Frequently Asked Questions

Quality You Can Trust

We understand that technology evolves rapidly, and quality training must evolve with it. That's why our courses are aligned with the official update cycles of the vendors and certification organizations whose technologies we teach. 

As certification objectives and industry best practices change, our training materials are reviewed and updated accordingly.

Equally important is the quality of delivery. Our certified instructors maintain their professional credentials, continually expand their technical expertise, and draw on real-world experience to ensure every class is accurate, relevant, and engaging. 

Combined with regular student feedback and internal quality reviews, this commitment helps ensure every course delivers practical, up-to-date knowledge that students can confidently apply in the workplace.

Expert Instructors. Proven Experience. Better Learning.

We believe the quality of a training course begins with the quality of its instructor. That's why every instructor we use is officially certified in the technologies they teach and has practical, real-world experience applying those technologies. 

Their firsthand knowledge enables them to go beyond the course materials, sharing practical insights, industry best practices, and real-life scenarios that make learning more engaging, relevant, and memorable. 

Whether you're preparing for certification or developing professional skills, you'll learn from experts who have been there and done it.

Our live instructor-led classes are typically delivered during standard U.S. Central Time business hours (9am-5pm), Monday-Friday, unless otherwise stated. 

We provide students with direct access to experienced instructors for questions, discussions, and hands-on learning. 

We welcome students from around the world and recognize that time zones vary. Depending on the course, students may complete labs, assignments, or practical exercises between daily live sessions, providing additional flexibility to fit individual schedules. 

For selected courses, and where permitted under our vendor agreements, class sessions are also recorded and made available for later review. 

If you're joining us from outside North America, our team will be happy to discuss the course schedule and help you determine whether a particular class is a good fit for your location and timing availability.

We offer competitive pricing for sole traders or LLCs, and enterprise clients. 

Because our courses vary by certification, vendor requirements, and delivery options, pricing is provided on a quotation (quote) basis to ensure you receive the most appropriate solution for your needs.

Organizations enrolling three (3) or more participants from the same company into the same course session may qualify for our group discount. 

We are also happy to discuss training plans for larger teams and provide customized quotations where appropriate.

Requesting a quote is quick and straightforward. There are multiple ways to contact us:

[1] click the Send Message button on this page, or 

[2] click the Contact Us button on our website, or

[3] email sales@nc-expert.com, or 

[4] call us at (855) 941-2121. 

Our team will be pleased to answer your questions, provide pricing, and help you select the training that best meets your objectives.

All our training classes are offered with virtual attendance.

Our virtual training classes are delivered by a genuine instructor, in real time (NOT pre-recorded), and the training can be accessed from the comfort of your own office or home using an Internet-enabled device.

Our team has developed a presentation methodology whereby students don't really miss out on anything they would experience in a brick-and-mortar classroom... except the stress and added expense of travel!

During virtual training classes:

- Students can interact with the instructor and other students as if they were all in the same room. (When you speak, everyone can hear you.)

- All students are provided with electronic materials. (For select classes where electronic materials are unavailable, the student will be provided with hardcopy materials.)

- Students may be broken into task groups and placed in virtual "team rooms" so they can work closely together.

- Our hosted labs can be accessed remotely from your computer using "virtual desktops", which, generally, do not require software downloads. 

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Please note: the class attendance terms "virtual", "online", and "remote" are synonymous: each term refers to the same method of attendance, which is: on your electronic device, from your location.

At the end of class, a Statement of Completion of training (previously known as an Attendance Certificate) may be issued. This simply verifies that the learner has attended class. Issuance of this document does not bestow any technical certification. 

There are a few uses of a Statement of Completion of training: 

- To prove to learner’s employer (HR department, etc.) that they attended a training class on the dates stated on the document. 

- If the vendor permits, this document may be used to substantiate a Continuing Education requirements fulfillment claim. 

- A memento of class attendance.

The Statement of Completion may be issued from one of a few different sources:

- direct from the vendor, 

- through NC-Expert’s delivery partner, or 

- via NC-Expert. 

Which source option is selected depends on the vendor’s rules. 

Please note that many vendors require that the student not only attend the class lecture, but that they also complete assignments (such as reading, questionnaires, written responses or essays, and/or labs) as part of their prescribed course of training. This may even include submitting a Class Evaluation form at the conclusion of training!

