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Well done! Discovering this piece suggests you’re thinking about your future, and if you’re considering retraining you’ve even now progressed more than most others. It’s a frightening thought that just one in ten of us would say we are satisfied and happy at work – yet the vast majority of us will take no corrective action. We encourage you to break free and move forward – think about how you could enjoy Monday mornings.

On the subject of training, it’s important to first define what you want and don’t want from the job you would like to get. Ensure that the grass actually is greener before you put a lot of energy into taking a new turn. So much better to look at the destination you’re hoping for, to avoid disappointment:

* Is it your preference to work in isolation or is being part of a team vital for your sanity?

* What’s important that you get from the industry your job is in? – We all know that things have changed, look at building and banking for instance.

* Having completed your retraining, are you hoping your new skills will give you the ability to take you through to retirement?

* Do you have the assurance that your industry training course will make you employable, and offer the chance to allow you to work until your pension kicks in?

Consider the IT sector, that’s our recommendation – it’s one of the only sectors of industry still growing in this country and overseas. Another benefit is that remuneration packages are much better than most.

How can we reach an informed choice then? With such prospects, it’s essential to be guided as to where to investigate – and what we should be searching for.

An advisor that doesn’t ask you a lot of questions – it’s likely they’re just trying to sell you something. If they’re pushing towards a particular product before looking at your personality and whether you have any commercial experience, then you know it’s true. Don’t forget, if you’ve had any relevant qualifications that are related, then you can sometimes expect to begin at a different level to a student who’s starting from scratch. It’s usual to start with some basic user skills first. This can set the scene for your on-going studies and make your learning curve a bit more manageable.

The classroom style of learning we remember from school, utilising reference manuals and books, is usually pretty hard going. If you’re nodding as you read this, check out study materials that are multimedia based. If we can involve all our senses in the learning process, then we normally see dramatically better results.

Fully interactive motion videos involving demonstration and virtual lab’s will turn you off book-based study for ever more. And they’re a lot more fun to do. You’ll definitely want a demonstration of the study materials from any training college. The package should contain expert-led demonstrations, slideshows and interactive labs where you get to practice.

It’s folly to choose training that is only available online. Connection quality and reliability varies hugely across the ISP (internet service provider) market, make sure you get actual CD or DVD ROM’s.

One of the most important things to insist on has to be 24×7 round-the-clock support with expert mentors and instructors. Far too often we see trainers who only provide support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later (but not weekends usually). Look for training with proper support available at any time of the day or night (no matter if it’s in the middle of the night on a weekend!) You’ll need access directly to professional tutors, and not simply some messaging service that means you’re constantly waiting for a call-back during office hours.

Top training providers opt for an online round-the-clock service pulling in several support offices from around the world. You’ll have a single, easy-to-use interface which switches seamlessly to the best choice of centres any time of the day or night: Support on demand. Find a company that gives this level of learning support. As only true live 24×7 support provides the necessary backup.

If you’re considering a training academy that still provides workshops as a necessary part of their training, then take note of these difficulties met by many students:

* Loads of travelling – lots of trips and quite often over 100 miles a pop.

* Access to classes; frequently Mon-Fri and two or three days in a row. You then have the difficulty of the work-leave.

* With only 4 weeks off each year, giving half of them to study events means we’ll be hard-pushed to get a holiday with our families.

* Workshop days normally are over-subscribed, so we end up having to take a slot that doesn’t really suit.

* Class pace – workshops often have trainees of mixed talent, consequently tension can run high between students that want a quicker pace to the ones who need a little longer.

* The growing costs associated with travel – travelling to the training college and of course over-night bed and breakfast can mount up over several visits. If you only assumed 5-10 centre-days at a cost of 35 pounds for one night’s accommodation, plus forty pounds for petrol and 15.00 for food, that becomes a minimum of four to nine hundred pounds of hidden costs that we now have to fund.

* A lot of attendees would like to keep their training completely private thus avoiding all come-back at work.

