Computer courses offered in UK Colleges and School

[samtay]

I feel like computer courses in UK schools and colleges should go into a lot more depth on alternative/other OS and software. I have been on a few different computing courses and they are basically just Microsoft courses and they should be just classed as Microsoft courses not computing course as computing is classed as the general computing not just working on Microsoft. UK Schools and Colleges don't even offer Linux courses. The only time I have touched Linux in a course was on a HNC in a networking unit, with a tutor that didn't seem to know what he was doing. At first he was relying on a book all the time(even when using a package manager to install software) then when I shown that I had a bit of Linux knowledge he started to use me as his book. They don't even have a full unit dedicated to other software. Most other units in the HNC mainly consisted of using Microsoft software for example:

Programming Unit - VB.net didn't even touch other languages
Website design - ASP.net, VB script. We got told about JS.
Database Design - Only ever used MS Access, and talked about MSSQL, would have been nice to used OpenOffice a little.
C Programming - One of the few unit we didn't use Microsoft.
Networking - Used Linux for web server once, then used windows for Client - server network, file server. would have been nice to have a look at Linux client-server network


I know this might not be every college or school but I think it is most in the UK.
It would be nice to find out what other people have done on computing courses?

[DrMega]

When I did my HNC, quite a long time ago, we used dumb terminals connected to a Unix box, running some Sun variant of Unix. We did very little work on MS products.

However I do agree with what you say. My wife did a CLAIT course (CLAIT being 'Computer Literacy And IT'), and all she used was MS products. Moreover, she was taught that, for example "To write a letter, we use MS Word" and "To create a spreadsheet, we use MS Excel".

We are in a catch 22 situation. Companies use MS products because most IT "expertise" in the UK is based on MS products. Colleges teach MS products because most companies use MS.

In my local comunity, and I suspect many like it across the country (and no doubt elsewhere in the world), there is an opportunity to change things for the better. Local groups frequently running one day courses teaching basics of computing to low income and unemployed people. It seems ironic that such a targey audience is taught how to use the most expensive and restrictive software.

If I had time and resources, I would love to run one day seminars where low income and unemployed folks come along, build a basic PC out of donated components, install a free OS (Ubuntu?), configure it to their specific needs, then for a token fee take it home with them.