I have currently done the first part of CCNA ie the ICND part one.
Its loads of theory work which I guess home learning is ok for. Its the lab stuff which I would say you really cannot get the experience from any other way.

I did my training with comstor and it was a very good course and the lab setups were real live equipment in racks on the local site. Not a remote lab at CISCO somewhere.

Just need to do my ICND exam now.