* Surely, all of us at some time have avoided asking a question, because we wanted to fit in?

* Where students have to on occasion live or work away from home, imagine the increased difficulty in making the required events, as time becomes even more scarce.

Surely it makes so much more sense to study at a time that’s convenient for you – not the school – and make use of instructor-led videos with interactive lab’s. Whenever you get stuck, utilise the 24×7 Support (that should’ve been packaged with any technical type of training.) Don’t forget, if you have a laptop, you can study just about anywhere. Lessons and modules can be repeated as often as you want – doing something over will help you remember it. And no worrying about keeping up with note-taking either – it’s already ready to go. Essentially: You save time, hassle, money and steer clear of polluting our environment.

There are colossal changes about to hit technology in the near future – and the industry becomes more ground-breaking every year. We’ve barely started to scrape the surface of how technology will affect our lives in the future. The internet will significantly revolutionise the way we regard and interact with the rest of the world over the coming decades.

Incomes in IT are not a problem moreover – the usual income in Great Britain for the usual man or woman in IT is much greater than average salaries nationally. Odds are you’ll bring in quite a bit more than you’d typically expect to bring in elsewhere. Due to the technological sector growing year on year, it’s likely that the need for certified IT professionals will remain buoyant for a good while yet.

If you’ve aspirations to be a professional web designer and have the most recognised qualification for the job market today, the course you need is Adobe Dreamweaver. Additionally, it’s good practice that you gain an in-depth and thorough understanding of the complete Adobe Web Creative Suite, which includes Flash and Action Script, to be able to take advantage of Dreamweaver as a commercial web-designer. This can result in you subsequently becoming an ACP (Adobe Certified Professional) or an ACE (Adobe Certified Expert).

Knowing how to create the website is just the start. Driving traffic, maintaining content and various programming skills are the next things. Think about courses that also contain modules to include these skills perhaps HTML, PHP and MySQL, along with search engine optimisation (SEO) and E-Commerce skills.

Being aware of so much talk on the area of Information Technology (IT) at present, how are we supposed to understand what in particular to look for?

Potential Students looking to kick off an Information Technology career normally haven’t a clue which path to consider, or even what market to build their qualifications around. Since without any solid background in IT, how should we possibly know what a particular job actually consists of? Arriving at the right answer can only grow via a detailed investigation of several different criteria:

* Our personalities play an important role – what things get your juices flowing, and what tasks you really dislike.

* Is it your desire to realise a closely held goal – like being your own boss as quickly as possible?

* Where is the salary on a scale of importance – is it the most important thing, or do you place job satisfaction a lot higher on your priority-list?

* Always think in-depth about the energy required to gain all the necessary accreditation.

* Our advice is to think deeply about the level of commitment you’re going to invest in your education.

The best way to avoid all the jargon and confusion, and reveal the best route for you, have an in-depth discussion with an industry expert and advisor; someone who appreciates and can explain the commercial realities as well as the accreditations.

Usually, trainers will provide a bunch of books and manuals. It’s not a very interesting way to learn and not really conducive to achieving retention. We see a huge improvement in memory retention when all our senses are brought into the mix – learning experts have been saying this for many years.

Top of the range study programs now offer self-contained CD or DVD materials. By watching and listening to instructors on video tutorials you’ll take everything in by way of the expert demonstrations. Knowledge can then be tested by utilising the practice lab’s and modules. You really need to look at the type of training provided by your chosen company. Be sure that they contain full motion videos of instructors demonstrating the topic with lab’s to practice the skills in.

You’ll find that many companies will only provide purely on-line training; and although this is okay the majority of the time, consider what happens if your access to the internet is broken or you get slow speeds and down-time etc. It is usually safer to have CD and DVD ROM materials which removes the issue entirely.

Students often end up having issues because of one area of their training which doesn’t even occur to them: The breakdown of the course materials before being delivered to your home. You may think it logical (with most training taking 1-3 years for a full commercial certification,) for a training company to release one section at a time, until you’ve passed all the exams. But: What would their reaction be if you find it difficult to do each and every module within the time limits imposed? Sometimes their preference of study order won’t fit you as well as some other order of studying might.

