Is there, in fact, a Linux training market out there?

[Robert P. J. Day]

  regarding my previous musings on the market for actual, professional
linux training around here ...

On Sun, 30 May 2010, Colin McGregor wrote:

> This is an area of real interest to me as I am interested in doing
> Linux education. I don't know what sort of a pay market is out
> there. I have been happy to do some volunteer training for Planet
> Geek (www.planetgeek.ca), Free Geek Toronto (freegeektoronto.org) as
> well as talking at GTALug (http://gtalug.org/wiki/Colin_McGregor)
> and Unix Unanimous (gtalug.org/wiki/Unix_Unanimous). For the most
> part I enjoy doing volunteer presentations, but ... they don't put
> food on the table...

  and there it is.  we have buckets in common -- i've given numerous
presentations for my local LUG (in fact, i'm doing another short one
at the very next meeting:  http://kwlug.org/node/692).  i've been a
speaker at two ontario linux fests.  i've written loads of tutorials
and posted them online for the taking.  but, in the end, none of that
is billable.

  i love training.  and i'm pretty sure i'm good at it by now.  :-)
but this brings us back to the fundamental questions:

1) *is* there a linux training market out there and ...

2) if there is, has it already been claimed by the big vendors so that
there's nothing left for anyone else?

  granted, if one is offering courses in niche topics like kernel
programming, the market for that is *clearly* going to be small.  but
it's precisely *because* it's a small market that most of the big
players aren't going to spend a lot of time trying to grab it.  and if
one has really, really good courseware and a market the size of
toronto, is it unreasonable to think you might be able to sell a
course every month or two?

  anyway, it would be nice to hear from folks on this list whose
companies have *sent* them for linux training.  tell us about it.
what are the hot areas?  are you going back for more?  etc, etc.  i
hate to give up on my dream of high-tech linux training, but if
there's just nothing there in terms of a market, i really should know
that and accept it.  thanks.

rday

p.s.  a few years back, when i tried to get established in the K-W
area to do training, i offered introductory linux training at a
stupidly low price to local companies just to break in.

  typically, high-end training like linux sells for around $4-500 per
day per student, so sending a single person on a 5-day course would
set a company back around $2000-2500.  and if travel's involved, well,
naturally the costs go up (although if you're in TO, chances are you
won't need to travel).

  my offer was for the single-day courses that i had on hand, the
total cost would be between $1000-1500 for the day for *an entire
class*.  that is, on-site training, the client could fill the room
(hopefully, they had computers to use).  said client could put up to
12 people in the class so that the average cost per student per day
would be about $100.  an absurdly good deal for the client, and still
enough to make me sufficiently happy.

  i got one day of training from one local client and that's it.
granted, it might be because no one knew who i was at the time, but
even after that, it was nigh impossible to sell training around here.

  anyway, enough rambling, but if anyone in TO is considering linux
training of one form or another, drop me a note.  maybe i can help,
maybe i can't.  but you'll never know if you don't ask.  :-)


-- 

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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

            Linux Consulting, Training and Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
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