Depending on the vendor's rules, if required assignments are not completed, the class/training Statement of Completion cannot be issued. Once the situation has been remedied by the learner (by them completing the required assignments) they may apply to receive the Statement of Completion of training*. 

*Time limits may apply. 

For CWNP classes - yes. 

Students will receive unlimited access to the class-associated Practice Test(s).

Please see dropdown on our CWNP vendor page for further information. 

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We do not offer Practice Tests for our other vendors' trainings. This is due to one of two potential reasons:

[1] The vendor does not offer this type of product, or

[2] Pursuant to a survey of over a hundred successful candidates in which they reported that either (a) they did not use the available practice test, or (b) the respondents felt that the practice test did not help them in their exam, we decided to omit this item from our offerings packages and pass along the cost savings to our students. 

Where Practice Tests are available, students are welcome to visit vendor product pages, independently, to purchase their own practice test(s) if they feel the need for this additional support. 

We recommend reading your enrollment transaction information for specifics. 

As a general practice, students will receive ONE exam voucher. 

However, some training class enrollments will NOT include an exam voucher, for a number of reasons, which may include:

[1] A student, or their employer, may receive a significantly discounted training class rate, which precludes the inclusion of an exam voucher. 

[2] Per vendor rules, applying to sit the exam may involve a number of criteria which the vendor must separately assess. (For instance, this may include proven experience, professional references, completion of specific requirements, etc.)

Please note: We do not normally include exam re-take vouchers, unless otherwise stated in enrollment documentation. 

We do not recommend this.

Our students are encouraged to re-read and study their course materials - thoroughly - before attempting any exam.

In recent years, one of our vendor partners performed a study of successful exam candidates, which concluded two things:

1.  that the average time between attending class and sitting the exam was approximately 4-6 weeks, and
2. those students who attended instructor-led training (in-person or remote) earned higher average exam scores than those who engaged in independent self-study.

We recommend that our students take some time to prepare themselves, no matter which type of training class they have attended. If a student rushes into their exam, without studying properly, they could miss vital concepts that may cause them to fail their exam. On the other hand, students should not put off the exam for too long or they may forget what they learned in class!

By training with an instructor, students have a valuable resource at their disposal - and we encourage them to use it. We welcome after-class questions. We also recommend that our students make friends with their classmates and arrange to study together. Helping others, and entering into discussions together, really helps to cement knowledge... and makes studying fun!

We want our students to succeed and will do all we can to help.

Yes, absolutely!

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nc-expert

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CreatingExperts/

X: https://x.com/nc_expert

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nc-expert/

Confused? Not Sure Where to Start?

Choosing a path for career certifications for your team can be a daunting prospect - especially when there are so many conflicting sources of information.

Building knowledge from a solid foundation is the best and most logical place to start. It is also a good idea to begin with training that:

(a) provides valuable professional knowledge,

(b) offers good return on investment, and

(c) leads to industry-recognized certification.

We have simplified our suggestions into a small number of vendors, which offer major industry-recognized certifications, because we understand that no-one wants to waste money and time certifying for something they would probably never use or need.

By virtue of their "vendor neutral" status, certifications such as CompTIA (vendor-neutral, general) and CWNP (vendor-neutral, specifically aimed at Wireless and IoT) are very useful to most employers, and are "portable" between vendors. By this, we mean that it doesn't really matter which technology a company uses - the knowledge gained from CompTIA and CWNP certification training is generic enough to give the student a good, broad, overview of most of the available technological offerings (available equipment) in these fields.

CompTIA offers a number of generic, industry-recognized certifications such as Administrator Plus, Network Plus, and Security Plus, and also specializes in certifications such as CyberSecurity, general Infrastructure (i.e., Linux), Cloud Technology, and Project Management.

CWNP certifications are well-known in the Wireless Technology arena. CWNP provides vendor-neutral training, in various areas of wireless networks (administration, design, security, etc.), which explains the "why" of wireless technology, not just the "how". Being presented with such meaningful concepts in class enables the engineer to deeply comprehend wireless technology at its most basic level. Many of our students have had their fabled "Aha! That's how it works!" moments during these training classes. 🙂

Cisco training and certifications, on the other hand, are specific to Cisco technology - but Cisco certifications are very widely recognized and accepted as proof of competence in the Cisco IT networking field. Cisco also offers multiple areas of focus.