In an ideal situation, you’d get ALL the training materials right at the beginning – giving you them all to come back to at any time in the future – at any time you choose. Variations can then be made to the order that you complete each objective if you find another route more intuitive.

It’s so important to understand this key point: Always get full 24×7 instructor and mentor support. Later, you’ll kick yourself if you don’t follow this rule rigidly. Be wary of any training providers that use ‘out-of-hours’ messaging systems – with your call-back scheduled for typical office hours. It’s no use when you’re stuck on a problem and need help now.

Top training providers opt for an online 24×7 service involving many support centres across the globe. You’ll have a single, easy-to-use interface that accesses the most appropriate office irrespective of the time of day: Support available as-and-when you want it. If you accept anything less than 24×7 support, you’ll quickly find yourself regretting it. You might not want to use the service during late nights, but what about weekends, evenings and early mornings at some point.

Be careful that the qualifications you’re studying for will be recognised by employers and are current. Training companies own certificates are often meaningless. Only fully recognised qualifications from the major players like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe and CompTIA will have any meaning to employers.

Look at the following facts and pay great regard to them if you believe that over-used sales technique about ‘guaranteeing’ exams sounds like a benefit to the student:

Everyone knows they’re still footing the bill for it – it’s obviously been inserted into the overall price charged by the training provider. Certainly, it’s not a freebie – don’t think these companies are so generous with their money! If it’s important to you to qualify first ‘go’, evidence suggests you must pay for one exam at a time, give it the necessary attention and give the task sufficient application.

Look for the very best offer you can when you take the exam, and keep hold of your own money. You’ll then be able to select where you take your exam – meaning you can choose a local testing centre. A great deal of money is secured by some training companies that get money upfront for exam fees. Many students don’t take them for one reason or another and so the company is quids-in. Astoundingly enough, there are providers that actually rely on students not sitting all the exams – and that’s how they increase their profits. The majority of companies will insist that you take mock exams first and with-hold subsequent exam entries from you until you’ve demonstrated an excellent ability to pass – which actually leaves you with no guarantee at all.

Exams taken at VUE and Prometric centres are around 112 pounds in Britain at the time of writing. Students should be very wary of forking out hundreds of pounds extra in ‘Exam Guarantee’ costs (often covertly rolled into the cost of the course) – when the best course materials, the right level of support and consistent and systematic learning, coupled with quality exam simulation software is what will really see you through.

We can all agree: There really is absolutely no personal job security anymore; there’s only market and sector security – companies can just drop any single member of staff whenever it fits the business’ commercial requirements. In times of escalating skills shortfalls together with high demand areas however, we often locate a newly emerging type of market-security; driven forward by the conditions of constant growth, companies just can’t get the influx of staff needed.

A recent UK e-Skills analysis highlighted that 26 percent of all available IT positions are unfilled because of an appallingly low number of properly qualified workers. Showing that for every four jobs available in the computer industry, we have only 3 certified professionals to perform that task. Accomplishing in-depth commercial Information Technology exams is as a result a ‘Fast Track’ to a life-long as well as gratifying livelihood. It would be hard to imagine if a better time or market state of affairs is ever likely to exist for obtaining certification in this quickly expanding and evolving sector.

Should you be looking for certified training from Microsoft, you’ll obviously be expecting training providers to supply a good number of the finest learning programmes currently available. You might like to find advisors with experience of the IT industry, who could offer counsel on whereabouts in industry would work for you, and what sort of tasks are correct for a person with a personality like yours. When you’ve chosen the career track for you, you will require an appropriate course personalised to your needs. The standard of teaching should more than match your expectations.

Listening to all this debate around IT these days, how are we supposed to recognize what in particular to look for?

