Congratulations! Finding this article proves you must be thinking about your future, and if it's new career training you're deliberating over that means you've taken it further than the majority of people will. Did you know that a small minority of us are fulfilled in our working life - yet the vast majority of us will just put up with it. We implore you to break free and make a start - don't you think you deserve it. We'd strongly advise that in advance of taking any individual training program, you chat with an expert who can see the bigger picture and can advise you. They can look at aspects of your personality and help you find your ideal job to train for: Is it your preference to work in isolation or is being in a team environment more important to you? Are you thinking carefully about which market sector you could be employed in? (Post credit crunch, it's essential to choose carefully.) Is this the last time you plan to retrain, and based on that will your chosen career path allow you to do that? Are you happy that your chosen retraining will offer you employment opportunities and make it possible to be employed up to the time you want to stop? Look at Information Technology, it will be well worth your time - unusually, it's one of the growing market sectors throughout Europe. Another benefit is that remuneration packages are much better than most.
Doing your bit in the leading edge of new technology really is electrifying. You become one of a team of people shaping the next few decades. We're at the dawn of beginning to understand how all this change will affect us. How we correlate with the world as a whole will be profoundly affected by computers and the internet. A regular IT man or woman in the United Kingdom has been shown to earn a lot more than his or her counterpart outside of IT. Average incomes are amongst the highest in the country. It's no secret that there is a considerable nationwide hunger for certified IT specialists. Also with the marketplace continuing to expand, it appears this will be the case for a good while yet.
It's irrefutable, the UK computing market offers outstanding opportunities. Yet, to arm ourselves with the correct information, what are the questions we should be raising, and which are the areas we need to look at?
Of course: the actual training or the accreditation is not the ultimate goal; the job or career that you're getting the training for is. A lot of colleges seem to put too much weight in the piece of paper. It's not unheard of, in many cases, to find immense satisfaction in a year of study only to end up putting 20 long years into a career that does nothing for you, as an upshot of not doing the correct research when it was needed - at the start. Make sure you investigate what your attitude is towards career development, earning potential, and if you're ambitious or not. It's vital to know what (if any) sacrifices you'll need to make for a particular role, which particular qualifications will be required and in what way you can develop commercial experience. Take advice from a skilled advisor, even if you have to pay - it's considerably cheaper and safer to investigate at the start whether something is going to suit and interest you, instead of finding out after several years of study that you've picked the wrong track and have wasted years of effort.
Many trainers provide mainly work-books and reference manuals. Learning like this is dull and repetitive and isn't the best way to go about remembering. Memory is vastly improved when all our senses are brought into the mix - experts have been clear on this for many years. Learning is now available on CD and DVD discs, so everything is learned directly from your own PC. Using video-streaming, you will be able to see the instructor presenting exactly how to do something, and then have a go at it yourself - in a virtual lab environment. Every company that you look at should be able to show you some simple examples of their courseware. You're looking for evidence of tutorial videos and demonstrations and interactive areas to practice in. Select actual CD or DVD ROM's whenever you can. This then avoids all the potential pitfalls with internet connection failure and issues with signal quality.
Of all the important things to consider, one of the most essential is always 24x7 round-the-clock support from dedicated instructors and mentors. Too many companies only seem to want to help while they're in the office (9am till 6pm, Monday till Friday usually) and nothing at the weekends. Don't buy study programmes that only provide support to you via a call-centre outside of normal office hours. Trainers will defend this with all kinds of excuses. The simple fact of the matter is - you want support at the appropriate time - not at times when they find it cheaper to provide it. The best trainers incorporate three or four individual support centres across multiple time-zones. They use an online interactive interface to join them all seamlessly; at any time you choose - help is at hand avoiding all the delays and problems. Never settle for less than you need and deserve. Support round-the-clock is really your only option for IT learning. Maybe burning the midnight-oil is not your thing; often though, we're out at work while the support is live.
Many men and women assume that the traditional school, college or university system is the way they should go. So why then are commercially accredited qualifications beginning to overtake it? Industry now acknowledges that to learn the appropriate commercial skills, proper accreditation from companies such as Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA most often has much more specialised relevance - saving time and money. Clearly, a certain amount of relevant additional information needs to be taught, but essential specialisation in the areas needed gives a commercially educated student a real head start. Just as the old advertisement said: 'It does what it says on the tin'. All an employer has to do is know where they have gaps and then request applicants with the correct exam numbers. That way they can be sure they're interviewing applicants who can do the job.