Information about our CompTIA classes can be found here.

Information about our CWNP classes can be found here.

You can find out more about our Cisco training here.

We can be reached at 1(855) 941-2121 to discuss your specific needs and goals.

The vendors named on our website are, by no means, the only vendor training we provide. 

So, the short answer is "Yes" we are pleased to offer additional vendor options.

We have a number of trusted partners who provide authorized training on our behalf. They, in turn, are authorized partners of those additional vendors. This serves to extend our portfolio and provides a better "one stop" service to our customers.

We offer a selection of trainings from multiple vendors, which may be delivered by our partners. Those vendors may include, but are not limited to, the following examples:

- Arista

- Aruba

- Amazon Web Services (AWS)

- CertNexus

- Cisco

- Citrix

- Hewlett Packard (HP) 

- Logical Operations 

- Microsoft

- Palo Alto Networks

- QuickBooks

- Scrum

- SoftSkills (and SoftSkills / Project Management)

- SonicWALL

- Symantec

- VEEAM

- VMware

Please call us at 1(855) 941-2121 to discuss course details and dates, pricing, and attendance options.

Unfortunately, No

NC-Expert is a B2B company. We provide training and consulting services to commercial/business and governmental customers only.

To clarify, we provide services to managers, teams, and individual employees (only when funded by their employers). We also provide services to small business owners / sole traders paying through their businesses.

Our training is aimed at professional IT engineers, who are already working in the industry.

We do not provide services to independent individuals funded out of pocket - and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Price

NC-Expert's classes are priced significantly below many of its competitors.

Some IT training companies price their classes at exorbitant levels. We think that money and time are valuable and should not be wasted.

Although we price at a lower level, this is not reflective of the service we offer: we provide a high-level of service, top-quality training, official vendor materials, and follow-up support. We simply provide you with better value for your money.

Location

Our head office is in Pleasanton, California, USA - not far from San Francisco. This is the location from which our virtual training is provided.

All of NC-Expert's trainings are offered with remote attendance as the only attendance option. We have honed our presentation platforms, over the years, such that our remote attendance platform is almost identical to being in the classroom.

Our remote classes are taught live (not pre-recorded) which means that students can hear and interact with the other students in the class, too. Live interaction between instructor and students, and students with students, is encouraged throughout our classes. 

Most our labs utilize remote desktops, so your appropriate computing device can access our labs from anywhere.

Schedule

NC-Expert's classes are run at regular intervals throughout the year.

We do not cancel classes except in unavoidable / extenuating circumstances. Again, we have heard tales, from our students, of their experiences with our competitors who have canceled classes on them, over and again. The students have gotten really frustrated about multiple cancellations and were very happy to have found us. We value your time, and appreciate that it often takes considerable organization to be able to arrange time out of work to attend class. This is why we do not "mess you around."

In addition, because we are not a huge conglomerate, we have the ability to be flexible. If you need a class on a specific date, let us know and we will try to work with you to accommodate. (Although we have a publicly advertised schedule, we also provide lots of private classes for specific client companies, some of which may be amenable to permitting outside students/companies joining a class with their team(s) and sharing the costs.)

About the Better Business Bureau (BBB)

According to the BBB’s own website ( https://www.bbb.org/mission-and-vision ) “BBB sees trust as a function of two primary factors - integrity and performance. 

- Integrity includes respect, ethics, intent, and working toward a diverse, inclusive and equitable marketplace. 

- Performance speaks to a business’s track record of delivering results in accordance with BBB standards and/or addressing customer concerns in a timely, satisfactory manner.”

In other words, one of the main roles of the BBB is to act as a mediator for customer grievances in cases where the business is not responsive to a submitted complaint. The rating provided by BBB Is connected to the number of customer complaints submitted to BBB. Inclusion in the BBB database is based on a subscription model – for which a membership fee is paid each year.

At the time of writing, NC-Expert has been a member of BBB for 12 years. NC-Expert has always been highly responsive to all customer queries, making membership of BBB unnecessary, but simply a “nice to have”. Over the 12 years of membership, the BBB has never received any complaints about NC-Expert. Currently, NC-Expert’s BBB rating is A+.

Unfortunately, for the subscription renewal year of 2024-2025 the BBB Board has raised the membership fees by 125% over the 2023-2024 membership year. Measured against the original subscription rate, this calculates as an approximately 150% increase, overall. This latest increase is significant.

