right for them or not. You have also been very active on the comments which speaks volumes for how you care about your business, and the fact that criticisms have been taken on board and have shaped your future advertising also reflects positively on Cerco and yourself.
Might I suggest that you upload your new ad to YouTube? I’ll put a link here and an update box at the top of the page in return.
Again, thank you for your kind offer to come visit. Crewe is some distance away from me, and any time I get away from the office I choose to spend with my family or in non-work related recreation! Perhaps you could instead offer a place on the course to anyone else on this page? Might be a good PR exercise.
Thanks for taking an interest in my blog. I don’t particularly set out to be some protector of the wary, I just blog about issues that affect me personally. Sometimes they get read, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes my posts take off like this one and stir up debate. I can be outspoken, but I also aim to play fair and I appreciate this post may have been disadvantageous to your company in some respects. As I’ve said, if you are able to put the advert up, I’ll update the page accordingly. If not, I’ll update the page once I’ve seen it on TV.
Regards,
David
Unfortunately I was one of the many duped by the Cerco sales pitch. I remember my first, and many subsequent, phone calls to Cerco before I booked up and every time I was told about the 37k. The sales pitch even continued through the teacher in Barbican; every other statement involved the “pitch”.
I completed the course with distinction and then waited for nearly 3 months before Cerco found me an interview. And I live within M25, London area!! During the wait I applied for lots of positions and even landed a couple of interviews. What I did not expect was the look on the interviewers face when i showed him my pathetic looking Cerco certificate; it was embarrassing to say the least.
But Cerco did eventually get me an interview and I got the job on a six month contract installing software that had absolutely nothing to do with anything I had trained for. The experience isn’t worth a bean because the company was one of only a few using the software. The money was terrible; I earned more driving forklifts before.
I stuck with it until one Friday my manager called and said my contract was not being renewed due to financial reasons and that was that. I called Cerco and explained the situation and was told the priority was given to the new recruits but they try and find something for me. That was in November 2008. I am now unemployed and trying to find a job as courier or forklift driver. My Cerco certificate is worthless in the industry and my experience counts for nothing. I wish to god I had trusted my instincts and avoided Cerco like the plague but what is done is done. They did offer me one day contracting for what equated to minimum wage, not bad for nearly 7 months waiting.
I’m not sure where they got the figure of 20k to contract for cerco came from as they only pay £60 a day for most contracts and hardly ever any fuel costs either, so most often you will earning around £50 per day before tax.
As for the network + security + and so on, they make it sound like after six months you can pop back for a week and get your certificate for a week in the classroom! Utter rubbish! What they forget to tell you is that it takes months to study for one of these exams, you then have to book, pay for, and sit the exam yourself. All Cerco offer is one week training, nowhere near what you need for any of these certificates. It’s all a sales pitch people, admittedly a good one, but a pitch none the less.
So bear this in mind; I live in or next to the best postal codes for work, I passed my Cerco Exam with distinction, I have my own car and a clean license and I have been unemployed for 7 months……….
Please, please, please use your brain and avoid this. Use your money to train at your local college and gain the credentials the industry will recognise and respect.
What an interesting debate? I to did the Cerco Course a few years back and cant speak highly enough of them. Yes i was worried about making the step and it did take a month or so but given time i have got where i wanted. The training gave me a good grounding to be able to go do one of the first contracting roles i was given, which was indirectly with Computacenter. i have since worked on a variety of contracts in London. This has enabled me to get the job i do now for HSBC at Canary Wharf. I have taken advantage of the courses Cerco offer as reward for the hard work i have done. Yes you do have to take the exams elsewhere but the same can be said for other training companies around the country. At the end of the day these one week courses up in Crewe proved essential for me in getting the qualification and didn’t cost me a bean. They would have cost me upto and over a £1000 had i trained with Cerco or anywhere else. The last post from Rick surpises me as i had such good contact with the guys at Cerco both before and after, two sides to every story hey. Pay wise i got £80 a day with expenses that varied from contract to contract. The pay got better as i went on. These guys can only get you in it is upto you to make the most of it and use the experience you have gained to get you the next role. Your first jobs never gonna be exactly what you want you gotta prove to a company you have the skills to do it. All i know is what i know, it worked for me and all of the other 15 people that i did the course with as i still keep in contact with some of them.
I have approved the above comment (#36 by Andy), however I feel the readers should be aware that the comment originated from a Cerco server.
My website captures IP addresses and hostnames for all comments. In this case the comment came from IP 212.57.253.66 which resolves to smtp.cercotraining.co.uk.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the comment is invalid, so I have approved it in the name of fair debate – readers can then make their own judgment.
Hi,
I have signed for cerco’s technicians course and hopefully start soon.
Is there any one who knows about CTC (Cerco’s Technician Course) and experienced it, please share it.
Dear Rick
(I’m sorry but I don’t know your real name, for our record do not show a Rick having attended our course in London),
As the Managing Director of Cerco, I take both seriously and personally any complaint from ex-students who feel let down by Cerco, and I will arrange for all justifiable complaints to be looked into and rectified if humanly possible to do so.
Our Recruitment Division was started in order that we could take responsibility for finding suitable work for our ex graduates not only at the start but also throughout their careers in I.T.
To aid us in this, we arrange to keep a Log Book for each of our graduates from which we can see what jobs they have been offered and accepted plus their job preferences which we endeavour to accommodate if possible. The Log Book also enables us to know when a Cerco contractor is due for his/her free training upgrade under our Career Path Programme.
I admit that there was also a financial reason behind starting the recruitment side, but that was and is secondary to Cerco’s belief that training is only half the job done, the other half is completed upon finding suitable employment for our graduates plus our ongoing commitment to their futures in the industry. I believe that it is this ongoing commitment where you feel that we have let you down.
Rick, I am concerned by your comments and especially surprised that with you living inside the M25, the strongest employment area in the UK, our Recruitment Division has been unable to offer you further employment opportunities since being laid off from your previous full time employer.
I need to get to the bottom of this and would appreciate you contacting our Head of Recruitment Chris Barlow who will not only look into why the problem has occurred, but will also find a solution to it. To this end please contact him in the Crewe centre.
Thank you for highlighting your problem, we will resolve it I’m sure.
I remain yours faithfully
Steven M. Emden
Managing Director
Cerco I.T Training & Recruitment Ltd.
Oh dear.
So now Cerco, it seems, are posting fake comments on this site to try and sway the opinions of good folk trying to find honest information. An I.T training company that can’t mask it’s own ip address says it all really.
I too got duped by Cerco I’m afraid to admit. I’ve tried to make it on my own mostly as I’ve given up on Cerco. But here’s a little more info to help those that are trying to decide
I sought out an I.t contractor on my own and was offered a position paying £135 a day plus 30p per mile for fuel. Excellent. I then get a call from Cerco offering me “a fantastic oppertunity” it was the same position for the same company but in a differnt location. I played along and asked about the salery and was told it paid £60 a day plus 14p per mile fuel!!!!!!!
To say I’m disgusted would be the understatment of the decade, over 50% of my salery taken away is greedy and nasty beyond comparison.
As for the guy who’s been out of work for 6 months how about refunding his money? You havnt lived up to your end of the bargain. Anyone who has been fleeced by Cerco should have their training fees refunded if they are out work for so many months.
It’s all pretty shocking really and I for one will be seeing trading standards soon as I am not earning my promised 37k and am not being fleeced out 50% of my salery any more
Dear Mr Mcnab
Unfortunately we can not find any record of a Mr Mcnab on our database and we are unable to find out what course you did attended.
However; congratulations on getting an entry level position with an annual salary of £35,100 (£135 X 260 days = £35,100)
It shows that our type of training really does work and is accepted by the industry.
Good Luck in your new position!
Kind Regards
Steven Emden MD
Cerco I.T. Training & Recruitment Ltd
Hmmmm, let’s not get carried away with the salary claims again.
It would only be 260 days if you got paid holiday/public holidays on contract work, and sick pay (which you usually don’t). Contract work is not the same as a salary for a full-time job because there is no long-term commitment by the employer. It is because of this uncertainty that you are being paid more pro-rata.
My time as a consultant programmer is chargeable, on average, at £79.50 per hour. So, I must have a salary of £165,360 (£79.50 * 8 * 260) – right? No. It doesn’t work like that, and nor does contract work. I make my hourly rate only for the duration of a project, and a contractor makes his daily rate only for the duration of the contract.
This is a classic example of manipulating figures to support a viewpoint. I thought Cerco were ditching this misleading approach to their marketing. Let’s not forget, if he had done the contract through Cerco at £60 per day, then by Steven’s calculations “Mcnab” would be on a paltry £15,600. If you take out 25 days holiday, then that drops to £14,100. Is Cerco’s profit for the recruitment the balance of £19,500???
We can all play around with figures to support an argument, but let’s not, eh?
please mr Emden do not in any way be under the false impression that Cerco had any part my sucess in landing this position because it did not. as I stated previously I have long since given up on Cerco. Instead I passed my a+ and removed all trace of Cerco from my CV. I landed this role on my own merits together with an industry recognized qualification.
I see you have taken the time to respond only to try and feather your previously bold claims. I see no mention of the 50% fee to are taking from engineers nor a responce to the suggestion of refunding fees to those who have been let down by Cerco? I can understand you dodging the claim of making fake posts as I believe you have well and truely shot yorself in the foot on that one.
Personally I think you have become greedy relying on ridiculous percentage claims over your engineers. Cerco was more credible without the recuruitment division. Train the guys and get them working for 100% of the salary on offer. Give them a chance to reap the rewards of a 4k investment without fleecing them further.
As said before I made it withhout Cerco. I’m 4k down but a lot wiser for it. Get certified the right way and enjoy got salery on all it’s full glory
Dear David
I find myself again in a position of defending Cerco against comments from a person hiding under the use of a pseudonym, & making claims that I cannot defend, as I don’t even know who the person is or what they are talking about. I don’t even know if he/she is really an ex Cerco graduate.
I think that by now you do appreciate the passion that both I and my staff have for Cerco. We know that we are by no means perfect but we are pretty good at what we do and in the main do what we say we will do.
Now may I answer your comments regarding contractors in general?
Under new Legislation that came into effect this April, contractors do have
A] Holiday pay entitlement which we have to cost into our charge out rate
B] Are entitled to Bank Holiday pay if it falls during the week they are working & once again this has to be costed in.
We do inform all prospective students @ our Open Days on our slide presentation about their initial pay prospects as a Fast Track Graduate and this is what the slide states.
“Permanent Entry-Level I.T. jobs start between £16-18k.
Contract positions start between £18-21k annualised.”
In addition those who are unable for various reasons, to undertake our 15 day Fast Track and instead take our 4 day Technicians Course, will be told that their contract pay structure will be £15k annualised.
I don’t know if you know, but Cerco also rewards all its Fast Track Contractors with additional FREE Training Courses [Career Path Programme], for every 4 months that they work for Cerco on contract, starting with the Network+ then Server+ all the way through to becoming an MCSE.
Via our Career Path, they won’t only obtain the certificates, but more importantly they will gain the work experience that one needs to go with them and without which there are problems in finding paid jobs in the Industry.
As the contractors experience grows, so to should their salary as is the norm in most walks of life and I.T is no different.
Also we do encourage our graduates to find their own jobs, although obviously we would prefer to be instrumental in finding them emplyment.
David we cannot be anymore straightforward than what we are.
Now regarding Mr. McNab, I would answer him but not knowing who he/she is how can I ascertain the facts?
All I can say is the following:
We have 2 basic Charge Out Rates for contractors dependant on whether it is for Fast Track work or Technicians work. David I am sure that you can appreciate why I am not prepared to give out our actual Charge Out Rates on your blog but should we meet and I am more than happy to travel to you so that we can meet, I will tell you what they are.
Whatever the rates, don’t forget that Cerco have to pay in addition to the contractors salary, 12.8% for employers NIC and Holiday Pay, and yes we do make a profit out of our contractors, but nothing like what is being claimed and moreover we state that we make a profit out of our Recruitment/Contract Division at our Open Days.
Making a profit from our Recruitment/Contract Division gives us the added incentive to find our graduates jobs, which is after all why they have come to us, and Cerco graduates are so good that Companies such as Fujitsu/Carillion/BT Engage I.T. & DSGI [Dixons] etc. pay to have them [no unpaid work experience for a Cerco Graduate].
I can also tell you that some Employer Partners insist on seeing what rates we pay our contractors, to ensure that we are not exploiting them.
Now if Mr. McNab, using his real name will contact me and prove to me that the job he was offered @ £135 per day plus £30 per mile is the same job that we offered to pay him £60 per day plus £15 per mile, I will put my hands up and apologise to him personally and then I will offer him a job with our Recruitment Team.
I will also report back to you with my findings so that you can post it on your blog, whatever the outcome.
