What Are the Benefits of Accelerated IT Programs?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams allow fast mas­tery of cru­cial IT skills. They focus on essen­tial, career-ori­ent­ed cours­es with­out filler content.
• Fast-track degrees facil­i­tate career shifts or pro­mo­tions with­out hav­ing to leave your cur­rent job.
• Short­ened pro­grams reduce over­all edu­ca­tion­al costs and often require few­er resources like textbooks.
• Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams fre­quent­ly update their cur­ricu­lums to include the lat­est tech­nolo­gies and indus­try prac­tices, keep­ing the course­work rel­e­vant and modern.

Tech jobs are some of the high­est-pay­ing options you can go for nowa­days, and a career in com­put­er sci­ence can quick­ly bring a decent income. The prob­lem is that since tra­di­tion­al pro­grams take around four years to com­plete, those who missed their “win­dow” might not have an easy way to enroll. This is where accel­er­at­ed tech pro­grams make it easy for those wish­ing to get their degree fast.

But what are these pro­grams, and how can you ben­e­fit from join­ing one? Despite the obvi­ous advan­tage that they are quick to final­ize, there are plen­ty of oth­er ben­e­fits for you to enjoy. Let’s dis­cov­er them!

Relat­ed:

• Fastest Online Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Degree Bachelor’s Programs
• What Can I Do with a Bachelor’s in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Degree?
• Best Online Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Degree Bachelor’s Programs
• Most Afford­able Online Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Degree Bach­e­lor Programs
• Best Bachelor’s in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Degree Programs

1. Quick Skill Acquisition

Accel­er­at­ed IT skills boot­camp pro­grams were cre­at­ed to make the learn­ing process eas­i­er and faster, tak­ing half the time to get the degree. Stu­dents can immerse them­selves in the cours­es, mas­ter­ing key con­cepts with­out round­abouts. Also, they main­ly focus on pri­or knowl­edge, so you will not waste time on skills you already have.

Thanks to the inten­sive pro­gram, stu­dents can effi­cient­ly mas­ter key con­cepts and tech­nolo­gies, tran­si­tion­ing into new roles. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly ben­e­fi­cial for those already in the work­force and with exist­ing knowl­edge in the field wish­ing to pur­sue a pro­mo­tion or a dif­fer­ent posi­tion. For instance, if you work in soft­ware, some cyber­se­cu­ri­ty accel­er­at­ed cours­es could help you enter a new department.

Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams could also make it eas­i­er for you to enter the work­force faster than usu­al. For exam­ple, if you already know enough about com­put­ers from your gam­ing days but don’t want to spend four years at uni­ver­si­ty, this could help. Think of it as cod­ing boot­camps – you will learn every­thing you need with­in a few months, and you can then start apply­ing for jobs with­in a short timeframe.

2. Career Advancement Opportunities

Most peo­ple only have time for one bachelor’s degree in their youth. Col­lege is their last “hur­ray” where they can just be stu­dents with­out too many respon­si­bil­i­ties. Once they grad­u­ate, they take on a job and rely on that income to pay their bills and live their lives.

The main issue is that with some cer­ti­fi­ca­tions or degrees, you are stuck in the same role through­out your life. Advance­ments could require you to tem­porar­i­ly leave your job for a master’s or bachelor’s degree. Since the bills won’t pay them­selves dur­ing this time, this is not a fea­si­ble option for you.

Thanks to the flex­i­bil­i­ty of these online IT cours­es, you won’t have to leave your day job because most class­es take place in the evenings or dur­ing week­ends. This way, you can still attend your day job while prepar­ing for the next step in your career. Many work­ing pro­fes­sion­als who have par­tic­i­pat­ed in these cours­es have man­aged to shift their careers upon grad­u­a­tion with­out risk­ing their income.

3. Cost-Effectiveness

The aver­age cost of tuition for the whole tra­di­tion­al pro­gram is around $40,000 — $60,000 per year for a low-bud­get uni­ver­si­ty and even more if you go for a high-rat­ed uni­ver­si­ty. The more time you take to attend these class­es, the more you have to pay. Since many peo­ple do not receive enough finan­cial aid for their stud­ies, they drop out before even get­ting the degree.

Tech­ni­cal­ly speak­ing, the cost per year is sim­i­lar whether you are going for flex­i­ble IT edu­ca­tion or tra­di­tion­al pro­grams. The dif­fer­ence lies in how long you will have to attend until you get your degree. Since you will only have 2–4 semes­ters to go through on aver­age, you will not have to pay as much as you would for a full-term tra­di­tion­al program.

The short­er time­frame also means you will like­ly have to pur­chase few­er text­books to get your edu­ca­tion. Since the cur­ricu­lum is con­densed to fit only the infor­ma­tion that mat­ters for your career, you could save mon­ey in the long run. More­over, many inten­sive IT train­ing pro­grams offer text­books in elec­tron­ic for­mat so you will be spared this expense.

4. Flexibility and Convenience

Most stu­dents who go to uni­ver­si­ty right out of col­lege choose a tra­di­tion­al pro­gram that requires them to be on cam­pus. There, they have class­es to attend at fixed hours, many tak­ing place dur­ing a week­day. Also, it is not unusu­al to have class­es from morn­ing until evening, tak­ing most of your day.