In many cases loyal membership is rewarded, not penalized, as seems to be the case here. As a result, NC-Expert’s Board has determined that this year’s membership price increase, measured against the perceived value received from BBB, is disproportionate and is neither to NC-Expert nor its customers’ benefit.

For, purely, the cost-vs-benefit reason, NC-Expert has decided not to renew its subscription.

NC-Expert’s BBB profile was previously accessible at: 

https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/pleasanton/profile/information-technology-services/nc-expert-1116-439600 

...whether, or not, this remains visible after our membership cancelation, is in the hands of the Better Business Bureau.

Any customer concerns or grievances regarding NC-Expert can be submitted to: cs@nc-expert.com 

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BBB Membership – Is It Worth It?

Save the money. BBB is a paid service that’s a joke. When was the last time you looked up a business on their site or checked for their BBB cert. The only way I could see this having any value is if your main demographic is the boomer gen[eration], they think it means something.

( https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/15mh5sy/bbb_accreditation_worth_it_waste_of/ )

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BBB membership and accreditation are more meaningful to Baby Boomers and older customers rather than younger ones. 

( https://www.fastcapital360.com/blog/bbb-accreditation-worth-it/ )

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if a business is accredited, it has demonstrated a commitment to its customers’ best interests. The BBB also gives many businesses, accredited or not, a grade based on the A through F letter grading system. The grading system is based on an evaluation made by the BBB and is largely dependent on a business’s attention to resolving customer complaints.

( https://privacy.com/blog/is-bbb-accreditation-important )

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...the value of a BBB accreditation lies solely the eye of the beholder. For some customers, an BBB accreditation could be a make-or-break factor when choosing a company to work with. For other customers, however, a BBB accreditation might mean next to nothing. 

( https://www.housecallpro.com/resources/marketing/bbb-accreditation/#:~:text=Is%20BBB%20Accreditation%20Important%3F,might%20mean%20next%20to%20nothing )

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Regarding an adverse review about the company, accessible online: Robbie Kenyon – the “poster” – was a PearsonVUE customer. 

Robbie stated, “"I went to the testing center at the appointed date and time, and no one showed up. I had taken an afternoon off work, and drive a half hour each way." We understand that this review reflects the poster's frusteration, with which we sympathize. However, we feel the need to explain the situation further...

[1] The poster has never been a client of our company. We have never had any direct communication with the poster, nor have we ever received any payments from him (directly, or on his behalf). 

[2] We had been notified of Robbie's exam cancelation by PearsonVUE so, expecting that he would "not" arrive to take his (already-canceled) exam, our admins were out at lunch and running errands during the time Robbie visited. 

[3] On further investigation, having been made aware of Robbie’s review (quite some time after he had posted it), PearsonVUE informed us that they had previously emailed Robbie to inform him of his exam cancelation, but that “he must not have seen it”. 

We requested that this adverse review be removed from Google – having explained the information contained in this article – but their agent declined, stating that we did not fit into the limited categories available for removal (Spam, Profanity, Conflict of Interest, or Off Topic). 

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Our Relationship with PearsonVUE

For a short period of time, we hosted exams for PearsonVUE - we were, officially, a "PearsonVUE Exam Center". This sounds grand, but we simply provided space for PearsonVUE’s customers to visit our building and sit PearsonVUE exams, in a proctored environment. 

The Registration System: Each week, we were provided, by PearsonVUE, with a list of their customers who would be visiting our premises, on what days, and at what times. We received a token/minimal commission for each completed exam. If a customer did not turn up as scheduled, or did not complete their exam, we received nothing. So, as you can see, this was not a money-making enterprise. 

Technical Issues: PearsonVUE's technical/software system was separate from our company's. It was completely “enclosed” and inadmissible to our technical team so, if an issue arose during an exam, the best our admins could do was to turn off the computer device and switch it back on again. 

If this did not solve the problem, the admins were instructed to call PearsonVUE’s one public, global, customer service line and wait for a response. 

The call with PearsonVUE’s Customer Service could result in one of two outcomes: 

 (a) Resolution of the issue (they could access the back-end and fix the problem). 