David may I make this request via your blog, that from now on should any Cerco Graduate have a complaint about us, then all they have to do is contact the office in Crewe with their complaint which I will personally look into and respond to it.
Regards,
Steven Emden
Managing Director
Cerco I.T Training & Recruitment Ltd.
Hi,
I have just finished a Cerco course, and I too was (and still am) sceptical.
Whilst I do not regret taking the course – it has given me skills and knowledge I otherwise wouldnt have – I am not convinced the recruitment team are as good as they claim.
I actually had a one to one meeting with the head of the recruitment, who is a very good salesman. He put me at ease and assured me he would find me work.
I have received a phonecall telling me of a potential contract, its not the money they spoke of, but as im out of work, ill take anything at the moment.
Granted I havnt been waiting months like others have (although it wouldnt surprise me to find I will be), but I will remain sceptical until they offer me worthwhile employment.
I have also applied for entry level jobs on my own merit, hoping to be considered due to the knowledge and skills acquired.
My name is Craig Coulson and i am a cerco graduate,(were the other cerco graduates further up this list christened cerco graduates at birth). I did my cerco course between 1st December-19th December 2008, in November of last year i decided on a career change i worked in the printing industry for 12 years but this is an industry that is and has struggled for a long time.So i decided to be pro active and embark on a career in I T believing the notion that computers are the present and the future and all that so i came across cercos website and what struck me was the promise of work in the industry and further education (network,server,security +)so after making a phone call and speaking to super friendly salespeople i was asked to attend an open day presented by Chris Barlow who put on a very good show 5* looking back now he sold the dream work! further education everything i was looking for! so after discussing this with my Fiancee i went ahead with the course and cerco arranged a loan £4k (which they were only to happy to help with) and i began my course, the course was very good and well led by very good instructors but not worth £4k alone i was as i have said and am sure many others were enticed by the promise of being placed in cercos contract division.Upon finishing my course i was excited about my new career i passed the course with distinction and i was confident about implementing these new skills in the field. January 2009 the dream turns into the nightmare i was told early on in January that Fujitsu were recruiting new engineers through cerco and if gaining base line clearance would be given a 12 month rolling contract fantastic i thought Fujitsu a fantastic company i was told my clearance would take between 6-8 weeks but quicker if i obtained a basic disclosure certificate which i did my clearance took 12 weeks!!!! mean time cerco only found me 12 days work in between that time so i had to get another loan to pay my bills mortgage car food life etc( i think cerco think that little fairy’s come and pay your bills it would be nice i am sure you all would agree).As you can imagine in this time i was trying to contact cerco regularly to find out what was going on? but i was given the recruitment jargon which they are programmed to say keep positive your 12 month rolling contract is coming be patient so i did and finally after 12 weeks i got my base line clearance i thought this is it here we go myself and my fiancee were happy again then after 2 weeks of working for Fujitsu we were told that they needed between 1 and 2 weeks downtime for the end of the tax year fair enough i thought it has now been 10 weeks!!!!!!!!! so there it is a nightmare not what i signed up for and in between that time i was interviewed for a position but was unsuccessful because i have no experience the ccsn certificate is not recognized nobody has heard of it outside of cerco house.Then the final straw was when i had another interview at cerco house(220 mile round trip) to find i was up against 2 people who had mcse certificates what a joke! and when i was there i met a man a cerco graduate who had had 6 months work in 24 months that was it for me enough.It is a big con and i urge people and ex-forces to stay away from cerco you can fly to India for 4k and get the mcse a recognized qualification.And i am going to call for the ASA and office of fair trading to look into cercos advertisement of contract work because it is not there but yet still advertised on there website
My freind did the cerco course in Mid 90s because he couldnt get a job after graduating with a degree, they got him a job and he has been employed ever since, currently working for Bank of Canada. About 2001 my cousin(who left school without any qualifications) also did the Cerco course on the recommendation of my freind. He initially got a job as field service engineer (which he hated), but the experience he gained enabled him to get a job in Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions, he now gets approx £35K.
Both my freind and cousin have done well out of the cerco course. and they cant recommend it enough,they are both very happy and setteled, although they both didnt like the service field type jobs,but it gave them the step up to better jobs.
I am also considering doing the cerco course, but it seems when my freind and cousin done it there were lots of jobs available. But am not sure if they can get me a job in the current climate. I am a bit apprahensive now about doing the course. With hindsite I should have done it when my cousin did, it seems I have missed the boat.
Or are there still jobs out there ?
At the moment I am in two minds about doing the Cerco course, because I am not sure if Cerco can gaurentee jobs in the recession. But my freind and cousin have done well out of it.
Dear Mr Coulson
Thank you for contacting me through David Hurst’s blog and thank you for using your real name, this enables me to look into your situation.
I have called a meeting of our Grievance Committee and when I have all the facts to hand I will respond to you via Mr Hurst blog. This will take no-more than 7 days.
Yours faithfully
Steven Emden MD
Cerco I.T. Training & Recruitment Ltd.
Hi Stephen,
You can contact me on my e-mail address rather than this blog cerco has the address, i sent a letter to cerco house mentioning all of the above over 3 weeks ago but i still have not had a reply i wonder if you can shed any light in this?
Craig Coulson
Dear Craig
Thank you for your reply blog. I will certainly add the supposed lack of response to your letter, to the agenda of The Grievance Committee which is meeting this Thursday under my stewardship.
Regarding reporting back to you my findings by way of your personal Email instead of via the blog, I feel that as you have raised some very serious issues concerning Cerco into the public domain, it is only therefore right that the findings of the committee should also be placed on the blog.
If you would care to attend the hearing at 12.00 at Cerco House, I will reimburse your travel costs at the rate of £0.20p per return mile.
I do hope that we will be able to resolve your issues to everyone’s satisfaction.
Regards
Steven M. Emden
Hi Stephen,
Thank you for your reply. If you need to contact me then please do so via e-mail. I want you to publish the findings of the committee on this blog i only hope it is the truth! I have nothing to hide, everything I have posted on this blog is the truth, I only hope you can say the same. I hope you can find my missing letter if not then I will post the contents of this letter on this blog for you to read. Thank you for your invite to attend the hearing at Cerco House but unfortunately due to other commitments I will be unable to attend. I look forward to hearing the outcome.
Craig Coulson
Hi again guys,
I read the comments on this website before i started CTC (Cerco’s Technician Course), this debate has been going on for a long time about what really Cerco is?…. is it a con, scam or opportunity to get a decent job in IT which Cerco claims in TV adverts.
I finished my CTC course last week on thursday 4th of June9, the training was really good and trainer(Pete) was very helpful, i would recommend him to every one.
Cerco’s recruitment team (Aleisha & Craig) have already found me a short term contract which i have been doing since monday 8th of June/09 for £60 per day.
so far my experience with Cerco has been excellent but it is just the begining therefore i cannot come up with a final conclusion. I will keep the message board updated on my personal experience so that all who read are able to make informed decissions about taking this course.
Dear Chris
I am glad that you enjoyed the 4 day Technicians Course and that you found work so soon.
Thank you for your support and kind comments regarding both training and recruitment.
Yours sincerely
Steven M Emden
Dear Craig
I’m sorry you were not able to attend the meeting of the Grievance Committee which was held today as promised. However before I can report back with the findings, I have been advised by our solicitors earlier this week, that due to your threatened actions, I should clear my reply with them first. Consequently I don’t think I will be able to post the findings on David Hurst’s blog before next Tuesday.
Sorry for the inconvenience, I’m sure you can appreciate that these things have to be done in the right manner.
I remain yours sincerely.
Steven M. Emden
Dear Steven
Thank you for getting back to me since the Grievance Committee earlier today. I am very glad you found my letter, it is a shame that it wasn’t deemed important enough to respond to earlier as I sent it first class on 17 May, nearly a month ago, as it would have saved us both having to blog on this page.
All I ever wanted was my situation resolved re: full time employment, I am disappointed that I have had to use this route to get my case heard but here I am.
I look forward to hearing from you early next week with regard to the letter I wrote and hope that we can come to a mutually beneficial outcome.
Regards
Craig Coulson
Dear Craig
As promised the Grievance Committee met on Thursday the 11th June @ 12.00pm. In the Chair was myself, the other members of the Committee were Chris Edge Deputy Head of Recruitment, Ashley Hamblett Senior Recruitment Specialist, John Cartwright Head of Training, & Lucy Newman Administration. Unfortunately you were unable to take up my offer to pay for you to attend.
We discussed the content of your blogs and there are two areas that we wish to reply to.
The first area concerns your two complaints:
a] In your own words “Cerco’s advertisement of contract work because it is not there but yet still advertised on there website”
b] The ignoring of your letter of the 17th May 2009.
With reference to your first Complaint, the Committee found against you for the following reasons.
1] Cerco’s TV Advertising Campaign, Open Day Presentation, Brochure, and Website states only what Cerco does. It has a Training Division that trains with a dedicated Recruitment Division that acts to find either Permanent or Contract Work for their graduates. We also state that our Recruitment/Contract Division is 3 times larger [turnover wise] than our Training Division which is an understated fact. We also state that it is in The Recruitments Division interests to find you fully paid work in the Industry.
2] Cerco did in fact find you work in the Industry as outlined below:
Your Course completed the 19th December 2008
6th January you were put forward and were accepted for a contract with Fujitsu which required you to have Base Line Clearance due to the sensitive nature of the work. Base line Clearance normally takes 6-8 weeks, yours took 12 because your former Employers did not respond right away with your references.
29th January whilst waiting you were put forward and accepted with a well known national company [sorry but the solicitor has said that we can only mention names mentioned by you in your Blog].
5th & 6th February you were meant to be given specific training by that company, but they postponed it.
13th February again whilst waiting, you worked on a 12 day Contract with a company in the education field.
2nd March the postponed two day training took place, however after the training the actual roll out of the Contract was indefinitely postponed.
5th March you had a 2.5 day contract with a multinational power company.
16th March your Base Line Clearance came through and you started working for Fujitsu. After 2 weeks the Contract was stopped. Originally we were informed that it was a minor stoppage awaiting the New Financial Year but in fact it has only just recently restarted at a much lower level.
9th April [Thursday prior to Good Friday] worked on a one day Contract but left site prior to completion of the work, due to a blond lady telling you could leave early. When we were informed by the Site Manager that you were needed back to complete the work you refused.
16th April you were sent for a job interview for a 13 week Temp to Perm position which you unfortunately didn’t obtain. Reason given by interviewers “Lack of Confidence”
7th May came to Crewe Centre for an interview with a national company looking to employ Cerco Graduates throughout the UK including near to where you live. You were overheard prior to your interview by a student who heard you being very negative. The student informed Ashley Hamblett who then had a private word with you to try and boost your confidence prior to the interview, but to no avail. Interviewers feed back “Very negative, didn’t sell himself”.
13th May you were informed about a permanent job in your area offering an extremely good package, in excess of what we inform our candidates to expect.
On the 18th & 19th May we tried to contact you with repeated phone messages, text messages & email to try and tell you that the interview was on the 20th May @ 3.00pm. We eventually had to send you a letter by Special Delivery on the 19th May to be delivered by 12.00 am the following day. We have your signature for the letter giving you the details of the interview. From where you live to the interview would be no more than a 45 min drive. You neither acknowledged our letter nor turned up at the interview.
Regarding your second complaint of not replying to your letter of the 17th May received the 18th May, the Committee found in your favour.
The Committee wishes to apologise for this unprofessionalism on the part of Cerco and steps have been put in place to ensure that all correspondence be replied to within 5 working days of receipt.
The second area that we want to reply, are your innuendos’ and misleading comments which whilst the Committee understands your frustrations, felt were designed to inflict the utmost damage to Cerco’s reputation.
1] “Cerco arranged a loan of £4k [which they were happy to do]”. In fact Cerco advertises their Train Now Pay Later scheme. This scheme is designed to take the worry from getting started in the industry before having to start making repayments. The scheme gives 12 months interest Free Credit before the first repayment instalment has to be paid. Who pays the interest for that first 12 months, Cerco does. You chose your own scheme but if we had been asked we would have never advised it.
2] “Would be given a 12 month rolling contract”. The Committee was assured that no such wording was or is used. It however does make sense that after a company has gone to all the time & expense to get a person Base Line Clearance that they will offer that person future contracts as they arise.
3] “The CCSN certificate is not recognised nobody has heard of it outside of Cerco House”. I think that we have adequately proven, that your statement is simply untrue. As we are not allowed to mention other companies by name due to the constraints placed upon us by our solicitors, we ask you to look at our Brochure/Website to see which known companies we supply with Cerco Graduates and read some of their testimonials.
4] “I was up against 2 people who had MCSE certificates what a joke”. You are incorrect as only one of the students you were up against did actually have MCSE qualification. He like others came to Cerco to take the Fast Track Course because he was unable to get a job even though he had an MCSE, due to the fact that he didn’t have any work experience. Certification without work experience is not what Cerco believes employers are looking for. However, the main reason that you didn’t get that job was not because of a lack of an MCSE but because you were unable to sell yourself and your negative approach during the interview.
