If you’re reading this then it’s likely that either you’re considering a career change into IT and an MCSE certificate appeals to you, or you’re currently an IT professional and you know that you can’t get any further without a qualification such as MCSE.

We’d recommend you prove conclusively that the training company you use is actually training you on the latest level of Microsoft development. A lot of students become very demoralised when they find that they’ve been studying for an outdated version which inevitably will have to be up-dated.

Training colleges should be dedicated to finding the right path for their trainees. Mentoring education is equally about helping people to work out which direction to go in, as well as helping them get there.

Wouldn’t it be great to know for sure that our careers are secure and the future is protected, but the likely scenario for most jobs around Great Britain at the moment seems to be that there is no security anymore.

Security can now only exist via a quickly escalating marketplace, driven forward by a lack of trained workers. These circumstances create the correct setting for a higher level of market-security – a more attractive situation all round.

With the computing business for example, a recent e-Skills survey highlighted a skills deficit across the United Kingdom around the 26 percent mark. Accordingly, out of each 4 positions existing in the computer industry, companies can only find properly accredited workers for three of them.

Appropriately taught and commercially certified new staff are correspondingly at a complete premium, and in all likelihood it will stay that way for a long time to come.

Actually, acquiring professional IT skills as you progress through the next year or two is likely the best career direction you could choose.

In most cases, the normal trainee doesn’t have a clue what way to go about starting in IT, let alone which market is worth considering for retraining.

Since with no solid background in Information Technology, how should we possibly be expected to understand what anyone doing a particular job actually does?

Arriving at any kind of right answer only comes from a detailed analysis of several varying factors:

* Personality factors plus what interests you – which work-related things you enjoy or dislike.

* Are you hoping to get qualified because of a precise reason – for example, are you looking at working based at home (maybe self-employment?)?

* What salary and timescale needs you have?

* Learning what the main work types and markets are – and what makes them different.

* Having a serious look at what commitment and time you’ll make available.

In all honesty, it’s obvious that the only real way to investigate these areas is through a chat with an advisor or professional who has experience of computing (and specifically it’s commercial requirements.)

It’s likely that you’re a practical sort of person – a ‘hands-on’ personality type. If you’re anything like us, the world of book-reading and classrooms can be just about bared when essential, but you really wouldn’t enjoy it. So look for on-screen interactive learning packages if books just don’t do it for you.

Where we can utilise all of our senses into our learning, then we often see hugely increased memory retention as a result.

Search for a course where you’ll get a host of CD or DVD ROM’s – you’ll start with videos of instructor demonstrations, and then have the opportunity to fine-tune your skills in fully interactive practice sessions.

Every company that you look at must be pushed to demo a few examples of the materials provided for study. You should hope for instructor-led videos and a variety of interactive modules.

Select CD or DVD ROM based materials where possible. Thus avoiding all the issues associated with internet connection failure and issues with signal quality.

Often, people don’t catch on to what IT can do for us. It’s electrifying, revolutionary, and puts you at the fore-front of developments in technology that will change our world over the next few decades.

We’re only just starting to get an inclination of how technology will define our world. Technology and the web will massively alter the way we see and interact with the entire world over the coming years.

Wages in the IT sector aren’t to be ignored moreover – the typical remuneration over this country as a whole for an average IT worker is noticeably better than average salaries nationally. Chances are you’ll bring in a whole lot more than you could reasonably hope to get in other industries.

There is a great UK-wide need for trained and qualified IT technicians. In addition, as growth in the industry shows little sign of contracting, it is likely this pattern will continue for quite some time to come.

Should you be looking for certified training from Microsoft, it stands to reason you’ll want training providers to supply a large selection of the best training programs on the market today.

Maybe you’d choose to talk about career options with a person who’s got industry experience – and should you be confused, then take counsel on whereabouts in industry would work for you, dependent on your abilities and personality.

Courses should be designed to suit your ability level and skills. Hence, having got to grips with the right IT job for you, your next requirement is the most applicable training course that will get you into that job.

It’s essential to have the current Microsoft (or relevant organisation’s) authorised simulation materials and exam preparation packages.

Steer clear of depending on unauthorised exam preparation questions. The way they’re phrased can be quite different – and this leads to huge confusion in the actual examination.

Simulated exams will prove enormously valuable for confidence building – so much so, that at the real thing, you don’t get phased.

How the program is actually delivered to you is often missed by many students. How many parts is the training broken down into? And in what order and what control do you have at what pace it arrives?

