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Python Training Services
Public Classes
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![[python]](python_conf_ora--med.gif) |
All my classes are delivered in in-person, on-site, private mode,
at a hosting company or organization. I no longer offer public classes open to individual
enrollments, and my clients do not open up their classes to those outside their oranizations.
If you are an individual looking for Python training, I suggest exploring the following options.
- On-site classes
- If you can round up a few other interested people at your organization,
a private on-site session might work for you. Even for very small groups,
on-site prices often compare favorably to public class options, especially
when student travel and extra time away from the office are factored in to
the total cost. Please don't hesitate to ask if we can assist in your
training plans.
- Python books
- The text Learning
Python 5th Edition (and 4th), directly parallels the core language portions of the
classes I teach, and the majority of a typical 3-day session. Since
this text also includes the same exercises with solutions, it can be used as
a self-paced substitute for a live class, and this is one of its explicit
goals. Of course, books don't offer the same interaction and feedback
as live classes, but books can be studied at whatever pace you
wish, and provide more in-depth coverage than any 3-day training session
possibly can. Really, the book is more like a semester long class, and
the 3-day session is an abbreviated version aimed at providing a quick-start
introduction. Because the class is a subset of the book, you may find
working through the book to be a more complete learning experience.
Moreover, the follow-up text
Programming Python 4th Edition
parallels the application-level topics usually introduced in overview fashion on
the last day of the live classes, though here too the book can explore these
topics in much more depth and detail.
- Other providers and options
- If you cannot get a group together and self-paced study of books isn't
an option for you, I suggest a web search to see what other training
providers might offer. Make sure you look into such classes carefully,
of course; the number of training options tends to increase with a subject's
popularity, but this doesn't necessarily guarantee instruction quality (and
often implies the opposite). To put that more strongly, the more a
class promises to teach you in 3 days, the less likely it is to succeed.
Some other options are no doubt very good, but I advise caution when looking
for training in any increasingly popular domain, including Python.
This is especially true for online courses, which are experiencing a
surge in visibility recently; these can serve useful roles too, but what they
may offer in convenience they will lack in live interaction with a subject
authority, and some may be weighted more heavily towards entertainment and
socialization than education. There's nothing wrong with that type of experience,
of course, but I wouldn't expect a science TV show to be the same as taking a
traditional science class either. I don't make recommendations about specific options,
because I don't have any first-hand data to relay.
lutz@learning-python.com
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