5] “I met a man a Cerco graduate who had 6 months work in 24 months that was it for me”. Absolutely correct but you never asked the man why, and the truth is that for over 12 months that person had not required any work from Cerco.
6] “You can fly to India for £4k and get an MCSE a recognised qualification”. Not quite true, you can fly to India and do the MCSE Course, but you now cannot take the exams there, unless you are an Indian Citizen. The student you mentioned as having the MCSE qualification did actually take it in India, but had to come to Cerco to be retrained to make his MCSE meaningful to Employers.
7] “To look into Cerco’s advertisement of contract work because it is not there.” We believe that we have more than adequately shown that it is.
These are the findings of The Cerco Grievance Committee.
Craig in spite of the above I still want to resolve the issue surrounding your case that is to get you into work in the I.T Industry.
I believe that you have been most unfortunate with the contracts that we have found for you in good faith. Under normal circumstances you would have been overjoyed with Cerco.
I likewise believe that you have not helped yourself. The keen eager approach that you first demonstrated to Chris Barlow at your Open Day seems to be now missing and has been replaced with self doubt and negativity.
I know that we can claim that the job for which you never turned up to the interview, would have suited you perfectly, but you didn’t even try for it and so we will never know if you would have got it or not.
From your letter that never went missing nor did I claim that it had, it would appear that you have now found your own job, I therefore do not know if you do or don’t want us to continue to search for further work for you. If you do then I will send someone to retrain you in the art of interview technique, in the hope that at the next interview you will adopt a positive [can do will do] attitude, If however you don’t want us to carry on looking for you please do let me know.
I promised you I would hold an enquiry and as you can see I have kept my word, I hope you agree.
Looking forward to hearing from you by blog or Email.
I remain
Steven M. Emden
Managing Director
Cerco I.T Training & Recruitment Ltd.
This dispute is nothing to do with me or my original post, but I would like to just say that a close personal friend of mine did his MCSE and MCSA in India. He is not an Indian citizen, nor did he have to re-certify in the UK.
I do agree with Steven’s point that employers are looking for experience. I would take experience over qualifications every time. I think prospective IT trainees should bear that in mind. Even if you do an MCSE/MCSA, if you have no applied experience, you must expect to start from the bottom and work up.
Steven
Thank you very much for the thorough response to my grievance. I do appreciate you taking the time to respond in the timescale and being interested in my situation.
I feel I need to clarify a few points with you so that you have the full picture:
Part 1
1. I agree that there is contract work available but unfortunately I expected this to be full time work with ongoing contracts. Out of 95 days from 5 Jan 2009-15 May 2009 I spent only 12 days implementing the skills obtained on the fast track course, the other 13 days was work as a removal man or “technical courier” as Cerco name this which is not work in the IT field.
2. The work given was minimal as stated above but all is not correct on the information your recruitment team have given you:
Base Line Clearance – as you mentioned this is supposed to take 6-8 weeks to complete but took 12 weeks due to an employer not getting back to you. Unfortunately Cerco did not work with me on this so I was completely left in the dark with the process, where it had got to and what the delay was, after asking many times. I eventually managed to get hold of a contact at Fujitsu after hearing Ashley tell me numerous times that it was just references holding it up, she wasn’t chasing and I was keen to get started and wanted to find out what the hold up was. I found that the references had been in a different department and my one call helped sort this out. I was then contacted by Ashley who stated that if I contact Fujitsu directly again my involvement with the company would cease. This sounded very negative and made me suspicious as to Cercos contract with Fujitsu, although it may have just concerned Ashley that her unhelpfulness this was being highlighted. Cerco slowed this process themselves by their inability to keep me informed.
9 April – When on contracts previously I have always believed that the job is finished when told by a member of the staff, unfortunately I was not told to assume they were lying and refuse to leave. I did not return to the site as it was a 40 min round trip very late in the afternoon and Cerco was not paying me any fuel allowance.
Interviews – Thank you very much for the feedback from those two interviews, it would have been more helpful to give me those straight away instead of waiting until now. It is not really surprising that my confidence was low for either role as I had been informed that the role was pretty much mine and found that I was up against more qualified people, I had driven 110 miles to get there (no fuel allowance) and had only had 12 days of work experience under my belt. I am very shocked and surprised that the interviewer said I had a negative approach as my main goal was to succeed and still is. I know that nepotism is not unusual in the working sphere and maybe I wasn’t as positive as his friend that he was interviewing for the same role.
7th May – When I came to Cerco for one of the interviews there were new graduates there who were asking about our experience with working for the Company. I am not a liar and will not lie on behalf of your company, so when I was asked what work I had done I told the truth. I stated the fact that I have been unemployed longer than employed with Cerco.
I had come to the end of my tether with Cerco interviews and didn’t attend the position in York, luckily we do know what would have happened as Ashley kindly sent an email informing me that they all went internally anyway, so as predicted this would not have come to anything. (I have the email confirming this if you would like to see a copy).
Part 2
1. The Train Now Pay Later scheme was something that was offered to me at the start but why would I want to put off the debt? The options given meant a much larger debt in the end and as I was promised work why wouldn’t I want to start paying this asap. Maybe if people who apply are warned about the amount of work they will get they will choose this option.
2. “Would be given a 12 month rolling contract”. – This is by far the most disappointing and upsetting part of this whole grievance, that Ashley Hamblett can so blatantly lie. I was told this at least twice, as every time I mentioned how concerned I was about the lack of clearance I was always reassured that once I got the clearance I would be on the 12 month rolling contract. Unfortunately this was always over the phone so there is no written proof so is just her word against mine, but unfortunately makes me realise that there will be no positive outcome from this when members of your staff are lying.
3. I think it is a real shame that you cannot name other companies who recognise your qualification. I cannot see how the law prevents you from naming them if they are proud to be affiliated with you?
6. David Hurst has answered this for both of us in my favour.
I do appreciate you wanting to help me into the IT industry but unfortunately my experience of your company has caused massive debts and huge worry and I would not want to put myself nor my fiancé through that again.
Thankfully someone else has seen the potential in me and my positive attitude to my new career. I have always had a can do and will do attitude, this is why I have always been calling, emailing, asking for work and being at the top of the list when work comes in. Cerco was supposed to be the start of a new life for me, unfortunately that didn’t happen.
I have never wanted to harm your company, my main concern was trying to get compensation for promises that never came good, a final letter of plea was sent and not responded to so I wanted to warn and inform other people of the potential pitfalls of your company and what can happen when signing up to your company. I am still in contact with a few people I did the course with whom you are also struggling to find work; most people are not as up front and honest as I am.
I have become the most in debt in my life and very depressed over the continuous hope that the company would come good on its promises. I will now have to spend a large part of my life paying off the debt that was unexpected and I want you to know that as a company you are responsible for that. I am disappointed that you have not offered any compensation to try to help me but it is not a surprise, this is not something I will quickly forget and I can honestly say the biggest mistake of my life.
Regards
Craig Coulson
Just to clarify, I’m not taking sides here, I just mentioned the India thing as I recommend it in my original post. If you scroll up the comments you will find first hand experience of Koenig Solutions in India.
Craig’s dispute is published here because we all have freedom of speech. Steven Emden rightly has the opportunity to respond, and all these comments are posted unedited. It is their choice to publicise this matter.
My original blog post was written purely through annoyance at the Cerco TV advert. The item of annoyance has since been removed, partly due to this page. It was never my intention to create such a popular page, but it has been very interesting to see the comments for both sides on this page.
When reading this page, you should bear in mind the following points:
1. No company is perfect, often it is how they deal with the mistakes that are inevitably made that defines how good a company is.
2. People are always more likely to report a bad experience than a good one.
3. You should consider all the facts and do plenty of research before embarking on a change of career, particularly when there are costs involved.
4. Training is never a substitute for real world experience – this is especially true in the IT world.
I would be interested to find out if Cerco offer a refund to any people who have completed the course, but have not been found work by Cerco.
Since the deal was Cerco train you and then place you in work, surely not placing you in work means they have no kept their side of the bargain.
Why should people have to pay £4000 to receive nothing in return?
For the record, it has now been just over 2 weeks since I completed the course, and have heard nothing.
I have phoned multiple times to be told there is no work, and I have had no luck trying to find work myself.
Dear Craig
I have called a meeting of all concerned. I will contact you with the findings as soon as they are available.
Yours sincerely
Steven M Emden
I took the cerco course in 2005 cerco did not find me any work for over 1 year (no work in my area)Bul#### atfer ringing and ringing there people was offered a job paying£14000 per year job was rubbish then found work my self (basic pc work) contacted cerco again same thing still no work in my area cerco then offered me work for a company that did not give me any training so i left contacted cerco again for some help and they have never got back to me !!!
MY ADVISE TO ANYONE THINKING OF DOING I.T.TRAINING stay away from cerco loads of promises to get your money but little or no help getting a job after
would love to hear from cerco to say they can help me now BUT WILL NOT HOLD MY BREATH
I did the Cerco course in Nantwich, November 2005, after doing the online test and attending an open day in Bristol.
During the course it was made clear that most starting positions within IT were between £14k-£18k, with the potential to be earning admitedly large sums within 5 years – of course possible, if unlikely for everyone. I’d call it over-optimism rather than misinformation.
The course itself was good, being practical based made it easier to take the information in as opposed to just reading it from books. I didnt have much technical IT experience beyond fiddling with my own PC, but what was covered in the 4 weeks was enough to give me the confidence – something you cant always put a monetary value on – that I could work in the industry.
Being based in Devon at the time, I never had high hopes of finding a placement, and this was also made clear by the recruitment team.
I was a little more disappointed after moving to Cambridgeshire to still find there werent any solid jobs coming up, I was mostly offered BancTec work, which having listened to the comments made by others in my class who had taken BancTec roles, I decided to steer well clear of.
All in all, I dont regret spending £4k on the course – I learned the basics, and it gave me confidence, which was the key aspect for me.
I got accomodation with a local family included.
I always assumed the largest part of the cost was the recruitment aspect, which is very hit and miss, and would be nice if it was made an optional extra – a lot of people that I spoke to that got jobs did so through their own applications rather than through Cerco.
I finally found work Feb 07 (16 months after the course) through my own job applications and have been in post for 2 years now. I started on £14k and am now on £20k – I work in a college, high wages were never an expectation
Thank you for your comments. I consider myself to have more than a solid foundation knowledge of IT and IS (despite having no formal qualifications) and more importantly, I have a passion for it. I really enjoy any work I get to do with friend’s and family’s computers and networks and I would love nothing more than to turn that into a career.
I had seen the Cerco advert on TV and had taken the online test (80%) and been contacted by them. The person I spoke to did make the £3999 course fee clear and invited me to one of the open days, but being the inquisitive person I am, I decided to do some further research (it does all seem just a little bit too good to be true). First thing I come upon is this blog. Original post aside (although David’s article was interesting for me) it’s the comments beyond it that hold the greater help to me. I have decided now to take my A+ either through my local college or off my own back.
I would like to know if this is a reasonable path into an IT career and if not, what recommendations would people make to someone like me, who knows a fair bit and is fairly good at learning new things?
In general I would say the training side is decent, it gives you the basic skills and knowledge which alot of people looking to get into the IT industry dont have, and for that it is great.
Not worth £4k, but good nonetheless.
It will allow you to get entry level positions which would have been out of reach for someone with no experience.
But dont expect the recruitment side of it to do you any favors, the jobs they seem to offer people are not what you are trained for, and thats if youre lucky enough to be offered a job at all.
It would be great if there was an option to say, only pay £2k and only do the training, and look for work yourself, which most people who do the course seem to have to do.
To all those wanting to know what Cerco does, I would like to take this opportunity to make it perfectly clear.
Cerco advertises and offers to its prospective students the answer to the chicken and the egg question, how to get started in the I.T Industry if you don’t have any experience.
Certification such as MCSE are the buzz words for people wanting entry into the industry however if you read the Microsoft site for the MCDST qualification which comes before MCSA & MCSE, qualifications, it clearly states the following “ AN MCDST CANDIDATE SHOULD HAVE 6-12 MONTHS OF EXPERIENCE SUPPORTING END-USERS OF A DESKTOP OPERATING SYSTEM”, so why our competitors offer to train people with no experience on an Microsoft Certification Courses is one of the many mysteries that has baffled me since I bought Cerco. Not only this, but Certification without the relevant work experience is pretty meaningless and that is why some Training Companies offer Unpaid Work Experience after gaining the qualifications.
The Cerco Course is designed to give in just 15 days of training, the technical experience needed to get that first real job role in the industry, and from where an I.T career will begin. This is what we advertise and this is what we do with a near 100% success rate, because of the care we take in our selection process before starting people on the Course..