This itself, could lead to two further outcomes:

   I. the exam could continue, unaffected, from the current point (other than casing delay) 

   II. Customer Service’s intervention might make the exam restart, causing frustration of the customer (who may have already been sitting in the exam, answering questions, for the past 2 hours)  

 (b) (If the issue was serious enough) Cessation/Cancelation of the entire exam, and subsequent reschedule by the customer, free of charge. 

Note: since the Customer Service line is only one number, our admins have been known – on multiple occasions – to be “on hold”, prior to speaking with an agent, for up to 3 hours. As you can imagine, it would be understandable for any test taker to be frustrated by this.

Ultimately: as a direct result of:

(a) bad feelings about our company* from PearsonVUE clients

- because we were the “face” of the exam center, we bore the blame for, and brunt of frustration about, PearsonVUE's technical errors  

(b) aggressive behavior by PearsonVUE customers 

- frustration, anger, shouting at our admins, banging fists on our admins’ desks, etc., who had no control over PearsonVUE's technical environment 

(c) acts of theft from some PearsonVUE customers, and  

(d) lack of revenue (we were not receiving enough revenue to cover our costs) 

...we made the decision to terminate our relationship with PearsonVUE. 

*(Please see information about “adverse review” at top of this post)

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Company Founding and Ownership

Questions have, occasionally, been raised as to the founding and ownership of NC-Expert. We would like to formally clarify this issue...

NetCertExpert, Inc., which rebranded under the Doing Business As (DBA) name of "NC-Expert", in 2016, for marketing purposes, operates under both names. 

The company was founded in 2011 and, since that time, one private owner has solely and continuously owned 100% of the company.

Although select indivdiuals have, at various points in the company's history, been employed in positions of responsibility and visibility, at no time has any portion of ownership of the company been extended to any of those persons. Each of those persons was engaged with the status of "employee". Any inferences or claims by any of those persons that they founded or owned any part of the company are completely deceptive and false, and have been made without authorization.

In addition, it has emerged that one or more of these employees may have made claims, or taken actions purporting to be authorized to act on the company's behalf. Unless these actions were taken by the company owner, in person, such employee actions were unauthorized and, as a result of discovery of employee wrongdoing, any working relationship with those persons has been terminated. 

We are actively engaged in correcting the adverse impact of those unauthorized actions. 

Bangladesh / India Branch

We have learned that a company calling itself "NetCertExpert" has opened in Asia.

They say that "the best form of flattery is imitation", so we should feel proud that our reputation is so good that a company would want to duplicate our name and ride on our coat-tails!

However, please note that the Asian company has *nothing* to do with the original California/USA-based NetCertExpert, Inc. (dba NC-Expert) nor is it endorsed as a subsidiary or partner. 

There is no business relationship between the two companies.

Sulekha

It has been brought to our attention that the company by the name of Sulekha has been promoting itself as an authorized agent for NC-Expert. It purports to be engaged, on our behalf, in the enrollment process for Cisco, CompTIA, and other IT training classes.

Although NC-Expert's company name, logo, street address, and Twitter feed appear on Sulekha's website, this is absolutely without authorization. Sulekha does not have, and has never had, permission to represent NC-Expert.

Please note that any training obtained through Sulekha is *not* NC-Expert authorized. 

Sulekha representatives do not possess the ability to enroll the student in any NC-Expert classes, no matter what they may say. 

In addition, any "Contact Me" requests submitted through the Sulekha site will never be seen by any NC-Expert representatives.

NC-Expert has formally requested that Sulekha remove all references to NetCertExpert, Inc. and NC-Expert, from its website. 

We are still awaiting Sulekha's response to this request.

In observance of Federal and State Holidays, our administration and sales offices are usually closed on these days. 

Please continue to contact us as usual (calls/voicemails, emails, etc), however please be aware that our responses may be slightly delayed due to observance of these holidays.

The following is the list for 2026:

Federal

January 1 - New Year’s Day 

January 19 - Dr Martin Luther King, Jr Day

February 16 - President's Day (Washington’s Birthday)

May 25 - Memorial Day

June 19 - Juneteenth National Independence Day

July 4 - Independence Day (United States)

September 7 - Labor Day

November 11 - Veterans' Day

November 26 - Thanksgiving Day

December 25 - Christmas Day

Additional holidays (NC-Expert)

July 3 - weekday July 4 celebration

November 27 - day after Thanksgiving

December 26 - Boxing Day (UK)

December 31 - New Year's Eve