When thinking of a course in IT it’s crucial that the certification you will gain falls in line with the needs of industry. It’s also important that the program will suit you, and is pitched at the right level. You can select office skills packages from Microsoft, or more advanced IT professional certifications. Plain speaking courses will soon propel you to achieving your goals.

By keeping costs to a minimum, computer training providers can now offer up-to-the-minute courses that blend the finest training and guidance for considerably less money than is expected from the traditional establishments.

Does job security honestly exist anymore? Here in the UK, where industry can change its mind on a whim, there doesn’t seem much chance. Wherever we find increasing skills shortfalls mixed with areas of high demand of course, we always discover a newly emerging type of security in the marketplace; where, fuelled by the conditions of constant growth, employers find it hard to locate the influx of staff needed.

The computing Industry skills shortage around the UK falls in at approximately 26 percent, as noted by a recent e-Skills study. Put simply, we only have the national capacity to fill just three out of each four job positions in the computing industry. Highly trained and commercially accredited new professionals are thus at a total premium, and it seems it will continue to be so for a long time. We can’t imagine if a better time or market settings will exist for getting certified in this quickly growing and developing sector.

Making a sensible job option is fraught with stress – so what research do we need to do and what are the questions we need to seek the answer to?

Students looking to begin an IT career usually haven’t a clue what path to follow, or which sector to get qualified in. Working through a list of odd-sounding and meaningless job titles is no use whatsoever. The majority of us have no concept what our good friends do at work – so we’re in the dark as to the complexities of a specific IT job. Arriving at the right resolution only comes via a meticulous examination of many unique factors:

* Personality factors and interests – which work-centred jobs please or frustrate you.

* What time-frame are you looking at for retraining?

* The income requirements you have?

* Getting to grips with what the normal work types and sectors are – and what differentiates them.

* You should also think long and hard about what kind of effort and commitment you’ll put into gaining your certifications.

In actuality, the only way to research these issues will be via a meeting with someone that understands IT (and more importantly it’s commercial needs.)

People attracted to this sort of work are often very practical, and don’t always take well to classrooms, and slogging through piles of books. If you identify with this, use multimedia, interactive learning, where learning is video-based. Research has constantly demonstrated that getting into our studies physically, is far more likely to produce long-lasting memories.

Learning is now available in the form of CD and DVD ROM’s, where everything is taught on your PC. Utilising the latest video technology, you are able to see your instructors showing you how to perform the required skill, and then practice yourself – via the interactive virtual lab’s. All companies should be able to show you a few examples of their training materials. Expect video tutorials, instructor led classes and a wide selection of interactive elements.

It’s usually bad advice to select online only courseware. Connection quality and reliability varies hugely across the ISP (internet service provider) market, you should always obtain disc based courseware (On CD or DVD).

An important area that is sometimes not even considered by people weighing up a particular programme is the issue of ‘training segmentation’. This is essentially the method used to break up the program to be delivered to you, which can make a dramatic difference to the point you end up at. Students often think it makes sense (when study may take one to three years to achieve full certification,) for your typical trainer to courier the courseware in stages, as you pass each element. However: What if you find the order pushed by the company’s salespeople doesn’t suit all of us. It may be difficult to get through all the modules at the speed required?

To be honest, the best option is to have a copy of their prescribed order of study, but get everything up-front. You then have everything in case you don’t finish within their ideal time-table.

One thing you must always insist on is 24×7 round-the-clock support through dedicated instructors and mentors. It’s an all too common story to find providers that will only offer a basic 9am till 6pm support period (maybe later on certain days) with very little availability over the weekend. some companies only provide email support (slow), and so-called telephone support is normally just routed to a call-centre which will chat nicely with you for 5 minutes to ask what the issue is and then simply send an email to an instructor – who’ll call back sometime over the next 1-3 days, at a time suitable for them. This is not a lot of use if you’re stuck and can’t continue and only have certain times available in which to do your studies.

If you look properly, you’ll find the top providers that offer direct-access online support all the time – including evenings, nights and weekends. Never settle for anything less. Support round-the-clock is really your only option with technical training. Perhaps you don’t intend to study during the evenings; but for most of us, we’re working when traditional support if offered.

One interesting way that course providers make more money is by charging for exams up-front and offering an exam guarantee. This looks like a great idea for the student, till you look at the facts:

Of course it’s not free – you’re still coughing up for it – the cost has just been rolled into the whole training package. Those who take exams one at a time, funding them one at a time are much more likely to pass. They are thoughtful of what they’ve paid and so are more inclined to ensure they are ready.

Isn’t it in your interests to hold on to your money and pay for the exam at the time, not to pay any mark-up to a training course provider, and to do it in a local testing office – instead of the remote centre that’s convenient only to the trainer? A surprising number of unscrupulous training colleges make big margins through charging for exam fees early and hoping that you won’t take them all. Also, many exam guarantees are worthless. The majority of organisations will not pay for re-takes until you have demonstrated conclusively that you won’t fail again.

Due to typical VUE and Prometric tests coming in at approximately 112 pounds in Great Britain, it’s common sense to fund them one by one. Why splash out often many hundreds of pounds extra at the beginning of your training? Consistent and systematic learning, coupled with quality exam simulation software is what will really see you through.

Watch out that all qualifications you’re working towards are commercially relevant and are up-to-date. The ‘in-house’ certifications provided by many companies are not normally useful in gaining employment. From the viewpoint of an employer, only the major heavyweights such as Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe (for example) will get you short-listed. Anything less won’t make the grade.