The Course consists 15 days of instructor lead classroom vocational training. We must be good at what we do otherwise our Employer Partners some of whom are mentioned on our website and in our brochure, some of whom have even give us testimonials as to the effectiveness of out training, wouldn’t use us.
We differ from our competitors who offer as part of their recruitment packages, help with CV writing, unpaid work experience and some even a job guarantee [but you need to study their T/Cs before you rely on it], because Cerco offers a real Recruitment/Contract Division that goes out to find real paid jobs for their graduates. This is what we advertise and this is what we do.
What Cerco cannot do and does not profess to be able to do, is to MAKE JOBS IF THEY AREN’T THERE and no Recruitment Agency in any industry can.
It would appear that some graduates get themselves into their own comfort zone where they expect that as soon as the Course is over the job will be waiting, whilst others, just under 20%, go out and find their own jobs which we encourage all to do.
“The Cerco Course teaches the skills that Employers expect from their Entry Level Candidates whilst the Recruitment/Contract Division is incentivised to get you that all important first job in the Industry.”
That is what Cerco does and it does it very well on both counts Training & Recruitment.
The student pays for the training and the employers not the student pay for the recruitment.
I hope that this now clarifies what Cerco does.
Steven M Emden
Managing Director Cerco I.T Training & Recruitment Ltd.
Dear Craig,
Please find below replies.
CC: Thank you very much for the thorough response to my grievance. I do appreciate you taking the time to respond in the timescale and being interested in my situation. SME Reply: Craig that is my job as Managing Director, I need to know and want to know about everything that affects Cerco.
There will always be complaints that is the very nature of things and if I find that Cerco is truly at fault I will make recompense as I have in the past when we accepted two persons onto the Course who should not have been allowed on to it in the first place. Our fault we gave them both back their money without hesitation.
CC: I feel I need to clarify a few points with you so that you have the full picture:
Part 1
1. I agree that there is contract work available but unfortunately I expected this to be full time work with ongoing contracts. Out of 95 days from 5 Jan 2009-15 May 2009 I spent only 12 days implementing the skills obtained on the fast track course, the other 13 days was work as a removal man or “technical courier” as Cerco name this which is not work in the IT field. SME Reply: Unfortunately as previously stated the Contract Work was pulled by the Companies, not by us.
CC: 2. The work given was minimal as stated above but all is not correct on the information your recruitment team have given you:
Base Line Clearance – as you mentioned this is supposed to take 6-8 weeks to complete but took 12 weeks due to an employer not getting back to you. Unfortunately Cerco did not work with me on this so I was completely left in the dark with the process, where it had got to and what the delay was, after asking many times. I eventually managed to get hold of a contact at Fujitsu after hearing Ashley tell me numerous times that it was just references holding it up, she wasn’t chasing and I was keen to get started and wanted to find out what the hold up was. I found that the references had been in a different department and my one call helped sort this out. I was then contacted by Ashley who stated that if I contact Fujitsu directly again my involvement with the company would cease. This sounded very negative and made me suspicious as to Cerco’s contract with Fujitsu, although it may have just concerned Ashley that her unhelpfulness this was being highlighted. Cerco slowed this process themselves by their inability to keep me informed. SME Reply: I enclose a copy of the actual email that Ashley sent to all who were waiting for their Base Line Clearances : Hi Guys,
Further to my discussions with Fujitsu this week, from now on you MUST NOT contact Wendy at Fujitsu unless otherwise instructed to do so by myself. If you have an update from Group Security then please contact myself from now on. I would appreciate any problems or questions you have to be sent to my via email as opposed to calling me as it is easier for me to forward onto Wendy that way.
Can you please all appreciate that there are so many of you chasing clearances and I do not have the facilities to check where you are all up to. All I can do is ask the question to Fujitsu. That said, I will contact you all directly should I get any information on your clearances and I will not contact you unless I need to (due to the sheer volume of applications, I cannot ring everyone back just to give them an update – hence these emails)
I will never withhold any information from you as of course, it is in my best interests to get you cleared as soon as possible so that I can get you out working.
If anyone has any problems with this then please contact me. If anyone is found contacting Wendy directly, I will have no other option than to terminate your application with them as this will be seen as jeopardising the relationship with the Client (as per Cerco’s Term’s and Conditions that you have all agreed to and signed).
Kind Regards
Ashley Hamblett
Senior Recruitment Consultant
CC: 9 April – When on contracts previously I have always believed that the job is finished when told by a member of the staff, unfortunately I was not told to assume they were lying and refuse to leave. I did not return to the site as it was a 40 min round trip very late in the afternoon and Cerco was not paying me any fuel allowance. SME Reply: We understand your point of view, but we had an irate customer on the phone that we then had to placate by sending him in another contractor to finish your work.
CC: Interviews – Thank you very much for the feedback from those two interviews, it would have been more helpful to give me those straight away instead of waiting until now. . SME Reply: Actually the result & feed back for your job interview of the 16th April was given to you on the 21st April and the result & feed back of your job interview of the 8th May was relayed to you on the 13th May.
CC: It is not really surprising that my confidence was low for either role as I had been informed that the role was pretty much mine and found that I was up against more qualified people, I had driven 110 miles to get there (no fuel allowance) I and had only had 12 days of work experience under my belt. I am very shocked and surprised that the interviewer said I had a negative approach as my main goal was to succeed and still is. I know that nepotism is not unusual in the working sphere and maybe I wasn’t as positive as his friend that he was interviewing for the same role. . SME Reply: As a matter of fact the interviewer’s friend was not asked to undertake further training for the job whereas the Cerco Graduate who had the Indian MCSE but couldn’t get a job until he came to Cerco has.
CC: 7th May – When I came to Cerco for one of the interviews there were new graduates there who were asking about our experience with working for the Company. I am not a liar and will not lie on behalf of your company, so when I was asked what work I had done I told the truth. I stated the fact that I have been unemployed longer than employed with Cerco. SME Reply: No one expected you to lie then or now but it is telling that you were so negative prior to that interview that a student actually came to tell us of his concerns for you.
CC: I had come to the end of my tether with Cerco interviews and didn’t attend the position in York, luckily we do know what would have happened as Ashley kindly sent an email informing me that they all went internally anyway, so as predicted this would not have come to anything. (I have the email confirming this if you would like to see a copy). SME Reply: Yes we now know that the job was filled internally but at the time of you ignoring the phone calls, text messages, and the recorded letter requesting you go to the interview, neither you, us nor the employer knew what we know now, and that is truly the point, you didn’t try for the job and neither did you contact us about why you wouldn’t be going to the interview.
CC:Part 2
1. The Train Now Pay Later scheme was something that was offered to me at the start but why would I want to put off the debt? The options given meant a much larger debt in the end and as I was promised work why wouldn’t I want to start paying this asap. Maybe if people who apply are warned about the amount of work they will get they will choose this option. SME Reply: We offer the Train Now Pay Later which costs us a substantial sum of money because we pay your first years interest, simply because we know that in some cases it will take time to place a Graduate. Actually in your case it took from the end of your Course on the 19th December 2008 till the 6th of January 2009 to find you a job with Fujitsu. At the time we thought that was pretty good going bearing in mind Christmas & New Year, but as things turned out it unfortunately didn’t work out the way we had all hoped. Train Now Pay Later would have eased some of the financial pain.
CC:2. “Would be given a 12 month rolling contract”. – This is by far the most disappointing and upsetting part of this whole grievance, that Ashley Hamblett can so blatantly lie. I was told this at least twice, as every time I mentioned how concerned I was about the lack of clearance I was always reassured that once I got the clearance I would be on the 12 month rolling contract. Unfortunately this was always over the phone so there is no written proof so is just her word against mine, but unfortunately makes me realise that there will be no positive outcome from this when members of your staff are lying. . SME Reply: As you can imagine I have discussed this matter with Ashley and she has informed that you are correct she did say “would be given a 12 month rolling contract” but with the added proviso “THAT NOTHING WAS GUARANTEED”. You have to understand that we do not make the jobs, we supply the staff for the jobs that we are given and we inform our Graduates what we have ourselves been told. There is no gain for Cerco in passing false information on to our graduates.
CC: 3. I think it is a real shame that you cannot name other companies who recognise your qualification. I cannot see how the law prevents you from naming them if they are proud to be affiliated with you? . SME Reply: So do I, it seems crazy to me especially as if you look at our Website and Brochure you can see some of their names with testimonials from them, but that is what I have been told by my solicitor, anyway you know a number of our Employer Partners, you have either done work for them or been interviewed by some of them.
CC: 6. David Hurst has answered this for both of us in my favour. SME Reply: I’m sorry I didn’t know that we were in a point scoring game.
CC: I do appreciate you wanting to help me into the IT industry but unfortunately my experience of your company has caused massive debts and huge worry and I would not want to put myself nor my fiancé through that again. SME Reply: I fully understand, but now that you are back in work in a new career, I trust that things will improve.
CC: Thankfully someone else has seen the potential in me and my positive attitude to my new career. I have always had a can do and will do attitude, this is why I have always been calling, emailing, asking for work and being at the top of the list when work comes in. Cerco was supposed to be the start of a new life for me, unfortunately that didn’t happen. SME Reply: I’m more than delighted to learn that you now have a new career and I do wish you the best of luck in it.
CC: I have never wanted to harm your company, my main concern was trying to get compensation for promises that never came good, a final letter of plea was sent and not responded to so I wanted to warn and inform other people of the potential pitfalls of your company and what can happen when signing up to your company. I am still in contact with a few people I did the course with whom you are also struggling to find work; most people are not as up front and honest as I am. SME Reply: Once again I fully understand why you did what you did, but as my wife always tells me “There’s your side, his side and somewhere in the middle lies the truth”.
CC: I have become the most in debt in my life and very depressed over the continuous hope that the company would come good on its promises. I will now have to spend a large part of my life paying off the debt that was unexpected and I want you to know that as a company you are responsible for that. I am disappointed that you have not offered any compensation to try to help me but it is not a surprise, this is not something I will quickly forget and I can honestly say the biggest mistake of my life. SME Reply: The Company did come good on its promise of training you in fact the questionnaire that you completed at the end of the Course reads “The Course was very clear and very well taught, the tutors were very good and very helpful” and then the Recruitment Division also came good in fulfilling their task “to get you your first starting job in the industry”. In fact not only did they find you what we all thought was going to be a terrific job with Fujitsu, but they never gave up on you and found you more job roles and interviews with major UK Companies. It is actually you who gave up on us by failing to attend a job interview without as much as a phone call explanation.
If you still feel aggrieved I am more than happy to meet with you in your home town to discuss this matter further but as I see the situation, Cerco has done all that it says it will do on the tin, that it hasn’t worked for you is a mix of circumstances beyond our control and your own negativity and therefore I am unable to offer you any compensation.
Please let me know if you would care to meet with me in person.
Regards
Steven
DEAR IAN
I HAVE NOTED YOUR COMMENTS CONCERNING THE A+ COURSE AND WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT TO YOU THAT WE HAVE HAD MANY STUDENTS COME ON OUR COURSE WHO ALREADY HAVE A+,CERTIFICATION BUT CANNOT GET WORK AS THEY HAVE HAD NO PRACTICAL EXEPERIENCE AND THAT IS WHAT THE CERCO COURSE GIVES YOU. THE THEORY IS GREAT BUT YOU DO NEED TO KNOW HOW TO APPLY IT IN THE WORKPLACE.
MAYBE AS YOU ARE ALREADY HANDS ON IN COMPUTERS AN A+ COURSE WILL WORK FOR YOU BUT
AS WE HAVE OFFERED TO PAY YOU TO COME AND VISIT US IN CREWE WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOOSE?
MAY I SUGGEST THAT YOU MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND ABOUT CERCO AND REMEMBER THAT FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS A GRIPE ABOUT US WITH OR WITHOUT GOOD REASON, THERE ARE MANY 100’S WHO HAVE TRAINED WITH US AND ARE SATISFIED.
YOU CAN SEE THAT CERCO ARE SERIOUS IN ALL THEY DO FROM THE QUALITY OF THEIR ONLINE CAREER CHALLENGE TO HOW WE TRY TO ANSWER BLOGS.
I HOPE TO SEE YOU IN THE FUTURE
STEVEN M EMDEN
MANAGING DIRECTOR OF CERCO IT TRAINING & RECRUITEMNT LTD.
DEAR MARK
I HAVE READ YOUR BLOG BUT BEFORE REPLYING TO YOU, I HAVE ASKED FOR YOUR NOTES WHICH I AM TOLD ARE EXTENSIVE.
IN THE MEANTIME I AM SOMEWHAT CONFUSED BECAUSE ON THE ONE HAND YOU ADVISE EVERYONE TO STAY AWAY FROM US BUT ON THE OTHER HAND YOU ASK CERCO FOR HELP..
