Train Signal knows training.

I had a chance to meet up with the owner of Train Signal, Scott Skinger, this week. Train Signal provides training courses for server-side applications like Exchange, Windows management, etc. Though they don’t do databases from what I’ve seen, so we’re going to have to put some pressure on them.

Anyway, the reason I’m blogging on this is because I was reasonable pleased to see the types of courses they have and the depth they cover. I’m always looking for new training and I’m really only becoming interested in that which covers more than just the basics. And from what I’ve read, Train Signal should fit nicely.

Their biggest draw for me though is their price. They’re priced so that ordinary techs can afford the courses themselves and don’t have to rely on their company to pay for it. Some of the other training vendors cost over $1,000 per course and while the training is really above average, it’s really hard to talk your boss into paying that much for DVD training, and impossible to afford it yourself. So I like vendors who offer materials that are priced to own. And these courses being scenario-based, they walk you through each task and explain things along the way. I’m really getting tired of combing through books as my only source of information. Sometimes, I’d really like to just have an expert sit down and explain something to me.

I’ll be doing a review of the course material here pretty soon so stay tuned. I’ll probably post it on my personal review site, www.ITBookworm.com, but I may also post it here. I’ll at least link to it from here, how’s that?

I caught up with Scott and he gave me a short interview. Here’s how it went.

1. How long have you been making courseware?

Train Signal was started in 2002, so this is our sixth year in business.

2. What prompted you to start doing this?

Before starting Train Signal, I was an instructor at several different schools. I was very disappointed with the instruction found in Microsoft Press books and also the school’s general curriculum. It was very theoretical and the students weren’t learning as much as I thought they should. I decided to use the books/curriculum as a guideline and add more hands-on exercises to the instruction.

I would bring in a lot of my own equipment, create labs, write scenarios and do a lot of troubleshooting to ensure that they were really learning networking and not just how to pass a test. The students really liked it and I could see a big difference in their knowledge and confidence. After doing this enough times I decided to create lab books and sell these on the Internet. Originally, the videos that I created were meant to supplement the lab books. However, I tend to be long-winded and detailed and I realized that the videos were even more valuable than the lab books.

3. How many employees do you have, and are you an actual company who does this fulltime, or a group of techies doing it in their spare time?

I founded Train Signal by myself in 2002. I really had no idea what I was doing and no formal business plan. We have grown every year since and we currently have 15 full-time employees and about 15 independent contractors working with us.

4. How do you choose the courses you teach?

We listen to our customers first and foremost. We also pay attention to the industry and what is hot. We really don’t go far outside our niche, Computer Networking professionals, so it is easier to focus in on the hottest courses.

5. How do you qualify and choose instructors?

I was the original instructor and I am very picky about the quality of the material and ensuring that we under promise and over deliver. I no longer teach but I am still involved in the process of choosing instructors. We are VERY picky and only choose instructors who are “great instructors” first and technically sound second. We are regimented in the procedures we follow (email to the instructor, information given, etc.) and we gauge responses to determine a good fit. Once we fell like we have a potential good fit, we require a practice teach video. I pay close attention to everything looking for clues about the instructor’s overall performance. We have been very fortunate with our instructors and we currently have 7 very solid instructors.

6. What do you think makes your training different from the others?

Our products are scenario-based and taught in a way to give the student as close to a “real world” experience as possible. Our primary focus in on making sure the student knows as much as possible on the subject matter and not just enough to pass a certification test.

I also think that we honestly care more than other training companies. It sounds silly but I have made it very known to all of our instructors that our mission is to create the “Best Computer Training on the Planet”. We put a lot of time and effort into making sure each course contains everything that it should.

7. Are there any exciting courses we can look forward to soon?

I am really excited about our Server 2008 line. We will release our first product in early May and we will be releasing about 12 more Server 2008 products over the next year.

We are also trying something new that I am pretty pumped up about, an Advanced Exchange Server 2007 line. Basically, we will be releasing a whole series of courses to supplement our main Exchange 2007 release. Our Exchange 2007 course is 20 hours long and is very comprehensive but it is impossible to cover everything. Our Advanced line of Exchange Server courses will cover specific topics in more depth. We will be releasing courses like Powershell in Exchange 2007, Exchange Anti-Spam/Virus, Exchange Backup & Disaster Recovery, Unified Messaging and a few others. Our Powershell course is schedule for June.

8. Do you or have you considered offering your courses online… what was the outcome?

This is really a hot topic for us right now. I personally like physical products and we will continue to sell physical products. However, the trend is definitely towards online training, so this is something that we will start to offer in 2008.

9. Is there anything else you want people to know about your training or anything related to it?

We put time and effort into every release to make sure that it is a “Train Signal” quality course. We will provide you with a high quality product that represents an exceptional value AND we guarantee it. We offer a 90 Day, Unconditional Money Back Guarantee on ALL of our courses, because we flat out believe in our product. No other training company even comes close to matching our guarantee. Although, we do have people who scam us (watch the course or copy the course and return it), I love offering this guarantee because I have so much faith in our product.

Also, we are here for our customers. If you have a question, give us a call and we will help you out. You will be talking to a live person on the phone from the very beginning and we won’t let you off the phone until you are happy!

OK, well I guess that’s all I’ve got on Train Signal for now. I’ll have more when I get the material and find out if they’re really as good as they say they are. But from the little I’ve seen, it’s encouraging.