VoIP training can be in the form of webinars, on-line classes or in the form of classes and seminars conducted by the vendors at a location near you. When choosing the type of training to take, make sure that your learning and cost objectives match up well with what the course is offering and you have completed any pre-requisites. Training can cover one or more of the following broad topics:

General Overview
Marketing and Business Strategy
High Level Deployment Planning
Technology and Product Development
Roll Out and Project Management
Enterprise VoIP Applications and Solutions

Topics covered in these types of VoIP courses may include the following:

VoIP Landscape
VoIP Market, Benefits over traditional telephony
Regulatory insights
Planning VoIP deployment, readiness assessment, RFP preparation, Vendor Selection
Managing a VoIP deployment
Vendors and their products, case studies
VoIP and next generation customer contact (call center) solutions, Internet-telephony integration
Protocols and standards, Interoperability
Architecture and Solutions for implementation
Voice Technology: Bandwidth, Codecs, compression, delay, jitter
IP Network Technology: VLANs, MPLS, Diff-Serv, 802.1P
Telephony Network Technology: Topology, Trunks, Switches, PBX, Centrex, Routing, Signaling, SS7, Calling Features, Messaging
Special issues such as QoS, Security Concerns, Disaster Recovery, Legal, Privacy, 911 etc

A comprehensive training class in general is conducted over a 2 day period and costs between $1,000 and $2,000. Of course there are several excellent and less expensive options for self-starters in the form of training CD-ROMs, Videos, Documents and Books.

Some Specific VoIP Training/Classes

1. TeraCom Training Institute focuses on Telecommunications and VoIP training. The Course 301, titled, Understanding Voice over IP, seems to cover almost all topics listed above in a comprehensive fashion. Click Here for details and the schedule of the course. It is held in major cities in U.S. Duration for the course is 2 days and the cost is $795. The same course is available on Video and DVD as well. Click Here for information on the video course.

2. For the self-starters, VoiP Survival explains VoiP without all the geek speak. It offers a VoiP toolkit for $199 that provides a complete package of Ten Documents. Seems like a real bargain! Click Here for information on the toolkit.

Designing and deploying a voip network
Getting Started in Voice Over IP
IP Telephony implementation plan
IP Telephony Workshop
QoS Benchmarks for VOIP
Voice over IP Protocols Overview
VoiP business plan
VoIP in depth

3. Trainingcity.com provides "Real World, Hands-ON labs that meet the training needs of your diverse team, on time, and on budget". Click Here for course outline and schedule. Course 784 is given in many U.S. cities and has a duration of 2 days. It costs $1495

4. VoIPNEWS has introduced a VoIP Training Center, a comprehensive listing and review of training and certification programs offered around the world, online, and in CDs, videos and books. In addition, you can request free information on any VoIP topic from their website by filling out a form. Click Here for the listing.

5. Cisco Systems offers several VoIP training classes through their learning partners. You can use the Learning Locator tool at the Cisco Website to locate a specific class, Click Here to use the locator tool. Click Here to see information on the course titled Enterprise Voice Over Data Design. Click Here to see CDI Communications, Inc. web page for video, CD ROMs and Boot camp on Cisco certification classes.

6. The Resource Center for Customer Service Professionals provides "One-stop shopping for call center, help desk, telecom, and IT service management education". In particular, they have a seminar where you will "build a live VoIP network in 15 hands-on labs". Click Here for information on that seminar.

7. Perpetual Solutions is a telecoms and datacoms training company offering a wide range of education solutions across fixed, mobile and converged technologies. They provide training across EMEA, US, and Asia/Pac and their clients are blue-chip companies such as BT, Cable and Wireless, Ericsson, Nokia, Vodafone, and Cisco. Click Here for their program of Voice Over IP training.