Beware of putting too much emphasis, as a lot of students can, on the accreditation program. Training is not an end in itself; this is about gaining commercial employment. Stay focused on what it is you want to achieve. Imagine training for just one year and then end up performing the job-role for decades. Ensure you avoid the fatal error of finding what seems like a program of interest to you only to spend 20 years doing something you don’t even enjoy!

You must also consider your feelings on career development, earning potential, and if you’re ambitious or not. It makes sense to understand what industry expects from you, which qualifications are required and how you’ll gain real-world experience. It’s good advice for all students to speak with an experienced industry advisor before they embark on a learning programme. This is essential to ensure it has the required elements for the career that is sought.

Proper support is incredibly important – look for a package offering 24×7 direct access to instructors, as anything else will annoy you and definitely impede your ability to learn. Always avoid study programmes that only provide support to students with an out-sourced call-centre message system after office-staff have gone home. Training companies will always try to hide the importance of this issue. Essentially – support is needed when it’s needed – not at their convenience.

Be on the lookout for study programmes that use several support centres around the globe in several time-zones. All of them should be combined to give a single entry point and 24 hours-a-day access, when it’s convenient for you, with no hassle. Don’t under any circumstances take a lower level of service. 24×7 support is the only kind that ever makes the grade with technical learning. It’s possible you don’t intend to study late evenings; but for the majority of us however, we’re at work while the support is live.

Many trainers provide a big box of books. This can be very boring and not a very good way of achieving retention. If we can get all of our senses involved in our learning, our results will often be quite spectacular.

Locate a program where you’ll get a host of CD or DVD ROM’s – you’ll begin by watching videos of instructors demonstrating the skills, and then have the opportunity to practice your skills in interactive lab’s. Every company that you look at should willingly take you through a few samples of their courseware. You should hope for instructor-led videos and interactive areas to practice in.

You should avoid purely online training. Always choose CD or DVD based study materials where available, enabling them to be used at your convenience – you don’t want to be reliant on a quality and continuous internet connection.

Some training schools are still offering the slightly musty old method of classroom lessons. Often sold as a benefit, if you talk to a student who has had to attend a few, don’t be surprised to be lectured on several if not most of the following problems:

* Periodic travelling – hundreds of miles usually.

* Mon-Fri availability to events is usual, and trying to take several days leave in a single chunk causes a lot of problems for most working students.

* Don’t disregard the lost holiday days. We typically get twenty days annual leave. If over 50 percent is used in classes, then there’s very little left over for us.

* With the high costs involved, most schools fill the classes up to the brim – which is not ideal (and with less one-on-one time).

* You may prefer to move at a slower or quicker pace than the rest of the class. This can create a lot of tension amongst the class.

* The growing costs associated with travel – arranging transport backwards and forwards to the training college plus several days accommodation can start to get expensive with each visit. If we just assume five to ten workshops costing 35 pounds for a single over-night room, plus 40 pounds petrol and food at 15 pounds, we arrive at 450-900 pounds of hidden costs on top.

* We all enjoy our privacy. We wouldn’t want to run the risk of losing any lift up the ladder that could awarded to us just because we’re retraining.

* Posing questions in front of other class-mates often makes us feel self-conscious. Would you admit that you’ve occasionally avoided posing a question because you were worried it might make you look silly?

* If your work takes you away from home, it’s a fact of life that events can become difficult to get to – and yet, they’ve been paid for in advance.

The perfect situation comes from viewing a pre-made lesson – having instructor-led teaching on hand whenever you wish. You can study from home on your computer or out in the garden on your laptop. If you’ve got questions, then utilise the 24×7 Support (that you should have insisted on for any technical study.) It really doesn’t matter how often you would like to re-take a quiz or test, on-screen instructors aren’t ever likely to rush you! And remember, in this situation, there’s no need to take notes. It’s already there for quick access. The upshot: Reduced stress and hassle, more money in the bank, and you’ve got no travelling to do.