I’LL REPLY BY THE END OF THE WEEK.
REGARDS
STEVEN M. EMDEN
MANAGING DIRECTOR CERCO IT TRAINING & RECRUITMENT LTD.
It has been three weeks now since I have been working through Cerco, It has been absolutely great.
First week I worked for Modis Solutions, North London.
Second week I worked for Fujitsu, Dunstable.
Third week; this week I am working for Allianz as a Team Leader.
I enjoyed working with Modis and Fujitsu, learning new things every day and gaining experience is just a big boost for me.
Ashley Hamblett has been extremely supportive and I am glad I did my Cerco course and now gaining work experience.
My message/advice to anyone thinking of doing IT course, please do not be disappointed and discouraged cause of negative blogs on this forum, If you are dedicated and willing to work hard than Cerco is the right place.
I will keep the message board updated on my personal experience.
Thank you.
Steven
Meeting in person won’t be necessary as this will be my final blog. It is time to move on.
I am not in a process of point scoring and tit for tat as that doesn’t pay my mortgage, and we could be here next year doing the same thing.
As you may recall on my first blog I highly praised the training part of Cercos promise and I would recommend it to anybody, but you seem to have strayed off the point, 12 days of work out of 95 does not cover your side of the bargain.
If while attending the open day and meeting Chris Barlow he had sold me this side of the ‘Cerco tin’ I would have stayed well away. Why would I have paid £4,000 for 3 weeks of training when as previously stated I could have acquired an internationally recognised qualification (e.g MCSE).
I am disappointed at the personal attacks claiming that I am a negative person. Would a negative person have sought a career change, pro-actively sourced what he thought would be a good company? Would a negative person contact your recruitment arm daily for 5 months seeking work? and finally would a negative person seek resolution to this dispute? (You may notice through all my blogs I have not attacked anyone from Cerco personally).
Regards
Craig Coulson
I had atended a cerco course as so did my mate about 4 years or so back. Originally everything was good ie training, sales pitch etc. I did get a placement working in heathrow airport as an it techy but salary was only 13k. No where near what was advertised.
And so a year and half later I contacted cerco to help look for another job (As they said they would even after first placement) but they basically replied “We currently have to concentrate on the current students training, who have priority over the jobs”.
Which I think is a poor excuse and certainly wasn’t worth the 4 grand paid.
Dear Mark
Just a brief up date, as I promised to get back to you by the end of the week.
You were on a Course that finished in October 2005 and the last permanent job we found you was in 2007, after which we lost track of you until you phoned Chris Edge last week asking for his help in finding you a job which surprisingly was just prior to your Blog that both slated us and requested our help at the same time.
Before we can help you we have to contact the 2 previous permanent employers that we found you as well as any employers that you found on your own, as we need to update your CV with their References.
If you could assist us in obtaining these References it would greatly assist us.
So far we have only received back a Reference from a former employer whose company name starts with an E, but we would advise against using it, so whatever you can do to assist will help both of us in helping to find you further employment.
I remain
Steven M. Emden
Managing Director
Cerco I.T Training & Recruitment Ltd.
Dear Bhavesh
I have inquired about your situation and have had the following reply from the Head of Recruitment.
“Morning Steven
I remember Bhavesh and his friend well as they were from Cardiff but decided to train in London as both had family there. Both of the guys were very positive and genuinely nice guys willing to put themselves out to get into I.T – both Ray and I really liked them. At the time some permanent roles came up at Heathrow airport with Servicetec at an annual salary of £13k, yes lower than the lowest we generally state however both guys requested they be put forward for it as they wanted the experience and more importantly it would give them the opportunity to work/live together. They requested to be put forward, they took the roles and they stayed there for as long as they did – these were permanent jobs. If we have failed this guy, it is in the way he was told that priority should be given to new graduates. I firmly believe this statement is true but there is a way of telling people and still keep them happy – unfortunately one certain member of the team, no longer with us, was unable to deliver this message in a positive way. I feel we have nothing really to reproach ourselves about on this one but would be more than happy for Bhavesh and friend to re-send their CV’s and us to find them another opportunity.”
You have read the reply sent to me by the Head of Recruitment, Chris Barlow, and I would like to add that we are more than willing to help you find further employment in the IT field and moreover if you were to work for us on contract, I would be willing to place you and your friend on The Career Path Programme which offers you further career advancement with free training for Network+, Server+, MCDST, MCSA, MCSE (subject to the terms and conditions outlined on our Career Path Programme which we will send to you if requested).
Please get in touch with us via our new telephone number is 01270 219760 ext 1 for Recruitment, they are waiting for your call.
Kind Regards
Steven M Emden
oh dear, it seems my application to train with cerco will be a long and frustrating one… i think i’ll try else where instead…
This is a message for Steven Emden,
I enquired about your cerco fast track course between January and February and decided to go ahead and do it it as i was in a dead end sales job and i wanted to get into the IT sector after much consideration i put in my notice of the last job as i was told i could be out of work for 3-4 week which i had put money aside for to cover me.I completed the course on 27th March 09, It has now been 4 months since completion and i have nothing to show for it.
Dear Mr. Hodrien
I have read your Blog of the 19th July with interest. I have learnt that you actually took the On Line Quiz on the 13th July @ 04.12 pm and obtained a highly respectable score. Subsequently you booked online to come to an Open Day on the 25th July. However when we contacted you on the 23rd July to confirm your attendance, you cancelled and said that you were no longer interested.
The interesting thing is that your Blog that was not posted till the 24th July, appears to imply that we have not acted fast enough for which I do apologise.
May I wish you every success in your future.
I remain
Steven M. Emden
Managing Director
Cerco I.T. Training & Recruitment Ltd.
Dear Ashley
Thank you for your Blog which I have immediately looked into. Firstly hands up, yes we could/should/ & will do better for you, however although the picture painted appears bleak and I am not suggesting it to be otherwise, I would like to set the story straight.
Firstly, you would have been informed that historically the time taken to get someone into work is 3-4 weeks but that it can take longer. Secondly you did have a 3 week contract between the 9th June & the 29th June, and finally, if we can resolve the hiccup that we both know occurred on Saturday, we do have a very good contract coming up for you from early August.
I can assure you that your case is receiving my personal attention. Please feel free to contact me if you feel the need to do so.
I remain yours faithfully
Steven M Emden
Managing Director Cerco I.T Training & Recruitment Ltd.
In response to me own previous comment RE: work, I am now nearing the end of a 6 week contract with a well known company.
The experience has been valuable, and the name is a great one to add to my CV, and the work has gone a long way to restoring the faith I had previously lost in Cerco.
I understand they cannot make work that isnt there, and I may have been hasty in condeming them, but im sure you can understand my point of view, especially when there seemed to be no change in my situation before this work.
I hope there is more work to follow, with the ultimate goal being a permanent job within the industry, and hopefully, to collect as much experience and knowledge as possible along the way.
Hi,
I am planning to train with Cerco, and i’m prepared to move to London leaving my family in Cornwall (cant wait for the weekend comute). I would like to know from anyone in London working contracts from Cerco if there is enough work to warrant this move?
Fujitsu have stopped alot of contract work and as they are one of Cerco’s employment partners can anyone tell me if this has affected them?
Thanks
I have been reading this blog with interest.
I took the Cerco online test and achieved a very respectable score, so I decided to go up to Crewe for the open day.
All the talk sounded very promising, saying they place 97% of their students in employment, I thought to myself this sounds promising, so after thinking about it I signed up!
I completed my fastrack course with distinctions, the training itself was excellent as were the instructors.
After finishing the course I was full of fresh hope, however it is over 3 weeks since completing the course and only 1 person from our class has got work (12 weeks worth).
I was placed for 1 day only!
I have told Cerco that I am willing to work anywhere in the country as I am used to the contracting world, however all I get told is that there is nothing in my area at present.
I have paid £4000 for this course, (deferred for a year) and without work there is NO way I could possibly pay that back.
There were 6 people on our course with 2 more joining after the first and second weeks, after our course there were another 11 people signed up.
The numbers are beginning to look very bad!
How many people are Cerco really placing? and where is the 97% placement rate coming from?
I am very disheartened with the whole affair, as are the other members from my course.
Just to add, I got made redundant a couple of months before going on the Cerco course, it feels to me that Cerco pray on people like me, giving them false hopes and dreams.
I was seriously struggling money wise before going on the Cerco course, but now that is ten times worse with a £4000 debt hanging over me……….
I took the Cerco training at their Centre in Nantwich and it has left me feeling quite disillusioned with the prospect of entering into an IT career. I think the only IT professionals earning £37k are the the course instructors!! and not the graduates. The most annoying thing for me is that they claim to be able graduates from their course in any geographical region and this is patently not true at all. They also never came up with any job interviews for me at all for months on end and usually blame the situation on the poor road infracstructure in your region. I got myself plenty of interviews for IT jobs but they are not well paid. I have spoken to agents who can’t get interviews for those with degrees in IT who have got relevant work experience. There is no end to what they’ll say to get the desperate to do one og their crummy courses. My advice is AVOID CERCO IT!
And another thing is don’t believe the hype about jobs coming with a nice car ‘cos they don’t! The recruitment guy kept on at me to get my own car after already forking out for the expensive training course. I did the head start too three days extra for free! Lucky me! I learnt to drive especially to be elligiable for the training but I couldn’t affoird to buy a car as well as do the course. The recruitment guy suggested I get an “old banger to get me from a to b” but how could that be reliable for serious road work?
I was due to attend a CERCO open day today (11/11/2009). I am not easily suckered into spending money, but I would like to thank you all for taking the time to post your experiences and ensure I was not exposed to the risk of being suckered.
May I take this opportunity though to congratulate Mr Emden on his enthusiasm for his organisation, such commitment will not go unrewarded.
I have decided to embark on an MCSE course (with no experience in the industry but a lifelong love affair with computers since the ZX81 days). While I realise I the MCSE may not be so strong without the industry experience, it may put me one step ahead of the average newcomer to the entry level of the IT industry, and give me the edge should it be needed.
Hi, i would like to add a note of support for CERCO, it seems that there are a number of ppl out there that have had a bad experience with them but i however have never found them to be any more than direct and helpful. I took the fast track course in february 2007 and was given several Interview opportunities following my graduation. Luckily i only needed the first of these and have now been working for an IT company for the last 18 Months. From the moment i enetered into the contract of learning with CERCO it was explained to me that they would ASSIST me in obtaining an ENTRY LEVEL position in IT, which they managed to achieve. Being entry level you could not expect a high paid job and i was told from the start that if i wanted a high paid job i would have to work up from the bottom, this i am achieving with comtinued support from CERCO having just passed my CompTIA Network+, I have enrolled with CERCO for my Server+ in the new year and enjoy their cotinuing support. remember you only get out what you put in….in any walk of life if you want the big bucks you gotta work for it, it is possible, dont get disheartened by knockbacks and keep your chin up, all this will show whe you go for interview and employers are more likely to employ you if you are confident and not defeatist.
I have nothing but praise for CERCO and if you put the effort in they will HELP you get where you want to go.
Hi guys,
It has been nearly 6 months now and I have been busy working and doing great with Cerco, I just finished a project for Abbott and it was a pleasure to work with Abbott’s IT department, currently working for Fujitsu through Cerco and next year near getting a free course from Cerco to increase my knowledge in certain fields of IT.
Special thanks to Ashley Hamblett, who is keeping us busy and giving us opportunity to work with variety of different companies.
As Mark Brumpton said “You only get out what you put in” and I do agree with mark, nothing comes easy in life we got to work hard and smart to achieve something in life.
hi
i have been reading this blog with great interest. i am looking to do Cerco myself. I have been in the past a computer tech, but since leaving Zimbabwe i have found it difficult to get back into the IT industry, forcing me to work what ever job i could get. i was and still am very good at what i did, i fix and maintain family and friends home computers and networks. i am often told that i should pursue a career in IT as i am very good, but cannot find a job in the field. i had almost given up until i heard of Cerco. i have bags of enthusiasm and desperately want to work in the IT field, almost to the point where i will do anything like spending £4000 on a computer course. i have already done A+ but all my other experience comes from experimenting. i have spoken to Cerco and they were very honest by saying that given my current location it would be difficult to find me work. i was impressed with their honesty. i have given myself till the end of the weekend to make up my mind on going ahead with cerco or carrying on working my way through my MCPD training kit. the reason i have been thinking about and doing some research on Cerco (which lead me to this blog) is that my current job is taking me nowhere and i need to act on my future now. i love IT, and want nothing more than work in the IT field.
Any help and advise would be great.
Thinking of using Cerco to do my resttlement, it’s a scary thought on it’s own nevermind the whole prospect of them not delivering on their statements. I am willing to listen and I’m logical enough to know that I won’t be paid the same salary as I’m earning now ad it taken me 8 years to get to 30k. But I’m not afraid to start at the bottom and with hard work and my never say die naval attitude I’m sure I’ll run circles around my civilian counterparts! Bring it on MR Emden I would love the challenge.
