BCIT – Advanced Java Development associate certificate program review
“I think Microsoft named .Net so it wouldn’t show up in a Unix directory listing.”
(Oktal)
Here comes a short review of ‘Advanced Java Development associate certificate program, that I was studying part-time in 2007/8 academic year. Website of program can be found here. Program is aimed at programmer with previous programming experience, who wants to enhance his/her skills with Java language and Java platform.
In overall, this program has very high real-world value and it helped me to broaden my scope on Java platform. Also it teaches a lot about software development in general. It took me one academic year to finish all subjects and I must say that majority of subjects was pretty awesome stuff and I learned a lot. Here are – in my opinion – the most valuable subjects, sorted in a list:
- Java Databases – this is so far the most interesting subject in whole program. In most situations, database layer is the most important one and in this subject, despite the fact that it was only few hours, we learned how to use JDBC features properly and we have been given also the basics of ORM with help of Hibernate framework. I took it with Arash Ghavami and I can only recommend.
- Intermediate/Advanced Java – these two consequent subjects have great value hidden inside. They are meant to be preparation for Java Programmer Certificate from Sun, well, they will not exactly prepare you for this exam to be honest. But still, there is a LOT of stuff about core Java principles and many useful things are introduced here. Also it’s always an experience to have class with Paul Mills, he really knows how to explain stuff.
- Java User Interfaces – Swing, swing and more swing. What is here to say? Sam Cirka introduced not only swing basics to us, he was talking a lot about underlying principles of swing. Really good subject to take if you are interested in Java UI.
These are the highlights that come to my mind at first. Of course there is a lot more stuff going on in this program, but these 4 subjects I enjoyed most.