How can job security really exist anywhere now? In a marketplace like the UK, where business constantly changes its mind on a whim, there doesn’t seem much chance. In actuality, security now only emerges via a swiftly escalating marketplace, fuelled by a lack of trained workers. These circumstances create the appropriate setting for a secure market – definitely a more pleasing situation.

The IT skills shortfall across the United Kingdom is standing at over 26 percent, as noted by the latest e-Skills study. Therefore, for every 4 jobs existing around IT, employers can only locate trained staff for three of the four. Accomplishing full commercial IT exams is as a result a ‘Fast Track’ to achieve a long-lasting as well as worthwhile livelihood. Without a doubt, this really is the very best time for retraining into IT.

Because you’re looking at information about courses for MCSE, you’ll probably be in one of the following categories: You might be wondering about a complete career change to the world of IT, and research demonstrates there’s a growing demand for properly qualified people. Instead you could already be in IT – and you need to formalise your skill-set with an MCSE.

As you find out about training colleges, steer clear of those who reduce their out-goings by failing to up-grade to the latest Microsoft version. Over time, this will frustrate and cost the student much more because they’ve been taught from an old version of MCSE which inevitably will have to be up-dated pretty much straight away. Don’t be pushed into a training program without the right advice. Look for a computer training company who will make sure that you’re on an appropriate training track for you.

Picking up on the sheer volume of debate covering computing technology at present, how can we understand what in particular to look for?

With all the options available, does it really shock us that nearly all newcomers to the industry don’t really understand the best career path they should even pursue. Scanning a list of odd-sounding and meaningless job titles is just a waste of time. The vast majority of us have no concept what the neighbours do for a living – so what chance do we have in understanding the ins and outs of a particular IT career. To get through to the essence of this, there should be a discussion of a number of definitive areas:

* Personality plays a significant part – what gets you ‘up and running’, and what tasks put a frown on your face.

* Is it your desire to realise an important dream – for example, working for yourself as quickly as possible?

* Is salary further up on your wish list than other factors.

* Always think in-depth about the time expected to attain their desired level.

* You will need to take in what is different for the myriad of training options.

To be honest, the only way to research these issues will be via a meeting with an experienced advisor that has years of experience in Information Technology (and chiefly the commercial requirements.)

You have to be sure that all your accreditations are what employers want – you’re wasting your time with courses that lead to in-house certificates. The top IT companies such as Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco or Adobe each have internationally approved skills courses. Major-league companies like these will ensure your employability.

Most commercial training providers only provide support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later; It’s rare to find someone who offers late evening or full weekend cover. Locate training schools where you can access help at all hours of the day and night (even 1am on Sunday morning!) Ensure you get 24×7 direct access to mentors and instructors, and not a message system as this will slow you down – constantly waiting for a call-back – probably during office hours.

Top training companies use multiple support centres around the globe in several time-zones. By utilising an interactive interface to join them all seamlessly, no matter what time you login, help is at hand, without any problems or delays. Search out a trainer that goes the extra mile. Because only 24×7 round-the-clock live support delivers what is required.

Traditional teaching in classrooms, using textbooks and whiteboards, is usually pretty hard going. If this describes you, look for learning programmes that are multimedia based. Many years of research has repeatedly shown that becoming involved with our studies, to utilise all our senses, will more likely produce memories that are deeper and longer-lasting.

The latest audio-visual interactive programs with demonstrations and practice sessions will turn you off book-based study for ever more. And you’ll actually enjoy doing them. Each company you’re contemplating must be able to demonstrate samples of their courseware. You’re looking for evidence of tutorial videos and demonstrations and interactive areas to practice in.

It is generally unwise to choose training that is only available online. Connection quality and reliability varies hugely across your average broadband company, it makes sense to have disc based courseware (On CD or DVD).

Exam ‘guarantees’ are sometimes offered as part of a training package – they always involve paying for the exam fees up-front, when you pay for the rest of your course. But before you get taken in by the chance of a guarantee, consider this:

You’ll be charged for it somehow. It certainly isn’t free – they’ve just worked it into the package price. Trainees who enter their exams one by one, paying as they go are much better placed to get through first time. They’re conscious of their spending and prepare more appropriately to ensure they are ready.

