This is a review of a COBIT 5.0 foundation training that I attended at Bangalore with Simplilearn on 23rd and 24th of February. The views expressed here are not of my own but of the entire batch of eight trainees.
COBIT 5.0 is a governance framework for enterprises. The course that I opted to attend was the foundation course where general concepts on the subject would be imparted, followed by a certification exam. I paid Rs.20,000 for the two day training.
Facility
Simplilearn has a nice facility in a high end part of Bangalore. They have ample parking space and getting in and out of the premises is hassle-free.
Although they have classrooms, our training was scheduled to be in a conference room which is not an ideal place to be in.
It was shocking to see that the conference room did not have a working projector system and the replacement arrived one hour before the close of the first day. The trainer restricted himself to reading slides off of the course material and asking us to follow while he read. He even wasted plenty of productive time waiting for the projector to arrive.
Lunch was served in the third floor and the lift was non operational. We had to walk all the way up to have lunch – read the lunch section to find out if it was worth the trip.
Course Material
The course material is half baked. There is nothing in the course material that will help you gain knowledge on COBIT. In fact, it can sway you away by confusing the concepts out of your mind.
Simplilearn resorted to cost cutting by placing four slides on a single sheet of paper. The words were hardly legible, and it was a pathetic experience having paid a premium. Even upon request to give us a print-out of a specific slide which was blur, it was not granted.
Refreshments
Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the lunch provided. Once again cost cutting played its part in giving us cheap food which is generally sold on pavements in Bangalore. It consisted of limited chapatis, cheap fat rice, curry, dal and watered down curd. Smaller organizations offering training do a much better job of providing decent lunch. It was sad to see that trainees are treated like prisoners and food is yanked onto our plates like we are at their mercy.
Half a cup of tea/coffee is served, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. There are no cookies to go along with it. And, the tea/coffee is sourced to a street vendor who generally stand in busy lanes selling hot beverages.
First day morning, each one of us got a liter of bottled water. We had to ask for refills, and that too a couple of us got while the rest had to hold their thirst until they got out of the premises. On the second day, another liter of water was placed on our desks. But, this time around, these were not the sealed water bottles, but rather the refills that the institution had done by themselves. Unacceptable and refilling water bottles could get them into legal and regulatory troubles.
To Conclude
In IT, whenever there are cut backs, the benefit of these cut backs is passed onto the customer. In Simplilearn’s case, they charge a premium for the course and deny us basic amenities like good food and water, and pocket the big sums. For the kind of marketing they do, people like me are under a cloud having decent expectations but experiences such as this reveal the real deal.
For those reading this blogpost, if you are in India, I want to warn you of what you would expect from this training institute. It has a cool logo, they market their product well but in the core, they suck. Do not get trained there, you will regret every rupee that you pay, and the blame yourself for the treatment that gets meted out.
I want to invite others to comment about their experiences about their training experiences at Simplilearn and other training institutes in India.
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