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The CompTIA A+ course covers 4 different sectors – you’ll need exam certification in two of these areas to be considered A+ competent. For this reason, most colleges restrict their A+ to just two of the four in the syllabus. To us, this is selling you short – certainly you’ll have the qualification, but knowing about the others will set you apart in the workplace, where gaps in your knowledge will expose weaknesses. So that’s why you need education in everything.

As well as being taught how to build and fix computers, students on an A+ training course will be shown how to work in antistatic conditions, along with remote access, fault finding and diagnostics. If your ambition is taking care of computer networks, you’ll need to add CompTIA Network+ to your training package. This qualification will mean you can command a more senior job role. Other ones that might be interesting to you are the networking qualifications from Microsoft, i.e. MCP, MCSA MCSE.

Commencing from the viewpoint that it’s good to locate the market that sounds most inviting first and foremost, before we’re even able to chew over what educational program would meet that requirement, how can we choose the correct route? Since having no commercial skills in computing, how could any of us know what any job actually involves? Achieving the right answer only comes via a careful investigation of many changing areas:

* Our personalities play a starring role – what things get your juices flowing, and what are the things that put a frown on your face.

* For what reasons you’re moving into computing – it could be you’re looking to overcome a long-held goal such as working for yourself maybe.

* What priority do you place on job satisfaction vs salary?

* Looking at the many markets that the IT industry encompasses, you’ll need to be able to see what’s different.

* You’ll also need to think hard about what kind of effort and commitment that you will set aside for your training.

To be honest, your only option to investigate these matters is via a conversation with an advisor or professional that understands the IT industry (and chiefly the commercial requirements.)

One interesting way that training providers make more money is through up-front charges for exams and presenting it as a guarantee for your exams. It looks like a good deal, but let’s just examine it more closely:

It’s become essential these days that we have to be a little bit more aware of sales ploys – and most of us realise that of course it is actually an additional cost to us (it’s not a freebie because they like us so much!) Those who enter their exams one by one, funding them as they go are far more likely to pass first time. They are thoughtful of what they’ve paid and revise more thoroughly to ensure they are ready.

Look for the very best offer you can at the time, and keep hold of your own money. You’ll also be able to choose where to take your exam – so you can find somewhere local. Huge profits are made by some training companies who get money upfront for exam fees. For quite legitimate reasons, a number of students don’t get to do their exams but the company keeps the money. Amazingly, there are providers that depend on students not taking their exams – as that’s how they make a lot of their profit. Re-takes of any failed exams with organisations who offer an ‘Exam Guarantee’ are monitored with tight restrictions. You’ll be required to sit pre-tests until you’ve proven that you’re likely to pass.

Exam fees averaged approximately 112 pounds twelve months or so ago through Prometric or VUE centres around the United Kingdom. So don’t be talked into shelling out hundreds or thousands of pounds more to get ‘Exam Guarantees’, when common sense dictates that what’s really needed is a commitment to studying and the use of authorised exam preparation tools.

If you’re like many of the students we talk to then you probably enjoy fairly practical work – the ‘hands-on’ individual. If you’re like us, the world of book-reading and classrooms would be considered as a last resort, but it doesn’t suit your way of doing things. So look for on-screen interactive learning packages if books just don’t do it for you. Research has time and time again demonstrated that connecting physically with our study, is proven to produce longer-lasting and deeper memory retention.

Interactive audio-visual materials involving demonstration and virtual lab’s will beat books every time. And you’ll find them fun and interesting. It would be silly not to view some of the typical study materials provided before you hand over your cheque. You should expect instructor-led video demonstrations and a variety of audio-visual and interactive sections.

It doesn’t make sense to opt for on-line only training. Because of the variable quality and reliability of all internet service providers, ensure that you have access to CD or DVD ROM based materials.

When did you last consider your job security? Typically, this only rears its head when we experience a knock-back. But really, the lesson often learned too late is that job security simply doesn’t exist anymore, for most of us. It’s possible though to hit upon security at the market sector level, by looking for high demand areas, together with a shortage of skilled staff.

Investigating the Information Technology (IT) market, the recent e-Skills survey demonstrated a more than 26 percent shortfall of skilled workers. It follows then that for every 4 jobs that are available throughout IT, businesses are only able to locate properly accredited workers for three of them. Appropriately qualified and commercially accredited new workers are as a result at a total premium, and it looks like they will be for a long time. Surely, it really is a fabulous time for retraining into the computing industry.

Students will sometimes miss checking on a painfully important area – the way the company actually breaks down and delivers the courseware sections, and into what particular chunks. Delivery by courier of each element one stage at a time, as you pass each exam is the typical way that your program will arrive. While seeming sensible, you must understand the following: How would they react if you didn’t complete each and every exam at the proposed pace? Often the staged order doesn’t work as well as some other order of studying might.

In all honesty, the very best answer is to have a copy of their prescribed order of study, but get everything up-front. You then have everything in the event you don’t complete everything inside of their required time-scales.