Don’t you think it’s more sensible to hold on to your money and pay for the exam at the appropriate time, rather than coughing up months or even a year or two in advance to a training college, and also to sit exams more locally – rather than in some remote centre? Buying a course that includes payments for examination fees (plus interest – if you’re financing your study) is bad financial management. Don’t line companies bank accounts with extra money of yours just to give them a good cash-flow! There are those who hope that you don’t even take them all – so they don’t need to pay for them. You should fully understand that re-takes with organisations who offer an ‘Exam Guarantee’ are monitored with tight restrictions. They will insist that you take pre-tests first so you can prove to them you have a good chance of passing.

Shelling out hundreds or thousands of pounds on an ‘Exam Guarantee’ is naive – when study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will get you through.

Now, why might we choose commercial certification as opposed to traditional academic qualifications taught at schools and Further Education colleges? With an ever-increasing technical demand on resources, the IT sector has had to move to specialist courses that can only come from the vendors – for example companies such as Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA. This usually turns out to involve less time and financial outlay. Academic courses, as a example, become confusing because of a lot of background study – with a syllabus that’s far too wide. Students are then prevented from understanding the specific essentials in enough depth.

Put yourself in the employer’s position – and you required somebody who had very specific skills. What is easier: Pore through loads of academic qualifications from hopeful applicants, struggling to grasp what they’ve learned and what vocational skills they have, or choose particular accreditations that perfectly fit your needs, and draw up from that who you want to speak to. You can then focus on how someone will fit into the team at interview – instead of having to work out if they can do the job.

Locating job security in the current climate is problematic. Companies can throw us out of the workforce with very little notice – as and when it suits them. However, a sector experiencing fast growth, with huge staffing demands (due to a massive shortage of trained staff), provides a market for true job security.

Reviewing the IT market, a recent e-Skills survey highlighted an over 26 percent deficit in trained staff. Or, to put it differently, this reveals that Great Britain can only find 3 certified professionals for each 4 job positions that exist at the moment. Properly trained and commercially educated new workers are as a result at an absolute premium, and it’s estimated to remain so for many years longer. For sure, this really is such a perfect time to train for the IT industry.

If it’s Cisco training you’re after, but you’ve not yet worked with switches and routers, then you’ll need the CCNA training. This will give you skills for setting up and maintaining routers. The internet is made up of hundreds of thousands of routers, and large commercial ventures with several different sites also use them to keep their networks in touch.

Successfully achieving this qualification means you’ll probably end up working for large commercial ventures that have several locations, but need their computer networks to talk to each other. On the other hand, you might end up joining an internet service provider. These jobs are well paid and in demand.

Getting your Cisco CCNA is what you should be aiming for – you’re not ready for your CCNP straight away. After gaining experience in the working environment, you’ll know if CCNP is something you want to do. Should that be the case, you’ll be much more capable to succeed at that stage – because you’ll have so much more experience.

We can all agree: There really is no such thing as personal job security available anymore; there’s only industry or sector security – as any company can remove anyone whenever it fits the business’ trade requirements. Now, we only experience security via a fast rising market, fuelled by a lack of trained workers. It’s this alone that creates the right environment for a secure market – a far better situation.

Reviewing the computing sector, the most recent e-Skills study demonstrated a twenty six percent skills deficit. To put it another way, this clearly demonstrates that Great Britain is only able to source three qualified staff for each four job positions that are available at the moment. This alarming certainty shows the requirement for more commercially qualified IT professionals in the United Kingdom. While the market is developing at such a speed, it’s unlikely there’s any better area of industry worth considering as a retraining vehicle.

So, which are the questions we should raise if we’re to get the understanding we want? After all, it’s evident there are many pretty superb prospects for us all to investigate.