One interesting way that training providers make a lot more is by adding exam fees upfront to the cost of a course and then including an 'Exam Guarantee'. This looks like a great idea for the student, but is it really... Everybody's aware that they're still being charged for it - it's obviously already in the overall figure from the training company. It's definitely not free (although some people will believe anything the marketing companies think up these days!) Qualifying on the first go is what everyone wants to do. Taking your exams progressively one at a time and paying for them just before taking them puts you in a much stronger position to qualify at the first attempt - you prepare appropriately and are conscious of what you've spent. Do your exams as locally as possible and go for the best offer you can find when you're ready. A lot of extra profit is made by many training colleges who get money upfront for exam fees. For quite legitimate reasons, a number of students don't get to do their exams and so the company is quids-in. Surprising as it sounds, there are providers that actually bank on it - as that's where a lot of their profit comes from. It's worth noting that exam re-takes via organisations who offer an 'Exam Guarantee' inevitably are heavily regulated. They will insist that you take pre-tests first till you've proven conclusively that you can pass. On average, exams cost about 112 pounds in the last 12 months when taken at local VUE or Pro-metric centres throughout the country. So don't be talked into shelling out hundreds or thousands of pounds more to have 'an Exam Guarantee', when common sense dictates that the best guarantee is a regular, committed, study programme, with an accredited exam preparation system.
The somewhat scary thought of finding your first role in IT is often relieved by some training providers because they offer a Job Placement Assistance programme. But don't place too much emphasis on it - it's quite easy for their marketing department to make too much of it. In reality, the need for well trained IT people in the United Kingdom is the reason you'll find a job. You would ideally have help and assistance with preparing a CV and getting interviews though; also we would encourage everyone to bring their CV up to date as soon as they start a course - don't procrastinate and leave it until you've qualified. Many junior support jobs have been offered to students who're still on their course and haven't even passed a single exam yet. At the very least this will get you on your way. Normally you'll get quicker results from a local IT focused recruitment consultant or service than you will through a training company's centralised service, as they will be more familiar with the area and local employers. Do be sure that you don't put hundreds of hours of effort into your studies, then call a halt and leave it up to everyone else to find you a job. Stand up for yourself and start looking for yourself. Channel as much energy into getting a good job as you did to get trained.
Doing your bit in the leading edge of new technology really is electrifying. You become one of a team of people shaping the next few decades. We're at the dawn of beginning to understand how all this change will affect us. How we correlate with the world as a whole will be profoundly affected by computers and the internet. A regular IT man or woman in the United Kingdom has been shown to earn a lot more than his or her counterpart outside of IT. Average incomes are amongst the highest in the country. It's no secret that there is a considerable nationwide hunger for certified IT specialists. Also with the marketplace continuing to expand, it appears this will be the case for a good while yet.
It's irrefutable, the UK computing market offers outstanding opportunities. Yet, to arm ourselves with the correct information, what are the questions we should be raising, and which are the areas we need to look at?
Of course: the actual training or the accreditation is not the ultimate goal; the job or career that you're getting the training for is. A lot of colleges seem to put too much weight in the piece of paper. It's not unheard of, in many cases, to find immense satisfaction in a year of study only to end up putting 20 long years into a career that does nothing for you, as an upshot of not doing the correct research when it was needed - at the start. Make sure you investigate what your attitude is towards career development, earning potential, and if you're ambitious or not. It's vital to know what (if any) sacrifices you'll need to make for a particular role, which particular qualifications will be required and in what way you can develop commercial experience. Take advice from a skilled advisor, even if you have to pay - it's considerably cheaper and safer to investigate at the start whether something is going to suit and interest you, instead of finding out after several years of study that you've picked the wrong track and have wasted years of effort.
