Are you looking for IT schools in Nigeria (or any other African country) or having difficulty making your choice of IT training in Nigeria?
It’s really difficult to excel in any field or profession in today’s market without having basic skills in Information technology. It’s not like you need to get the most advanced IT skills but a reasonable level of knowledge in Information Technology is almost always necessary, if not inevitable if you are to stand out from the competition.
When deciding on training in information technology, it is always advisable that you make informed decisions. There are a good number of IT schools in Nigeria. While many private training schools are reputable and teach the skills necessary to get good jobs and develop your career, others may not be as efficient. Their main objective may be to increase profits by increasing enrollment. They do this by promising more than they can deliver.
It’s not always easy to spot the false claims that some schools may offer, but there are steps you can take as a prospective consumers to make sure that the school you enroll is reputable and worthy to deliver quality training.
Start Your Research Online
To start with, any serious IT firm should have a visible online presence. This does not mean that any company in any field with an online presence is the best choice to do business with. You should start researching your choice of school from the internet. The search engine, Google.com predominantly, is the right place to start. You can also use online forums, like Nairaland or question and answer portals, like Google Barazza to seek public opinion. To make your search less crowded and to the point, you should use a Vocational School directories like, introschool.com, a directory of vocational schools in Nigeria, in every field of vocational training from aviation, fashion, to hairdressing to IT schools in Nigeria.
Note: You can also submit your technical and vocational education and training School/Institute to introschool.com
Price is not a guarantee for Quality
Some IT schools in Nigeria offer high rates for their training programmes for some reasons. While there may be good reasons for offering higher rates than other training institutes, it is not always a guarantee that it’s the best choice. If the training fee is higher than the usual industry rate, be sure to inquire why it’s more expensive. IT schools like APTECH, NIIT and the likes have brand reasons to be more expensive than the other schools due to its international affiliation and reputation. If the school does not seem to have any distinct reason to offer higher training fees, your best bet is to consider other schools. But if it does offer some benefits that will give you a higher advantage at the competitive market, then it may be a good choice to consider.
Do they help with Graduate employment?
This is one of the reasons to consider a reputable IT firm. Some IT schools will go further to help their graduates in their job search by offering recognized recommendation to employers and even keeping you informed on unadvertised IT job vacancies. This is a profitable reason to consider when selecting an IT school. In reality, however, if you have several IT graduates joining the labor market with similar qualification, it will need a lot more than a recommendation to make distinct impact.
What is the employment rate?
For advance IT training that qualifies you for jobs in telecom and large IT companies, an additional fact to consider if the company offers employment assistance is the employment rate of previous graduates. Vocational training institutions should do well to inform potential trainees the employment availability of the courses available. Obviously, the Information Technology industry is a dynamic one. While IT skills are often valuable, there is always the need to upgrade your skills from time to time. And at some point, you may just need to go for a particular trending program and not a fairly outdated one.
How long have they been in existence?
While it is encouraging to patronize startups, (after all every business was once a startup and could not have been where they are if not patronized) in this case, you are trying to develop a skill to build your career and not to sentimentally build someone else’s business. IT schools in Nigeria that have been in the business for a longer time is more likely to offer competitive advantage if you want to gain employment with your IT skill or get the best quality of training. It’s also easier to find past graduates and people who have something to say about the school. This is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Sometimes, startups may have a stronger enthusiasm to go out of their way to please their customers. The best is to investigate the school and find out who is behind the start up and the facilities in place.
Consider Proximity
Depending on your financial budget, another factor to consider is the location but this should come after you have considered the more significant factors mentioned above. A current IT student I recently met was complaining about how much he has spent on transportation from Aguda to Ikeja for his three months IT course. Upon further search, we discovered that there is a reputable IT school closer and with a more flexible training programme which he should have considered. However, quality should come first in your priority list than proximity.
Does it belong to any professional Body?
One last important factor to consider is the schools/institutes membership with professional organisation. Some information technology professional bodies include;
- ITAN (Information Technology Association of Nigeria)
- Nigeria Computer Society (NCS)
- Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON)
These are some of the factors to consider when choosing an IT school in Nigeria. This is not meant to be rigid guide to choosing IT schools in Nigeria. The idea is for you to get the best value for your money and time spent.
What other factors would you add to the list? Which IT schools will you recommend for prospective IT students?
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