Congratulations! Hitting upon this feature means you’re likely to be wondering about where you’re going, and if it’s new career training you’re deliberating over you’ve already done more than most. Are you aware that a small minority of us are fulfilled and satisfied with our jobs – but the majority will just put up with it. Why not liberate yourself and make a start – don’t you think you deserve it.

With regard to individual courses, seek out someone who will be able to guide you on which area will be right for you. An advisor who will take time to ask questions about your likes and dislikes, and discover what type of job will be right for you:

* Are you hoping to be involved with others in the workplace? Would you prefer to work with a small team or with many new people? Maybe working on your own with your own methodology would give you pleasure?

* Are you thinking carefully about which area you could be employed in? (With the economic downturn, it’s more important than ever to be selective.)

* When you’ve done all your re-training, would you like your skills to serve you till you retire?

* Do you have niggles about your chances of finding new employment, and staying employable until you plan to retire?

The largest sector in Great Britain to tick all of the above boxes is the IT industry. There’s a need for more knowledgeable staff in IT, simply have a look at a local job site and you will find them yourself. Don’t let people tell you it’s only geeky nerds sitting in front ofscreens the whole time – there are loads more jobs than that. Most of employees in the computer industry are just like you and me, with jobs they enjoy and better than average salaries.

Including examinations with the course fee and offering an ‘Exam Guarantee’ is a popular marketing tool with many training course providers. Consider the facts:

Certainly it isn’t free – you’re still coughing up for it – it’s just been wrapped up in the price of the package. It’s well known in the industry that if students pay for their own exams, one by one, they will be much more likely to pass first time – since they’ll think of their payment and their application will be greater.

Go for the best offer you can find when you take the exam, and hang on to your cash. You’ll then be able to select where you do the examinations – meaning you can choose a local testing centre. A lot of current training providers secure huge profits because they’re getting paid for exam fees early then hoping that you won’t take them all. Remember, in the majority of cases of ‘exam guarantees’ – they control when and how often you are allowed to do a re-take. Subsequent exam attempts are only authorised at the company’s say so.

Due to typical VUE and Prometric exams coming in at approximately 112 pounds in Great Britain, the most cost-effective way to cover the cost is by paying when you need them. Why splash out often many hundreds of pounds extra at the beginning of your training? Study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will really guarantee success.

If an advisor doesn’t ask many questions – it’s more than likely they’re just a salesperson. If they’re pushing towards a particular product before understanding your background and current experience level, then it’s very likely to be the case. With a little work-based experience or some accreditation, your starting-point of learning is different from a beginner. If you’re a student commencing IT study from scratch, it can be helpful to start out slowly, starting with a user-skills course first. This can be built into most accreditation programs.

We’re regularly asked to explain why qualifications from colleges and universities are now falling behind more qualifications from the commercial sector? Accreditation-based training (to use industry-speak) is far more specialised and product-specific. Industry has realised that this level of specialised understanding is vital to cope with an acceleratingly technical workplace. CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA are the dominant players. They do this by honing in on the skills that are really needed (alongside an appropriate level of related knowledge,) as opposed to trawling through all the background ‘padding’ that degrees in computing can often find themselves doing – to fill a three or four year course.

Put yourself in the employer’s position – and you required somebody who had very specific skills. What’s the simplest way to find the right person: Go through a mass of different academic qualifications from graduate applicants, having to ask what each has covered and which vocational skills have been attained, or select a specialised number of commercial certifications that precisely match your needs, and then select who you want to interview from that. You can then focus on how someone will fit into the team at interview – rather than on the depth of their technical knowledge.

Many individuals don’t catch on to what IT can do for us. It’s stimulating, innovative, and means you’re doing your bit in the gigantic wave of technology that will affect us all over the next generation. We’ve only just begun to get an inclination of how technology is going to shape our lives. The internet will significantly alter the way we view and interact with the entire world over the coming years.

Let’s not forget that typical remuneration in IT across the UK is noticeably greater than remuneration packages in other industries, therefore you’ll be in a good position to receive much more as an IT specialist, than you’d expect to earn elsewhere. Due to the technological sector increasing year on year, it’s looking good that the requirement for qualified professionals will continue to boom for a good while yet.

Many trainers provide a big box of books. It’s not a very interesting way to learn and not really conducive to studying effectively. Where possible, if we can study while utilising as many senses as possible, then we normally see dramatically better results.

Start a study-program in which you’ll receive a selection of DVD-ROM’s – you’ll be learning from instructor videos and demo’s, followed by the chance to hone your abilities through virtual lab’s. It’s imperative to see the type of training provided by any company that you may want to train through. Be sure that they contain full motion videos of instructors demonstrating the topic with lab’s to practice the skills in.

It is generally unwise to choose training that is only available online. Connection quality and reliability varies hugely across all internet service providers, you should always obtain disc based courseware (On CD or DVD).