Congratulate yourself that you’re on the right track! A fraction of the population enjoy their work and find it stimulating, but the majority complain to each other and take no action. By looking for this we can guess that you’re finding out about training, so you’ve already stood out from the crowd. Now you just need to research and follow-through.

We’d strongly advise that before you start a training course, you discuss your plans with a person who is familiar with the working environment and can point you in the right direction. Such a person will go through personality profiling with you and assist in finding the right role for you:

* Is it your preference to work in isolation or is being part of a team more important to you?

* Building and Banking are none too stable at the moment, so it’s important to look very carefully at what sector would suit you best?

* Should this be the last time you’ll have to retrain?

* Do you have the assurance that retraining in your chosen sector will offer you employment opportunities, and provide the facility to be employed up to retirement age?

We would strongly recommend that one of your key sectors is IT – it’s no secret that it is one of the few growth sectors. IT isn’t all techie people gazing at their PC’s constantly – it’s true those roles do exist, but the majority of roles are carried out by ordinary men and women who get on very well.

Coming across job security in the current climate is very rare. Businesses will drop us out of the workplace at the drop of a hat – whenever it suits. Security can now only exist via a quickly growing market, driven by a shortage of trained workers. It’s this shortage that creates the appropriate environment for a secure marketplace – definitely a more pleasing situation.

Taking a look at the computing market, the recent e-Skills investigation highlighted an over 26 percent skills deficit. Alternatively, you could say, this clearly demonstrates that the country can only locate 3 trained people for each 4 job positions that are available at the moment. Gaining the appropriate commercial computing accreditation is accordingly a quick route to succeed in a continuing as well as pleasing line of work. Quite simply, acquiring professional IT skills throughout the next year or two is almost definitely the best career direction you could choose.

So, what questions do we need to ask if we’re to get the understanding required? After all, it seems there are a good many pretty outstanding prospects for everyone to think about.

Of course: the actual training program or a qualification isn’t what this is about; the job or career that you’re getting the training for is. A lot of colleges seem to over-emphasise just the training course. It’s quite usual, for example, to obtain tremendous satisfaction from a year of studying only to end up putting 20 long years into a tiresome job role, as an upshot of not doing the correct level of soul-searching at the outset.

It’s essential to keep your focus on what you want to achieve, and then build your training requirements around that – don’t do it back-to-front. Keep your eyes on your goals – making sure you’re training for something that will keep you happy for many years. Before you embark on a training programme, trainees are advised to discuss the specific market needs with an experienced industry professional, to be absolutely sure the study programme covers all that is required.

There is no way of over emphasising this: Always get full 24×7 support from professional instructors. You will have so many problems later if you don’t adhere to this. Locate training schools where you can receive help at any time you choose (even 1am on Sunday morning!) Ensure you get direct-access to qualified mentors and tutors, and not a message system as this will slow you down – waiting for tutors to call you back at a convenient time for them.

If you look properly, you’ll find the top providers which offer direct-access support at all times – including evenings, nights and weekends. Never compromise when you’re looking for the right support service. Most would-be IT professionals who can’t get going properly, are in that situation because they didn’t get the support necessary for them.

If you’re like many of the students we talk to then you’re a practical sort of person – a ‘hands-on’ type. Typically, the painful task of reading endless manuals is something you’ll make yourself do if you have to, but it’s not ideal. Check out video-based multimedia instruction if you’d really rather not use books. Learning psychology studies show that much more of what we learn in remembered when all our senses are involved, and we get practically involved in what we’re studying.

Top of the range study programs now offer easy-to-use DVD or CD ROM’s. Through instructor-led video classes you’ll find things easier to remember through the expert demonstrations. Knowledge can then be tested by practicing and interacting with the software. All companies must be pushed to demo samples of their courseware. You’re looking for evidence of tutorial videos and demonstrations and many interactive sections.

It doesn’t make sense to go for purely on-line training. Connection quality and reliability varies hugely across all internet service providers, make sure you get actual CD or DVD ROM’s.

We’re regularly asked to explain why traditional academic studies are being replaced by more commercial qualifications? With a growing demand for specific technological expertise, the IT sector has been required to move to specific, honed-in training that can only come from the vendors – that is companies such as Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe. Often this saves time and money for the student. They do this by concentrating on the particular skills that are needed (alongside a proportionate degree of associated knowledge,) as opposed to going into the heightened depths of background detail and ‘fluff’ that degree courses can often find themselves doing (because the syllabus is so wide).

When an employer understands what work they need doing, then all it takes is an advert for a person with the appropriate exam numbers. Commercial syllabuses are all based on the same criteria and aren’t allowed to deviate (like academia frequently can and does).

It’s not uncommon for companies to offer inclusive exam guarantees – this always means exams have to be paid for upfront, at the start of your training. Before you jump at a course with such a promise, why not consider this:

Certainly it isn’t free – you’re still paying for it – it’s just been wrapped up in the price of the package. Passing first time is everyone’s goal. Going for exams one by one and paying for them just before taking them makes it far more likely you’ll pass first time – you revise thoroughly and are aware of the costs involved.

Sit the exam at a local pro-metric testing centre and go for the best offer you can find when you’re ready. Huge profits are made by a significant number of organisations that take the exam money up-front. For various reasons, many students don’t take their exams but the company keeps the money. Amazingly, providers exist that actually bank on it – as that’s how they make a lot of their profit. Many training companies will insist that you take mock exams first and hold you back from re-takes until you have proved to them you have a good chance of passing – making an ‘exam guarantee’ just about worthless.

Prometric and VUE exams are approximately 112 pounds in Britain at the time of writing. Students should be very wary of forking out hundreds of pounds extra in charges for ‘Exam Guarantees’ (often hidden in the cost) – when good quality study materials, the proper support and consistent and systematic learning, coupled with quality exam simulation software is what will really see you through.

Be careful that the accreditations you’re considering doing will be recognised by employers and are up-to-date. The ‘in-house’ certifications provided by many companies are often meaningless. All the major commercial players such as Microsoft, Adobe, CompTIA or Cisco have nationally recognised proficiency programs. Major-league companies like these will give some sparkle to your CV.

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