Don’t forget: the actual training program or a qualification isn’t what this is about; a job you’re training for is. Many trainers unfortunately place too much importance on the piece of paper. It’s possible, in many cases, to get a great deal of enjoyment from a year of study only to end up putting 20 long years into something completely unrewarding, entirely because you stumbled into it without the correct level of soul-searching at the outset.

Set targets for earning potential and what level of ambition fits you. Often, this changes what accreditations will be expected and what’ll be expected of you in your new role. Seek out help from an experienced industry professional who appreciates the market you’re interested in, and who can give you ‘A day in the life of’ understanding of what you’ll actually be doing on a day-to-day basis. It’d be sensible to discover if this is the right course of action for you before the training program is started. There’s really no point in beginning your training and then find you’ve taken the wrong route.

A lot of trainers will only provide support available from 9-6 (office hours) and sometimes later on specific days; It’s rare to find someone who offers late evening or full weekend cover. Many only provide email support (too slow), and telephone support is usually to a call-centre which will make some notes and then email an advisor – who’ll call back sometime over the next 1-3 days, at a suitable time to them. This is no good if you’re sitting there confused over an issue and can only study at specific times.

It’s possible to find the top providers which offer direct-access online support around the clock – even in the middle of the night. Never compromise where support is concerned. Many students who fall by the wayside, just need the right support system.

The old fashioned style of teaching, with books and manuals, is usually pretty hard going. If this describes you, dig around for more practical courses which have a majority of interactive, multimedia parts. Recent studies into the way we learn shows that long term memory is improved when we use all our senses, and we get practically involved in what we’re studying.

Start a study-program in which you’ll get a host of CD or DVD ROM’s – you’ll start with videos of instructor demonstrations, with the facility to use virtual lab’s to practice your new skills. You really need to look at examples of the study materials provided by the company you’re considering. You’ll want to see that they include video, demonstrations and various interactive elements.

Avoid training that is purely online. Always choose CD or DVD based study materials where obtainable, so you can use them wherever and whenever you want – you don’t want to be reliant on your broadband being ‘up’ 100 percent of the time.

So, why might we choose qualifications from the commercial sector and not familiar academic qualifications taught at schools, colleges or universities? With 3 and 4 year academic degree costs becoming a tall order for many, together with the IT sector’s recognition that vendor-based training often has more relevance in the commercial field, we’ve seen a great increase in CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA accredited training routes that educate students for much less time and money. Essentially, the learning just focuses on what’s actually required. It’s slightly more broad than that, but the most important function is always to master the precisely demanded skill-sets (along with a certain amount of crucial background) – without attempting to cover a bit about every other area (as universities often do).

Assuming a company knows what they’re looking for, then they just need to look for a person with the appropriate exam numbers. The syllabuses all have to conform to the same requirements and do not vary between trainers (like academia frequently can and does).

A key training program will have accredited simulation materials and exam preparation packages. Sometimes people can get confused by trying to prepare themselves with questions that are not from authorised sources. It’s not uncommon that the phraseology can be quite different and you should be prepared for this. Ensure that you ask for exam preparation tools so you’ll be able to test your understanding along the way. Simulations of exams help to build your confidence – so the actual exam is much easier.

A useful feature that several companies offer is job placement assistance. The service is put in place to help you get your first commercial position. But don’t place too much emphasis on it – it’s easy for companies marketing departments to make too much of it. Ultimately, the need for well trained IT people in this country is what will enable you to get a job.

CV and Interview advice and support should be offered (alternatively, check out one of our sites for help). Ensure you polish up your CV straight away – don’t leave it till you pass the exams! Various junior support roles have been bagged by students who are in the process of training and have yet to take their exams. At the very least this will get you on your way. If you don’t want to travel too far to work, then you may well find that a local IT focused recruitment consultancy may be of more use than a centralised service, as they’re far more likely to know local employment needs.

Various men and women, it would appear, put a great deal of effort into their studies (sometimes for years), and just give up when it comes to looking for a job. Market yourself… Work hard to put yourself out there. Don’t think a job’s just going to jump out in front of you.