Ideas for improving in-house talent (Sec+)

Carlos Miranda

Active member
Jul 31, 2019
40
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5,201
Ventura County, Ca
I recently facilitated (not taught, no pay) a Security+ session. We wanted to get as many of our in-house staff certified in Security+. We met twice a week (30min, 2 months), and for the training, we used ITPRO.TV. Many people will tell you that budgets are tight, but this was a very low-cost option. You can use any learning platform, we used the one we had, and then we bought the CompTIA vouchers. The first person took Sec+ this weekend and passed. The rest are taking the exam in the next couple of weeks.

What I learned doing this:

1) You really have to emphasize to the employees that they will have to study independently.
2) It's good to go over concepts, so they understand and master a subject.
3) Drilling test questions helps but determining why the answer is correct is very beneficial.
4) Eliminating bad choices helps them narrow the answers down from four choices.
5) This helped me prepare to teach another class here soon. I was able to try new teaching methods, and while not a paid engagement, I found it rewarding.
 
Cannot agree more with these points. #1 especially, because students can't have the expectation that they will be able to just sit in the class and pass the test without actually spending some time to study on their own. Nobody likes homework, but if you truly want to pass a certification test, that's what you gotta do.

Teaching the why and conversely, the why not, when reviewing questions is a great way to build and strengthen knowledge. Even those detractor answers are valuable, particularly if you can pick out why it's a detractor. Even if it doesn't apply the knowledge to the question at hand, it can certainly apply the knowledge elsewhere.

Good work on that!
 
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Cannot agree more with these points. #1 especially, because students can't have the expectation that they will be able to just sit in the class and pass the test without actually spending some time to study on their own. Nobody likes homework, but if you truly want to pass a certification test, that's what you gotta do.

Teaching the why and conversely, the why not, when reviewing questions is a great way to build and strengthen knowledge. Even those detractor answers are valuable, particularly if you can pick out why it's a detractor. Even if it doesn't apply the knowledge to the question at hand, it can certainly apply the knowledge elsewhere.

Good work on that!
 

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