Yours aye
Llogs David “Dave” Lindsey
Royal Navy
I attended the Cerco course in September/October 2009. I had been out of the industry for 5 years (Iwas formerly employed as an Field Hardware Engineer for 14 years) The course delivered nothing particularly new to me, it served more as a refresher. I was convinced to do the course on the understanding that Cerco could and would find regular work for me. It’s now nearly march 2010 and I have yet to hear a single word from them despite a number of emails sent. I had previously attended one of the first Cerco courses back in 1990. This resulted in immediate employment at the end of the course. So naturally I expected the same kind of results. I am now expected to part with £3,500 as the course fees have been deferred for 12 months. As the cost of the course is now being dealt with by Barclays, I dont hold much hope of getting my money back for something which I feel I haven’t recieved. As for the 37K claim, as a Field Engineer of 14 years My salary as at 2004 was £18,500! Go figure as they say!
As an update to my last post as Duke59, I see Cerco are changing their name to Unique I.T Training. I wonder why?!
Well I would imagine that this post has proved a bit of a pain in the ass, as Google seems to like it…
That said, I always felt that Mr Emden has shown a decent commitment to his company reputation by commenting on this blog.
Thanks for providing this forum. Your website is providing the information needed to guage the performance of cerco. If I had read this blog I wouldn’t have done anything with cerco. it is unfortunate that the likes of ashley and craig accepted the job to sell lies for steve emden. History will not judge them well. They have given their heart and soul to telling lies and deceiving people to make their living. what a shameful way of making a living. I would like to use this forum to inform frustrated cerco graduates(as described by Ashley) to contact me on my email address johnwells160@yahoo.co.uk to device means to getting our money back. CERCO is a fraud and should not be allowed to exist in UK. They can change the name to anything, is still part of the fraud I am talking about.
CERCO IS A FRAUD.
Just in case people do still view this post, I was searching for my previous Cerco classmates and came across this site. I did the Fast track course in 2005 as an alternative to uni. I had a basic knowledge of PC support and pretty much no networking knowledge. The course gave me all the fundamentals required to sit in an entry level role and I began contract work with Ikon which Cerco quickly found for me (This role would have materialised into a permanent position however after 4 months I quickly decided support wasn’t for me and investigated other IT interests). Networking caught my eye and realising that not many companies had heard of Cerco thought it best to study for some other qualifications, but understand that companies do recognise a candidates commitment to learning and self development which is demonstrated with the fast track course. Short story is I quickly studied for and passed Comptia A+/Net+ as most topics are covered off in Fast Track, during my studies I became interested in Wireless LANs and after passing my exams applied for and got a junior role at a Wireless LAN orientated company earning a modest 12k at the age of 20. Still determined to achieve my ambitions I continued to work hard and study, moved companies twice jumping from 12k – 15k – 24k and picking up my CCNA/CCNA Wireless and CWNP Certs. Now just under 5 years since taking the Fast Track course I’m in a consultant role earning 48k aged 25 in the middle of a recession. My point is that people complaining they aren’t receiving the job of a life time after 4 weeks training need to wake up. Buying an abs vibrator won’t turn you into an adonis but it will certainly help if you use it as part of the bigger picture. Use Cerco to give you the basic knowledge; build on that knowledge and direction that the instructors provide; figure out what in IT interests you with the help of the Cerco recruitment team; Use Cerco to help find a starting point but certainly don’t solely rely on them to land you in a dream position, use your own resources to locate a job you actually want; once you get a job work very very hard, study hard, be enthusiastic and determined and it will pay off. If I hadn’t have gone to Cerco I would have probably fell into the student life style and then definitely not come out with a good job, the course gave me knowledge, determination and focus and now I know what I want to achieve in my career.
Dear Mr. Wells
I have just been handed your Blog to which I am replying on behalf of Cerco/Unique as well as myself, Ashley, Craig and all those who work for the Company.
Firstly we cannot find your name recorded as ever having trained by us, so if you could kindly stop hiding behind a pseudo name and let us know who you are and what is the nature of your complaint, I will be happy to look into it and answer any grievances you may have.
I therefore await you giving me all the relevant details as requested by me as soon as possible.
I remain
Steven M. Emden
I dont know if writing on this will do me any good, but i feel i have to for my sanity, I wish this blog had been going when i did my course (apr 08) as i wouldve seriously thought about not doing it, i was put onto the company by my girlfriend who has members of her family that have done the course and done very well out of it, I had never had much exp in the repair of pcs but i had always had an interest in it, so i took the test, went to the open day and applied on the course, i took a month off work and did the course, i was made up with the course (i did feel like walking out on the first day as there was alot to take in) but i knuckled down and passed with an distinction, i never thought i would have a position straight away (nothing ever runs that smoothly) but i thought that by the end of the year i would be out of my current job and on the exciting ladder of an i.t career, i made them aware that i had a months notice to serve from my current job when i went there and was made to feel like that wouldnt be a problem, but now (nearly 2 years later) i am still @ the same company i was when i did the course (i live in the north west area so im not sure if there have been jobs going here) , i hadnt been offered an interview until summer last year, i too was told about a job in fujitsu (well actually 2) one was within the first year of passing my course and i never heard anything about that (apart from it being put back), i was put forward for another job (i was not offered this i believe because i couldnt start on the monday) when my interview was on the friday afew days before, i have lost count of the amount of jobs i have applied for online (via other recruitment agencies) and have never even got an interview through this, i also had an interview @ cerco house in aug (i wont go into company names or anything) but i was made aware (via txt) in nov that this person wanted to hire me (i never heard anything from this person) i know this isnt cercos fault, but i feel like they couldve made me aware either way, i was told i had been offered a 2nd job (for fujitsu) in inverness (this was in oct 09) i was told by the cerco recruiter to hand my notice in @ my current work (which i did) i felt like a massive weight had been lifted from my shoudlers finally and it wouldnt be long before i was out in the world of i.t., i was then told afew days later that the job had been postponed (i then had to plead with my company to be able to recind my notice, which i am glad they did), i know that some of these things are out of their control, but i feel if they contacted you more (recruitment team) rather than leaving you out of the loop then i would feel less upset by the whole situation, i cannot say that it is all their fault but i feel the telling me that i had a job and the stress of the last few years (paying for my course and being stuck in my current position could have led to the depression that i suffered since 16th nov 09) i had an interview for a job (i was put forward by cerco) @ end of nov (in liverpool), after attending the interview i was made to feel like i couldve done the job without doing the cerco course (as the interviewer made me feel that the skills i had learnt had nothing to do with the job going forward) i feel i was put forward for this as i currently work in a callcentre and this new position was working on a helpdesk logging problems with engineers (which is what i thought i was being trained to be in the first place) i was offered the job shortly after but i declined as i thought (as above) that it wouldnt utilise the skills i thought i had learnt from the cerco course, since this i haev hardly heard from the recruitment side of things and i feel like i have been forgotten about, i just wish i could put the whole thing behind me (but i am reminded of it everyday when i think of the loan i took to pay the course off), im sory if this looks like a rant but its been nearly 2 years of this building up and i just wanted to get this off my chest (even if nobody reads it) but i feel like i have to get it down so i can finally accept the fact that i wont ever been working in i.t. and out the whole situation behind me and move on with my working life
sorry again
dan
Thanks for your comment Dan – no need to apologise. Mr Emden stops by this page occasionally, and I’m sure your comments will be read. Thanks for contributing to what has become an interesting debate.
Dear Mr Wells (or whoever you are)
I have not received your reply to my email requesting your true name and the nature of your claim which I take very seriously.
Blogs, by their very nature attract malcontents who hide behind pseudo names to cast aspersions. The accepted practice is not to reply to them but to let them die a natural death. However, this is not my practice, as can be seen by replies to various blogs on this site. The purpose of a Blog Site is for genuine students and interested parties to air their views with a view to improving our services. We take our business very seriously.
However, your blog is different. You are making very serious allegations that you are required to substantiate. You have named certain members of this Company by name and in the process slandering their good name. You state that the company is a FRAUD, again, without backing up your allegations. You need to be advised that your allegations amount to slander and that we take serious exception to this. We will not hesitate to seek legal redress in the courts of law. If it is a forum that you require to air your views then you will have the opportunity to do so in the courts of law. We have therefore copied in our solicitor to this and suggest you do likewise.
If you are serious in your allegations you will reveal your true identity and the nature of your claim.
I therefore look forward to hearing from you.
Steven M . Emden
Dear Dan
I have just been sent your Blog and firstly I applaud you for having the strength of character to use your real name, this allows me to obtain the facts and to give you an unbiased reply..
I can assure you that in no way will you jeopardise your chances with us, in fact if you are found to be correct and that we are found wanting, I will ensure that you get satisfaction.
I hope that I will be able to come back to you before I go away on Tuesday, if not it will be dealt with directly after Easter.
I remain
Steven M. Emden
dear david
thankyou for the chance to let me get that off my chest
dan
dear steven
thankyou for looking into this, i dont mean to sound like i am getting on anyones back, i just felt like i needed to finally get some things off my chest.
thankyou for your reply.
Dan
Dear Dan
I well understand and I promise you that I will give you a fully researched reply ASAP ,
Regards
Steven
DEAR DANNY
MAY I START BY SAYING HOW IMPRESSED I WAS THAT YOU HAD THE STRENGTH OF YOUR CONVICTIONS TO MAKE A COMPLAINT AND LEAVE YOUR REAL NAME SO THAT I COULD LOOK INTO THE MATTERS YOU RAISED.
I HAVE READ ALL THE NOTES CONCERNING YOU AND IT SEEMS TO BOIL DOWN TO TWO THINGS
1] HAVING TO GIVE 30 DAYS NOTICE TO YOUR CURRENT EMPLOYERS
2] YOUR WISH TO HAVE A PERMANENT/SEMI PERMANENT JOB.
WITH REGARD TO THE FIRST POINT, HAVING TO GIVE 30 DAYS NOTICE IS A REAL PROBLEM FOR US, AS IN MOST CASES WE ARE ASKED FOR ENGINEERS TO START VIRTUALLY IMMEDIATELY.
IT UNFORTUNATELY WON’T BE OF ANY COMFORT TO YOU, BUT IN FUTURE AT OUR OPEN DAYS WE WILL BE ASKING THE QUESTION “ARE YOU AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE WORK” AND IF THERE IS A NOTICE PERIOD OF 30 DAYS REQUIRED, WE WILL BE PUTTING A CAUTIONARY NOTE ON OUR OFFER LETTER.
WITH REGARD TO THE SECOND POINT, MOST OF WORK BEING UNDERTAKEN BY OUR ASSOCIATE COMPANY CERCO I.T [STAFFING SOLUTIONS] LTD. IS CONTRACT WORK, WHICH CAN BE SHORT OR LONG IN NATURE.
WE HAVE PUT YOU FORWARD FOR VARIOUS JOBS OVER THE PERIOD AND ONE IN PARTICULAR THAT MET YOUR REQUIREMENTS WITH SCOTTISH WATER WAS CANCELLED FOR REASONS BEYOND OUR CONTROL AT THE VERY LAST MOMENT.
BECAUSE CONTRACT WORK IS NOT PERMANENT WORK THE PAY RATE IS HIGHER PRORATA. I HOPE THIS POINT WAS MADE AT THE OPEN DAY.
WITH REGARDS TO YOUR PERSONAL SITUATION, I BELIEVE THAT ALTHOUGH YOU HAVE PARTICULAR REQUIREMENTS WE COULD, SHOULD AND WILL DO BETTER.
I AM NOW TAKING A PERSONAL INTEREST IN FINDING YOU A JOB ROLE THAT WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. I DON’T WANT TO RAISE YOUR HOPES BUT I AM HOPING THAT IN THE NEXT 2-3 WEEKS WILL BE ABLE TO PUT YOUR NAME FORWARD FOR A PERMANENT JOB WITH A VERY MAJOR INTERNATIONAL COMPANY WHO HAS CHOSEN US TO SUPPLY THEM WITH THEIR NEW ENGINEER INTAKE BECAUSE THEY LIKE OUR GRADUATES AND THE WAY WE TRAIN THEM.
REST ASSURED THAT SHOULD THIS JOB ROLE NOT MATERIALISE WE WILL NOT REST UNTIL WE DO FIND YOU WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR.
KIND REGARDS
STEVEN M. EMDEN
Just a small note on netiquette… typing in ALL CAPS is considered “shouting”.
Hi Steven
Thankyou for looking into this, I never meant what I said to be taken as a complaint, I just wanted to get somethings off my chest and I apologise if it came across as
“having a go”.
