Introducing ICS Certify!

ICS are glad to announce a new catalogue of IT courses, positioned for IT Professionals looking to further their IT career.

With new certifications available, you can view all the Microsoft and Cisco qualifications available with ICS at the new website www.icscertify.co.uk.

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)

For IT professionals who want to demonstrate their technical expertise in one of three areas: Implementation and Maintenance, Database Development, or Business Intelligence.

Find out more about MCTS

Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP)

Builds on an MCTS pre-requisite and is designed for IT professionals who want to demonstrate their expertise in using SQL Server 2008 for one of three specific job roles: Database Administrator, Database Developer, or Business Intelligence Developer.

Find out more about MCITP

Cicso Certified Network Associate (CCNA)

This certificate confirms the ability to install, configure, operate, and troubleshoot medium-size route and switched networks, including implementation and verification of connections to remote sites in a WAN.

Find out more about CCNA

Visit ICS at www.icscertify.co.uk to find out more about the new series of IT courses. Get more from your IT career with ICS at www.icscertify.co.uk.

Did you join the ICS Skillway?

Don't worry if you missed the ICS Skillway in Glasgow last month, we've added a short video of the event at Buchanan Galleries, on the 20th-21st June, to the ICS Website.

Find out more about the event, what we were trying to achieve and what people comments were.

ICS Skillway, 20th-21st June, Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow

LLM Masters degree from ICS Learn and Anglia Ruskin University

ICS Learn are proud to launch a new Masters degree, in association with Anglia Ruskin University. The LLM International Business Law degree is made up of several modules including:

• Comparative Company Law
• Corporate and Financial Regulation
• EU Law in the Global Context
• International Employment Law
• International Governance
• International Law Research
• Major Research Project

ICS Learn has partnered with Anglia Ruskin University to offer access to these great degree programmes from the comfort of your own home. With the course materials provided by ICS Learn and the accreditation by Anglia Ruskin University, you can be sure that you’ll be supported by excellent student service teams made up from tutors, mentors and online communities.

ICS Learn is proud to partner with a university that shares our aims of making education accessible to all, with 95% of Anglia Ruskin University’s students coming from state school backgrounds.

Find out more about degrees with ICS and Anglia Ruskin University.

Welcome to the Glasgow ICS Skillway – Next Stop Success!

Do you live near Glasgow? If you do, why not come and meet ICS at Buchanan Galleries shopping centre on the 20th and 21st of June to discuss your training needs.

Whether you are currently doing a course or whether you are looking for more information before you commit, come and meet ICS representatives, course advisors, and tutors, and we’ll see if we can help you move on to the next stop in your career.

Find out more about the ICS Skillway.

New undergraduate degrees available from ICS Learn!

ICS Learn has just launched a great new Arts & Humanities faculty within our range of degrees. Students can now enrol on either a BA (Hons) English or a BA (Hons) History or they can combine the two in a Joint Honours programme BA (Hons) History and English.

These degrees are offered in association with Anglia Ruskin University and can lead to a great range of careers including teaching, journalism, television and radio, as well as arts administration, gallery work, fundraising, personnel work, publishing, librarianship, marketing, museums, archives, and even the Civil Service.

The range of options available will allow you to fine-tune your studies to fit the requirements of a favoured career.

To find out more about these degrees, please visit our Arts and Humanities faculty.

An Innovative Approach to a Traditional Education

ICS is very proud of its long history, dating back to 1890 when it was established in the United States. Through innovative approaches to traditional education, ICS has made a name for itself in applying learning to common subjects and relating this to everyday work.

Take a trip through the ages with ICS and have a look at some of the campaigns that we’ve done in the past and how ICS used to look, back in the early days! Take a glimpse of how the ICS offices were, how the course materials looked, and how we used to advertise

Let us know what you think…

Find out more about ICS

Get real value from a distance learning degree

BBC Education - 17th March, 2009 - Universities push for higher fees

News that many universities in England and Wales want to increase tuition fees to between £4000 and £20,000 will come as unwelcome news to prospective candidates for undergraduate degrees.

According to a recent BBC survey, more than half of university heads want students to pay at least £5,000 per year or for there to be no upper limit on what universities can choose to charge. This comes at a time when arguments are already growing as to whether the current £3,500 cap should be lifted. This shattering news has the potential to impact on over 1 million students and the National Union of Students (NUS) has warned that this could lead to average debts of £32,000 should fees rise to £7000 per year.

ICS provide identical degrees on a distance learning basis (i.e. the student can continue to work while they study) and, for example, the cost of a full BA (Hons) Business degree when taken via ICS and their distance learning partner, the University of East London, costs below £7000 for the full degree, and costs can be spread over three years.

In comparison, universities have been charging each student a minimum of £9,000 over 3 years in tuition fees and also receive at least a further £9000 per student from the taxpayer for an identical campus based programme. And now universities are asking for even more funds. When living expenses are added to the equation, it’s no wonder the distance learning degree is fast becoming a highly relevant, highly credible, option for many individuals wanting to go back into education.

Click here for more information on the degrees offered by ICS.

Skills and qualifications prove their value to employers

The Guardian - 16th March, 2009 - Invest in your skills through distance learning

As unemployment reaches almost three million, the Guardian spoke to ICS Learn to discuss ‘how learning new skills and gaining qualifications will not only make you more attractive to a prospective employer - they'll also make you more valuable to an existing employer’.

Tom Lowe, a student with ICS Learn, also explains how he chose to give up going out at the weekends with his friends to concentrate on his studies, which means that he is now about to complete a BA in Business Management with Human Resources in only three years despite holding down a full time job as a recruitment consultant with Orange.

We hope Tom’s success can prove to be a motivation for our other students to follow in his path and complete their degrees. Click here to find out more about our degree courses.

Residential Property Services course now available

If you’re already working with the an estate agency or looking for a career change then the ICS course in Residential Property Services provides an opportunity for career development.

The ICS Residential Property Services course provides all the underpinning knowledge needed to fully prepare you for the Level 3 Technical Award in Sale of Residential Property, provided by NFOPP (National Federation of Property Professionals). This qualification is a requirement for membership of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA). It is an introductory qualification ideal for candidates wanting to gain or improve existing knowledge in the key areas related to residential property sales.

The course is an open access qualification so it welcomes new candidates, however, if you do have experience in the field then you will complete the qualification in a shorter time. The assessment of the ICS course mirrors exactly that of the actual NFOPP e-assessment in terms of format and pass mark, so that you are fully prepared to take the industry exams.

Find out more information on the Residential Property Services qualification, including benefits, key topics and hours of study.

New Certified Ethical Hacker course launched

The Guardian, 17th Dec 2009 - Ethical hacking course launched

Towards the end of last year, ICS Learn started offering a new groundbreaking course on “ethical hacking”. Ethical Hacking is the term given to activities undertaken by Internet security companies to counter computer crime.

While the content is definitely new to many distance learning providers, ICS have gone one step further and are supplying the courses pre-loaded on 120Gb iPod Classics so you really can learn wherever you like.

The software will allow you to get the training you need with the knowledge you'll be prepared for the many threats companies face in the age of the internet - you will learn Certified Ethical Hacking from the comfort of your own home or even sat on the train!

Click here for more information on the ICS Ethical Hacker course.