programming training and consultancy not for a company, but an individual

Question

I'm interested in Ruby, Python, PHP and Java. Does programming training and consultancy the way I described exist for any of those programming languages? Is it good? Why? Is it on the internet? Where?

Answer 1

There are certainly many training companies out there which provide programming training also to individuals. I'm not sure whether you are asking as a potential student or as a potential teacher; you should contact such training companies and find out about pricing.

Most likely, you find that the pricing is too expensive for individual (private non-commercial) students. For these, you should really look into university-level education; many universities also allow participation of professionals who don't aim to gain a degree. In some countries, there are also public training schools targetted precisely at people (of all backgrounds) which don't seek a degree.

Where these companies, universities, and organizations exist depends on the country where you live; I could recommend some for Germany (in which case I would also need to know the city where you live).

Answer 2

For self study of Java I would recommend the Sun Java Tutorial - http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/ - combined with Head First Java - http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596009205.

This is probably the cheapest and most efficient way to get started. You will also find that the Java runtime is so large that it takes quite a while to be proficient and that you may want to pick a single language of those you are interested in to dive into.

Personally I've stayed with Java as it would not be reasonable to introduce other languages at my work, and I learn these things as power tools for work :)

Answer 3

For Python, Mark Lutz does professional training - Python training. I know someone who participated in one of his classes in Colorado and enjoyed the one on one time with the instructor. They were very new to OO languages so I think the extra attention helped.

I would also second the suggestion to check out university classes as I know many in the US teach Java as some of their core programming courses.

Answer 4

The literal answers to your question are:

Does programming training and consultancy the way I described exist for any of those programming languages? Yes. Lots and lots of them. Is it good? Why? It depends which one you are talking about. Is it on the internet? I expect most of them are on the internet. Where? Lots of places.

I suggest that you do a Google search to find a companies that offer training near you, then start comparing prices, class sizes, dates and curricula. Only once you have a short list is it worthwhile asking if people have done a particular course from a particular company and what they thought of it. Indeed, you may even be able to find (negative) references with a Google search.

Checking out your local Universities, technical training colleges and/or adult education centres is another good option.

You cannot necessarily judge the quality of a course by its price. The quality very much depends on the person / people who are presenting it. But for a low cost course, you can expect to have a much higher student-to-instructor ratio, less interaction with the instructor, less hands-on work and so on. Whether this matters to you depends on whether you really want to learn the language, or you mostly want a certificate.

Finally, you always have the option of buying a text book and teaching yourself. Or doing an online tutorial. Or both.