I never meant to be a problem by asking about perm/semi perm job, the worry I had was the fact that I wouldve been leaving a secure well paid job for a job that could only be a few weeks long.
Thankyou again for looking into this Steven, I hope I am not a burden of your time, and hope to hear something soon.
Thanks
Dan
First of all I’d like to say that I appreciate Steven for backing up his company. I also realise that business models by nature (generally) have a single purpose and that is to make money. Some people can be unfortunate to suffer as a consequence.
Now for my story.
I graduated from DeMontfort Uni’ in 1998 with Bsc(hons) IT. I then worked for a firm in Birmingham for 4 years before being made redundant. At the time of leaving, my salary was 35,000 GBP. Following that disaster, I was unable to get IT work since no one, bar my ex-company used the language platform which I had experience in.
Alas I found work in another sector doing customer services. But IT is my passion and I couldnt let it go. So I picked up a book (CCNA), self studied in 1 week flat, went to a prometric test centre and have the certificate to prove it. (albeit expired now)
Agreeing with what most people have allready stated here, certs are useless without the exp’, and I still couldnt get back into IT.
In 2007 I emigrated to UAE to look for IT related work, but was unhappy there.
I returned to the UK in 2009 and since then, I am still unemployed trying to get back into IT.
I came across Cerco about 2 hrs ago and completed the quiz. I got 90% and was asked to call for an evaluation.
I was overjoyed, thinking that finally, a recruitment agency will be able to get me permanent or contract work, even though there is such a gap of IT exp in my CV.
Google, however, directed me to this site and now I am a bit concerned.
My following question is actually directed at Steven.
I feel that I have more than enuff (sp) knowledge to be able to perform the jobs posted on your site, specifically the IT Tech, and IT Eng positions in B’ham, which are entry level positions. Would I still have to complete the Cerco cert course in order for Cerco to provide its recruitment services to me, knowing that the cert itself is way below my technical level?
Thanks
I took the Cerco course a few years ago and didn’t get an interview for over a year mostly due to my location.
I moved to within spitting distance of London and attended 3 interviews via Cerco in as many weeks. The third interview led to an ‘on site’ position supporting thousands of users at a major IT company. I have to say that this was a fantastic opportunity and in the three years that I was there I became, I believe, a very confident, skilled engineer. My salary to start was £17,000, my finishing salary was £22,500 which is ‘average’ for a desktop support role.
As usual all good things come to an end and I was laid off on a ‘last in first out’ basis at the beginning of this year.
I contacted Cerco again looking for work but to date have only had the offer of a telephone interview, I waited in all day but the phone didn’t ring. Since then I have emailed Cerco but not received a response. I understand that the recession is making things difficult for everyone, I have applied for over two hundred jobs since becoming unemployed and in spite of my experience and the promise of excellent references to date I have had just a single interview.
I have had a good experience with Cerco and enjoyed working in IT, however I am now looking at any form of employment as I feel that after 8 months of unemployment my IT career is probably over.
I would recommend the Cerco course as a way to get a foot in the door of corporate IT support, but please bear in mind that you will start at the bottom with a salary to suit, the rest is up to you, with a lot of hard work and hopefully better luck then me you could have a worthwhile career.
Dear All I am a Cerco graduate as well, thankfully I got the 15 day course free, (lucky me)
the experience I got was great, the people I met on the course were a fab bunch, the instructors really knew the subjects they were teaching , although TCP/IP could have been covered in more detail. What does let things down at CERCO is the recruitment side of things, they keep you in the dark about job opportunities ok one can argue they can’t create jobs that don’t exist, but against that Steve Emden is saying that it is in the best interests of the recruitment division to get you into work , I live an hour away from London, yet since re-locating to East Anglia, I have heard very little about any work coming up, I volunteered for a job in another part of England and I knew someone who could put me up, yet there was nothing after that, no explanation why it had fell through, no re-assurance from the staff at CERCO, I feel disheartened by this side of the company.
Keep well away from these companies touting IT courses at massively over-inflated prices. They are ripping you off big style and exploiting some of the most vulnerable people in society, i.e., the unemployed desperate to find work. I have over 16 years in a variety of IT support roles and have never seen a salary above 25K for any type of deskside/server support role. Yes, salaries do exist above that rate, even more so now, but for highly qualified IT specialists like cross platform consultants (Linux/UNIX) or virtualisation technology. Believe me, those roles only go to the best candidates, not to someone who has just got his A+. The recession has seen a huge shake out of IT personnel, and those who are still in the game are always at the top of the agency list or personnel department. I’ve managed to keep in the game by going self employed, managing a few web sites, and enhancing my skill base. I’m sorry to say this – but everyone else is doing call centre type work for £6.20 per hour – including, no doubt, most of the CERCO trainees.
Hey Fellas,
I’ve got uni degree in IT, MCITP and CCNA cerfiticates. Yet I am still looking for a job, tailoring my cover letters and CV’s for every employer. The fact that I haven’t got any experience is crucial for most employers.
After getting a degree I worked in a non-IT sector for a while and everything was going swimmingly before the recession. To cut the longer short I have started looking for any IT job with very poor luck. I thought that getting CCNA would really help a lot so I got that in what, 2-3 months, then MCITP(my 70-646 is scheduled for Friday tbh..). I was about to get enrolled to Cerco training program last year, but I thought that Cerco diploma is rather a downgrade than a real enhancement of my resume. Right now I am still looking for a job in network support/engineering. Tough luck for a jobseeker, hopefully things will get better sooner or later. Anyways, I was thought you might know any companies that would accept a volunteer who would be able to work just in sake of getting experience ?
Your right clive, im still working @ a call centre (like i was when i did the course 2 nearly 3 years ago) im just lucky im on more than £6.20 an hour
Well folks since my last post , I have obtained a recognised Microsoft Certificate and can proudly put my CERCO CCSN in the bin!
I took the great cerco course last year, When being interviewed before the course started i was told by the the lady (jenny) i think. (its in an email) that I would most probally start the following monday, I left my 25k job in construction. After 6 weeks and hundreds of phone calls, I really started to get nervous, after expressing my concerns to craig he advised that i should be also looking for my own work, I never got work for 12 months. How the hell was I suppose to pay the 4000 within 12 months? (the great dont pay for 12 months deal) So now I owe 7500, and almost was kicked out onto the streets with my family because I simply couldnt pay rent, I am in significant debt with bills etc. I have nearlly lost everything. And to top it off they asked us to sign our happy about the course slip for the barclays loan half way through the course to which we did. Any advice would be great. Could trading standards help??
Hey guys,
So i have read over this thread with great attention, so what is the current situation?
currently they are advising for field engineers in the north east area with an open day/interview,
what can one expect from this?
cheers
@ Phil
Hi all, I did the cerco course at the end of last year so I hope my case is useful. I am still working under cerco-sometimes.
Booking the course and getting accommodation sorted was very easy and I am ex military so i got a whopping 50% off the course.There was a few small admin errors and uncertainty as to what was included in my package but this was hammered out during the course.
I am not from an I.T background and found the course to be well structured and ideal for someone starting out. The instruction was good and the guys doing it were also very good -I passed the A+ exam a week or so after i returned home from the course. They teach you how to faultfind and fix on real computers which is really really good and good fun.The network plus i thought was a wasted week as they pretty much gave us a book to read and some videos and tests which are available online.
After the course initially I had almost constant work for around 3 weeks on a contract mainly as a technical courier- driving 200 miles a day on average and simply swapping out kit from sites- I expected to be doing entry levels jobs and thats what I got.
Since then I have had approx 5days work on another job that was slightly more interesting but not too taxing on the brain.
We are in hard times so there is less work, also it seems the majority of work is in London or Cheshire and surrounding areas. I live in the north-east and the demand for entry level I.T is simply not there.
Also factors like getting security cleared- if you have had steady jobs and addresses this will go through quickly and open up more contracts for you. note contracts rather than jobs.
I’m lucky that I have very small outgoings so can get by on uncertain money but this is a major factor to consider if you are considering giving up a position that pays OK.
I’m gonna ride it out with Cerco, as its a way to get a variety of work and also that first i.t employer on my CV, hopefully more jobs will come but the fact is cerco can’t give me jobs that aren’t there and they can’t send me to someone else’s patch as thats taking their work, in the meantime i enjoy my plentiful time off and read my book so that i’ll pass my n+ before march.
In summary- sorry for going on…
-good training to get yourself up to speed
-Network+ plus you may as well do at home
- work is not always there to be had but be patient and you will get something.
-the choice is yours.
i had my interview today and was chuffed to bits that i had been accepted ive been out of work for so long and have got 2 kids to support not great when your living on benifits so after reading this im now a tad concerned i understand every buisness has its good and bad bits and have to admire mr emden for his passion and would like to ask him that when i do my training course down in crewe i think it is? and hopefully if i pass will there be work for me up in the inverness area? as i was told by the interviewer who i thank for taking the time to listen to my worry’s of a personnel nature and was quite helpful.
kind regards
rory sim
looking forward to learning it
Dear Rory
Firstly thank you for attending your Interview in Inverness.
I fully understand both your excitement and your concerns and therefore I want to reply to you as follows:
We have been informed by our Clients that their clients will be requiring IT Support Contractors in the foreseeable future in The Highlands & Islands of Scotland
The work we have been informed will be both short term contracts & contracts lasting for over 12 months; that is the nature of Contracting.
In order to meet the requirements of the expected Contracts, we have held interviews to find potential IT Contractors who we can firstly have trained to meet our standards and then Security Cleared; the latter can take up to 8 weeks and is not automatic if there have been problems in the past.
When you came to the interview we made no promises that you would get work, but ask yourself why should we go to the expense of having you trained for 5 days at our expense, if we didn’t believe that we could put you out to work for us a Technician Contractor, as that is the only way that we will earn any money from you.
If you are still concerned about coming to Crewe to be trained for FREE then I suggest that you do not undertake it.
I’m sorry but that is all I am able to tell you, it is now up to you as to whether or not you take up our offer; your only expense being Travel and Board & Lodging as the training is Free and you stand a good chance of working for us as a Contractor.
Hoping to see you in the near future in Crewe
I remain
Steven M. Emden
Dear Elliot
Firstly may I apologise to you for not replying sooner to your Blog but it was not shown to me until today.
Secondly may I congratulate you on getting a permanent job role, as you say not an easy thing to do in the NE.
I’m pleased to see that you thought the Course “well structured and ideal for someone starting out” that’s exactly what we say; you have to start at the beginning before moving on up, no matter what other training companies may say to the contrary and the best way to start is by Vocational Practical Training rather than by Advanced Certification which means nothing without practical experience to back it up.
I have discussed your comments about the A+ & Network+ Courses with Rob Whiston and if you don’t mind me saying so Rob says that you have gotten it the wrong way round.
The A+ Course is about showing you how to pass the A+ Exam as you virtually covered the requirements PRACTICALLY during the 3 week Fast Track Course but on the other hand the Network + Course was giving you far greater in depth knowledge of Networking than what you had learned.
If you think Rob is wrong in what he told me please contact Rob directly to discuss it and copy me in.
With regard to Contract Work I think you are being very fair in what you say especially “I live in the North – East and the demand for entry level I.T is simply not there”. We cannot conjure up jobs that don’t exist and that is why so many employers now prefer to hire Contractors to permanent members of staff, as it offers them greater flexibility but on the other hand you have now found a permanent position which is great and I do hope that you will be able to put the skills you learned at Cerco to good use.
Wishing you every success in the future
Regards
Steven M. Emden
If you are, like I was in 2005 unemployed heavily dyslexic but fairly IT literate and you see an advert like the one Cerco used to advertise their courses a practical and shot way to make a start in realizing you potential. You immediately think why don’t I try something like that. It is a practical hands on course that will get you a job at the end of it.
Having done the Cerco course I have to say I found it challenging but I enjoyed the experience over all. The tutors were patient, got me through and I ended up scoring distinctions in 3 out of 4 of the disciplines. Cerco did find me a Job, it was as a hardware computer / laptop repairman for Banteck the then service provider for Dell & Sony Vaio. I had to setup a company with limited liability and business insurance to do this job. I was told by Cerco that ECPAY was the organization that would do all the monthly p.a.y.e. and tax for you for a fee.
4 years after I have left Bantec I have been receiving bills from the revenue office because this company that was set in my name is still pending closure. I have called and chased this up looking for the accounts for my company so that an accountant who also wants paying indecently can sort this out, except ECPAY does not exist any more and the new company Eagle Umbrella have conveniently lost my books.
I did not claim the millage I did that year 30k by the way because I was being paid so little I thought it would make more sense to get a lump sum at the end of the year I was advised at the time by ECPAY that this would not be a problem. Now according to my accountant I will have to put that company into liquidation which to me sounds pretty serious and from the outset will mean that I cant have my own company again.