Many trainers provide mainly work-books and reference manuals. Learning like this is dull and repetitive and isn't the best way to go about remembering. Memory is vastly improved when all our senses are brought into the mix - experts have been clear on this for many years. Learning is now available on CD and DVD discs, so everything is learned directly from your own PC. Using video-streaming, you will be able to see the instructor presenting exactly how to do something, and then have a go at it yourself - in a virtual lab environment. Every company that you look at should be able to show you some simple examples of their courseware. You're looking for evidence of tutorial videos and demonstrations and interactive areas to practice in. Select actual CD or DVD ROM's whenever you can. This then avoids all the potential pitfalls with internet connection failure and issues with signal quality.
Of all the important things to consider, one of the most essential is always 24x7 round-the-clock support from dedicated instructors and mentors. Too many companies only seem to want to help while they're in the office (9am till 6pm, Monday till Friday usually) and nothing at the weekends. Don't buy study programmes that only provide support to you via a call-centre outside of normal office hours. Trainers will defend this with all kinds of excuses. The simple fact of the matter is - you want support at the appropriate time - not at times when they find it cheaper to provide it. The best trainers incorporate three or four individual support centres across multiple time-zones. They use an online interactive interface to join them all seamlessly; at any time you choose - help is at hand avoiding all the delays and problems. Never settle for less than you need and deserve. Support round-the-clock is really your only option for IT learning. Maybe burning the midnight-oil is not your thing; often though, we're out at work while the support is live.
Many men and women assume that the traditional school, college or university system is the way they should go. So why then are commercially accredited qualifications beginning to overtake it? Industry now acknowledges that to learn the appropriate commercial skills, proper accreditation from companies such as Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA most often has much more specialised relevance - saving time and money. Clearly, a certain amount of relevant additional information needs to be taught, but essential specialisation in the areas needed gives a commercially educated student a real head start. Just as the old advertisement said: 'It does what it says on the tin'. All an employer has to do is know where they have gaps and then request applicants with the correct exam numbers. That way they can be sure they're interviewing applicants who can do the job.
One interesting way that training providers make a lot more is by adding exam fees upfront to the cost of a course and then including an 'Exam Guarantee'. This looks like a great idea for the student, but is it really... Everybody's aware that they're still being charged for it - it's obviously already in the overall figure from the training company. It's definitely not free (although some people will believe anything the marketing companies think up these days!) Qualifying on the first go is what everyone wants to do. Taking your exams progressively one at a time and paying for them just before taking them puts you in a much stronger position to qualify at the first attempt - you prepare appropriately and are conscious of what you've spent. Do your exams as locally as possible and go for the best offer you can find when you're ready. A lot of extra profit is made by many training colleges who get money upfront for exam fees. For quite legitimate reasons, a number of students don't get to do their exams and so the company is quids-in. Surprising as it sounds, there are providers that actually bank on it - as that's where a lot of their profit comes from. It's worth noting that exam re-takes via organisations who offer an 'Exam Guarantee' inevitably are heavily regulated. They will insist that you take pre-tests first till you've proven conclusively that you can pass. On average, exams cost about 112 pounds in the last 12 months when taken at local VUE or Pro-metric centres throughout the country. So don't be talked into shelling out hundreds or thousands of pounds more to have 'an Exam Guarantee', when common sense dictates that the best guarantee is a regular, committed, study programme, with an accredited exam preparation system.
The somewhat scary thought of finding your first role in IT is often relieved by some training providers because they offer a Job Placement Assistance programme. But don't place too much emphasis on it - it's quite easy for their marketing department to make too much of it. In reality, the need for well trained IT people in the United Kingdom is the reason you'll find a job. You would ideally have help and assistance with preparing a CV and getting interviews though; also we would encourage everyone to bring their CV up to date as soon as they start a course - don't procrastinate and leave it until you've qualified. Many junior support jobs have been offered to students who're still on their course and haven't even passed a single exam yet. At the very least this will get you on your way. Normally you'll get quicker results from a local IT focused recruitment consultant or service than you will through a training company's centralised service, as they will be more familiar with the area and local employers. Do be sure that you don't put hundreds of hours of effort into your studies, then call a halt and leave it up to everyone else to find you a job. Stand up for yourself and start looking for yourself. Channel as much energy into getting a good job as you did to get trained.
About the Author:
Scott Edwards sources and advises on the most up-to-date computer based education. To investigate IT Training, visit LearningLolly Computer Courses.