While this might not be a prob­lem for stu­dents look­ing to enjoy cam­pus life, it can get com­pli­cat­ed if you already have a job. For instance, if you have a degree that got you your first job, it might be chal­leng­ing to leave that source of income to pur­sue fur­ther edu­ca­tion. At most, you might be able to make the evening class­es if you are lucky enough.

Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams for IT learn­ing are often more flex­i­ble, with class­es in the evening or on week­ends. You could also go for part-time IT pro­grams. These only require lim­it­ed pres­ence, while the rest of your stud­ies are done indi­vid­u­al­ly. This makes atten­dance eas­i­er, allow­ing you to get your degree with­out putting a hold on your life.

5. Networking Opportunities

Many peo­ple are wary of get­ting their IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions fast because they fear it will not give them many net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. After all, many IT stu­dents start work­ing part-time dur­ing their col­lege years sim­ply because small busi­ness­es pre­fer to recruit fresh minds. That being said, this does not mean that going for an accel­er­at­ed pro­gram brings no such benefits.

Fast-track pro­grams are not always held online. You can often join in-per­son or hybrid class­es that give you plen­ty of net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. This means you can work with your peers, pro­fes­sion­als, and experts in the field when­ev­er you want. Plus, even if you join a ful­ly online pro­gram, you will be giv­en net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties as long as you reach out.

Like tra­di­tion­al uni­ver­si­ties, short-term IT cours­es can also offer part­ner­ships with tech star­tups and IT com­pa­nies. This allows you to get an intern­ship straight out of col­lege. Such part­ner­ships usu­al­ly enable you to learn from these com­pa­nies, offer­ing you prac­ti­cal expo­sure. In these cas­es, you can form net­work­ing rela­tion­ships, which can be used for job oppor­tu­ni­ties in the long run.

6. Up-to-Date Curriculum

IT is a field that is rapid­ly devel­op­ing each year. Break­throughs are made con­stant­ly, and fast-track IT train­ing can be essen­tial for you to keep up. The prob­lem with tra­di­tion­al pro­grams is that the cur­ricu­lum takes a long time to change. This means you risk putting all of your efforts into out­dat­ed knowl­edge, and you will not be able to improve unless you get some intern­ship on the side as well.

Some uni­ver­si­ties might touch upon top­ics such as Blockchain or AI tech­nol­o­gy, but as the sub­jects are still rel­a­tive­ly new, they are not always part of the gen­er­al cur­ricu­lum. Unless the pro­fes­sors have knowl­edge in that spe­cif­ic field, they are not nec­es­sar­i­ly required to go around it. Your edu­ca­tion can end up incom­plete because of this, lead­ing to loss­es in opportunities.

Accel­er­at­ed IT pro­grams are made to bypass this issue and keep up with the lat­est devel­op­ments in the field. As they are fre­quent­ly updat­ed, stu­dents can learn about these lat­est method­olo­gies and tech­nolo­gies, stay­ing rel­e­vant in the indus­try of their choice. This makes these cours­es par­tic­u­lar­ly ben­e­fi­cial for those look­ing for career advancement.

7. Certifications and Recognitions

By opt­ing for IT pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment, you could also get plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ties to earn spe­cial­ty cer­ti­fi­ca­tions rec­og­nized by every indus­try. This can be a great advan­tage, improv­ing your cred­i­bil­i­ty in the job market.

For instance, depend­ing on your cho­sen pro­gram, you could obtain Microsoft cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, Comp­TIA, or a Cer­ti­fied Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems Secu­ri­ty Pro­fes­sion­al (CISSP) license. This takes you one step fur­ther in the job mar­ket, enhanc­ing your job prospects and putting your resume above your competition.

8. Support Systems and Resources

While tra­di­tion­al uni­ver­si­ties put on-cam­pus libraries at your dis­pos­al, it doesn’t mean you are dis­ad­van­taged by going for online, cost-effec­tive IT edu­ca­tion. Nowa­days, many resources and mate­ri­als are found in eBook for­mat and avail­able in online libraries. By join­ing accel­er­at­ed IT class­es, you could use the resources when­ev­er and how­ev­er you need to com­plete the program.

More­over, many of these cours­es are backed up by a well-estab­lished sup­port sys­tem. In case you need tutor­ing, men­tor­ship, alum­ni net­works, or career coun­sel­ing, the insti­tu­tions offer­ing the pro­gram could also cre­ate those con­nec­tions for you. As these class­es are often more inten­sive than your aver­age bachelor’s pro­gram, you could devel­op deep­er rela­tion­ships with the pro­fes­sion­als involved.

The Bottom Line

Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams for get­ting your degree are some of the best options for IT career advance­ment. Whether you wish to join the work­force faster to earn a liv­ing or pur­sue a pro­mo­tion, these cours­es are flex­i­ble enough to fit your lifestyle. You just need to find an accred­it­ed pro­gram in your area (or online) with a cur­ricu­lum that fits your needs. Do your research and see which cours­es align with your goals and schedule.

Sources:

Forbes