Having 4 years experience as a Field Engineer I can only say you really need to be carefull what jobs you take initially because you can be very easily lead into job or pigeon holed that will not give you any opportunities to evolve and then make it very expensive to create an opportunity in a different role with more money and more scope.
What you are not told by Cerco when you sign up is that they will get you a job and it is down to you to make it work what they don’t tell you when you are sitting there listening to the sales speech is that if they find you a job you will have to accept it. If you don’t think this is going to take you in the direction you are looking to go in and you decline they wash their hands of you. In terms of recruitment.
I had a prince 2 course under my belt I could have gone into something like infrastructure delivery networks or Project orientated work. I asked the question will I be able to get into networks and infrastructure from this role. I was told that once you have your foot in the door with a big company like Dell anything is possible. BULLSHIT !
After paying this sum of money as an unemployed person you should be allowed to chose the direction that best suits your ambitions.
Everybody doing this course wants to be the best they can and whilst on the course I was told many things some things were true but most of it was complete bull. EG I am from a multicultural background if I went to Greece and tried to use this qualification what would it be equivalent too and would it be Recognised? I was told that the course was Microsoft Certified and was internationally recognized but if asked it was regarded as the same as the MCSE. I know who said this to me but I am not a rat!
Companies that Cerco are in agreement with are not obliged to train you at all otherwise they would have to spend money on you and why worry because they would just replace you with another Clone from Cerco if you don’t like the job. Plus if they did train you and you found a job more in line with your aspirations they would have to replace you. You have no career path unless you map it out yourself and are prepared to pile more money into an industry that is dwindling. When you hit the brick wall because you only have a totally useless qualification from a small company that has the monopoly on BS you are forced to go back and get some more training because they make it attractive with 30 % off and things. No bloody good to me though I am skint.
I have been working my ass off for the past few years but the truth is I was earning more money a s a courier and I didn’t have to B.S customers about the benefits of using this product or represent and promote a company that quite honestly didn’t give a monkeys about ME.
My first placement with Banctec DELL & SONY VAIO taught me alot about the industry i was getting paid per customer I visited 10 quid a call, be it swap out a motherboard or replace a hard drive and rebuild an OS. I was supposed to be working in my local area but because I was the last engineer to join I had to do ridiculous mileages to get around my day.
I would try and at least get 5 calls done whilst they would send an engineer they had working there for a while to Brighton and he would do 10 calls and get paid per call with hardly any travel at all. I told the recruitment team at Cerco this and they said you have to bring it up with your line manager I did so but all I got was no jobs for 2 days. Very worrying when you have to pay rent and pay back the loan you took to do the course.
In that year 3 other computer tekies from Cerco came and left because they could not make ends meet but I stuck it out to get the experiece. Luckily my Father bankrolled me for the year basically because I could not even pay my rent.
Cerco and other training providers of this ilk are setup to supply the demand for these big companies like Banctec which has also Changed names incidentally. Funny That.
You need training and further development in IT. There are not short cuts!! int the best situation if you are in a good company get them to train you or if you are considering a career from scratch . DO A RECOGNISED COURSE or FORGET THIS FANTACY.
As for the advertising techniques you have used to promote this monstrosity Mr Emden I am please that you have come to your scenes with that advert but don’t you feel even a bit rubish, in my op pinion you should advertise the average earnings of all cerco trained people and you should go and do the jobs you send people out to do because it seems to me you are way out of touch .. Oh I forgot you are only tying to run a business, Wouldn’t get much interest then would you.. You should hang your head in shame for ripping off people that are out of work with this bullshit.
As for me I am disappointed in my self and I have let my family down and I only wish I had not seen that advert because I was desperate to improve my life but I am stuck in a job where I am not learning any more and have no chance earning any more. Yep I am the MUG you got the money Stephen but I have my dignity you want to know who I am I am all the people you have ripped off .
Hi all, been reading this site all morning with great interest.
Firstly i went to the Cerco open day back a month ago (14th April i think) and Chris Barlow was there to welcome us (nice guy) There were a few tests to pass.
Anyways to cut a long story short, I was chosen to go ahead and become a IT Technician/engineer which did seem all too fast, however i requested the 4 day training course as although i have 9 years IT experience i felt a bit rusty and wanted the refresher. The training starts on the 10th May which i will attend, however the recruitment team have not been the most helpful. I sent in a Disclosure over a month ago and it wasn’t new enough.. but I only found that out by phoning them today and was asked to provide a new one. Also was promised a start date after training but now am told they aren’t sure if and when that is, however i know that’s not Cerco’s fault and im not condemning them for that.
After reading some blogs on here im starting to feel a little concerned to when i will be working. As i live in Inverness Highlands i think that concern is justified. (unemployed for over 5 months now ).I do think Cerco are a legit company however i would still think that looking for your own work is important, just in case. Having Steven defending the company proves that at least they are interested and willing to discuss any problems. No company out there is perfect and there are plenty of them willing to screw people over. Just got to keep your eyes open and im grateful for sites like this one.
Anyways good luck to everyone on here finding jobs whether with Cerco or not.
Cheers
Mike
Lol!!
I went for an interview with Cerco IT. I was offered intial traing and am now working on a substantial contract with them. It seems to me that 70% of what you actually do on a day to day basis is customer service and making sure you deliver a good service. The technical side is perhaps the easier side, and I’m happy that although I knew a bit about computing, then I’m learning more each day. I’m in the north od Scotland and I can assure that compared with the wages in the deep south or London, then I am no way on the ‘average’ salary. This however is the wages divide that many experience in everyday work here and it’s across the board. perhaps a few years down the line, and armed with my ongoing and free raining from Cerco, I may branch out and condider using my build, networking and programming experience and go freelance or self employed. As far as I’m concrned I’m receiving just above an entry level wage at the moment, but I’m also learning on the job. My eyes were open when I went into it and they’re open now. I know that if I specialised, then yes, I may earn somewhere towards the £30k mark or more, but for now, it’s all good.
Last year I did the online test with cerco (after seeing their TV ad) and passed with flying colours, and so was asked to come to Crewe for the next stage. After a bit of thought, I decided that 4 grand was a lot of money to risk when you’re unemployed, and felt the website reeked of a scam, so didn’t bother.
With no more thought given to it, I recently applied for a job with cerco via reed.co.uk as a trainee FSE. It wasn’t until I googled ‘cerco’ 2 hours ago that I ‘clicked’ and realised I was dealing with this same company. I intend to go ahead with the interview for this trainee position, but now fear that it may not be what the job advert has lead me to believe. I do hope I’m not being duped into a training program with no work at the end of it, as I applied for the position on a ‘jobs’ site, not a ‘training’ site (I understand that I need to go through the training to be employed, but there is no mention in the advert of seeking my own employment after the training, and I would be complaining to reed.co.uk if this is the case).
Here is the ad:
http://www.reed.co.uk/job-details/Newcastle-Upon-Tyne/Field-Service-Engineer/Trainee-IT-Engineer/?JobID=20583739&pg=1&l=Newcastle+Upon+Tyne%2c+Tyne+And+Wear&lp=10&s=1633&nr=200&ns=True&ps=100
Any comments which you could add to this Mr. Emden would be highly appreciated.
Regards,
Andrew.
I have now been through the interview, and was selected to go for training, should I wish, in Crewe, Cheshire. I was told at the interview that there was no guarantee of work, but that I wasn’t guaranteeing that I would work with them after the training either. All seemed fair, so I took them up on their offer of training (only the 2nd week of their 2 week course, as my previous knowledge was deemed sufficient). I really enojoyed my week in Crewe, and can say that although most of it was a bit of a ‘refresher’ for me, rather than anything new, I did learn a thing or two. The standard of tuition was good, and there was about 7 students to 1 tutor, so not bad at all.
It’s been a few weeks now since finishing the course, and I’m yet to hear anything from Cerco regarding work, but that’s to be expected as a lot of their clients seem to demand fairly rigourous background checks.
So I’ll wait and see regarding my judgement of Cerco, but so far, I’ve had no trouble with them at all – in fact they’ve taught me a thing or two about IPv6…
Well after recently applying for the “Trainee IT Engineer” role on http://www.reed.co.uk I was contacted by CERCO on the phone and have been offered an interview in the Glasgow area but obviously searching about this company has made me anxious about any future experience with this company,
and also about any guarantees that may or not be offered at interview stage I will be asking about these.
Yours , Stephen.
I recently attended this group session after applying for a position through Reed (there’s me rocking up to the place expecting an actual 1-on-1 interview for the job I applied for, but that’s a separate issue).
I was told that there was a 2 week course (for free, I might add) in Crewe, and then would be placed into contracts after this.
It all seemed a little too good to be true, if I’m honest. Get trained up for free, get a job in IT?
Of course I went into this with an open mind because I had no idea what was going on when me and a handful of others were carted into this boardroom for a group session.
I had to complete a multiple-choice test. Really?
Tick a box to say that you know what a USB port looks like, go for a 2-week training course and you’ll be in an IT Field job within weeks…
Anyway.
Turns out that I took the day off work, paid for the petrol to go here (plus the toll to get over the bridge to Cardiff) and was told that, whilst I would be accepted for the course (that I never even applied for in the first place), there was not any contracts in my area to go into so there was no point in me going for it?
They said they would keep my record on file for any contracts that come up in my area, but reading people’s posts about doing the course and STILL not getting work, I’m not holding my breath.
hi i been to cerco interview and been offerd a free course for 2 weeks getting me trained and an IT job, they say the minimun pay is 18k by presenter Chris Barlow, he seem a nice guy we had 2 test a computer test that was easy what a Usb looks like, stupid questions like what a paralel port looks like, whats a hard drive, and a mechanic test a bit harder with belts and wheel in what direction the turn and calculations, cos i am not a mechanic. but
anyway, after a few weeks i got a call saying i will enrol you to the course the week commencing whatever date to whatever date for 2 weeks and they can get you accomondation for £25 a day, plus i need to drive 200 miles from london to Crewe and stay there with 2 week out of work. i then ask what about jobs is there a guarantee for jobs, they said no guarantee, but some of our students already been hired by our parners fujitsu, and BT aready within a week of the course, i thought wow, but i also thought, free course, get you a job, do this for you, i smell some rotton meat somewhere.
the problem is we are in reccession we are all struggling, big businesses like woolworths, mfi, focus diy and many more had closed down because of the reccession. so why free.
if you look in the real world nothing is free, you can get things cheap but no one will help you through to success apart from yourself. TRUE?
after doin 20 hours of research i actually came up with the conclusion for Cerco, the 2 weeks will cost you £300 minimum for the stay and travel alone then lossed of work for 2 weeks, then no guarantee IT Job, i ask myself 1 question is it worth it?. The answer is NO!! after my findings the only person will gain is cerco itsself if they know your good they put you in IT Job at a discount rate they keep they rest thats how they gain for free IT training to see your capabilities.
if your grades are not upto scratch, like 50% scrape pass rate, they leave you in the dark and you never be employed by them, mayb a 1 day and 1 off job. its good in one way if you get good grades atlease they get you a step into the door in IT Industry at rubbish pay and they get a percentage. and then you can change your job in 6 months down the line and quit and run away from them with the gained experience.
but i think i recommend doing CompTia A+ try get a job and then get for a start and then gain network + MCSE, MCSA while you at work, those with dificulties getting work, you should’nt look for 28k jobs, go out for voluntary IT jobs, work for nothing, and work a nite shift for paid work, this will get you the first paid IT job the experienced, now i decided not to waste £300 on accomdation and travel plus 2 weeks wages you can do A+ and Mcse courses at home for this money plus take the exams.
the issues are you need to learn how to crew before you can walk, you need to learn how to walk before you can run. you cant run before you learn how to walk. its simple,
Cerco say they give you the course worth £4000 but to be honest in my conclusions they hire people to teach you in there own house with then pass you with a ending sheet of paper saying you passed a CCSN?????? you gonna go to an interview and show your interviewer this cert and tehy gonna say what is it? you gonna have to explain how you got conned into going this far to get here, so you got conned, why should i hire a dumb ass haha.,
Been looking to find work in IT for couple of months now. Trying to find work in London even for free is very difficult if not impossible. Even going for a volunteer position in London needs previous experience. Very few organisations will recruit you without on the job experience even if you have certifications such as ccna, a Bachelors and Masters degree.
Yep, real name.
On 16th Jan Cerco IT Staffing Solutions advertised a job in the Job Centre for an “IT Engineer” in Warrington, reference CWS/33179. It gives a job description for an internal support role and describes activities like password resets, building PCs, etc.
I applied with my CV and got an email asking if I can attend an interview in Crewe on 1st Feb. I said “Yes” and was sent details of where to go and a link to forms to fill in for security clearance and about recent experience.
Nowhere does it say this is an advertisement for selling training courses.
I shall be complaining to Job Centre Plus in the morning and getting this false, cynical, scheming advertisement pulled.
Reading the above, I see they have previous for lying in adverts.