You may think that it makes sense (with training often lasting 2 or 3 years for a full commercial certification,) that a training provider will issue a single section at a time, as you achieve each exam pass. However:

What would happen if you didn’t finish each and every exam at the proposed pace? Sometimes their preference of study order doesn’t work as well as some other order of studying might.

Ideally, you’d get ALL the training materials right at the beginning – meaning you’ll have all of them 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 move through the program as and when something more intuitive seems right for you.

Finding your first job in the industry is often made easier if you’re offered a Job Placement Assistance facility. The honest truth is that it isn’t so complicated as you might think to get the right work – as long as you’ve got the necessary skills and qualifications; employers in this country need your skills.

You would ideally have CV and Interview advice and support though; and we’d encourage all students to get their CV updated the day they start training – don’t delay until you’ve qualified.

You may not have got to the stage where you’ve passed your first exam when you will get your initial junior support position; but this is not possible unless you’ve posted your CV on job sites.

If it’s important to you to find work near your home, then you may well find that a local (but specialised) recruitment consultancy can generally be of more use than a centralised service, as they’re going to be familiar with local employment needs.

Just make sure you don’t conscientiously work through your course materials, and then just stop and expect somebody else to find you a job. Take responsibility for yourself and get on with the job. Put the same resource into getting your first job as it took to get qualified.

Qualifications from the commercial sector are now, most definitely, taking over from the traditional academic paths into IT – but why is this the case?

The IT sector is now aware that to cover the necessary commercial skill-sets, official accreditation from the likes of Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA is closer to the mark commercially – for much less time and money.

Of course, a reasonable amount of relevant additional knowledge must be covered, but core specialised knowledge in the particular job function gives a commercially trained person a distinct advantage.

Assuming a company knows what they’re looking for, then they simply need to advertise for the particular skill-set required. The syllabuses are set to meet an exact requirement and can’t change from one establishment to the next (like academia frequently can and does).

A+ consists of four exams and areas of study, but you only need to achieve certification in two to qualify for your A+. Because of this, many educational establishments restrict their course to just 2 areas. But allowing you to learn about all 4 options will provide you with a far deeper level of understanding of it all, something you’ll discover is vital in the working environment.

Qualifying in CompTIA A+ without additional courses will allow you to fix and maintain stand-alone PC’s and MAC’s; principally ones that aren’t joined to a network – essentially the domestic or small business sector.

If you would like to be the kind of individual who works in a multi-faceted environment – fixing and supporting networks, you should include CompTIA Network+ to your training package, or consider the Microsoft networking route (MCSA – MCSE) because it’s necessary to have a wider knowledge of the way networks work.

Getting into your first IT role can be a little easier if you’re offered a Job Placement Assistance service. But don’t place too much emphasis on it – it’s quite easy for companies marketing departments to overplay it. At the end of the day, the huge shortage of staff in the UK is what will make you attractive to employers.

Having said that, it’s important to have help and assistance with preparing a CV and getting interviews though; and we’d encourage all students to update their CV the day they start training – don’t wait till you’ve finished your exams.

It’s not uncommon to find that junior support jobs have been bagged by students who’re still on their course and haven’t even passed a single exam yet. This will at least get you on your way.

Generally, a local IT focused recruitment consultancy (who will get paid commission to place you) will perform better than any sector of a centralised training facility. They should, of course, also be familiar with the area and local employers better.

Fundamentally, if you put the same amount of effort into getting your first IT position as into studying, you’re not going to hit many challenges. Some men and women strangely put hundreds of hours into their learning program and do nothing more once qualified and appear to be under the impression that jobs will come to them.

A question; why is it better to gain commercially accredited qualifications rather than the usual academic qualifications taught at the state educational establishments?

With university education costs spiralling out of control, alongside the IT sector’s recognition that corporate based study most often has much more commercial relevance, we’ve seen a big surge in CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA accredited training courses that create knowledgeable employees at a fraction of the cost and time involved.

In essence, only that which is required is learned. It’s slightly more broad than that, but the most important function is always to focus on the exact skills required (including a degree of required background) – without going into too much detail in everything else – in the way that academic establishments often do.

Think about if you were the employer – and your company needed a person with some very particular skills. What should you do: Pore through reams of different degrees and college qualifications from graduate applicants, trying to establish what they know and which vocational skills they have, or select a specialised number of commercial certifications that precisely match your needs, and then select who you want to interview from that. You’ll then be able to concentrate on getting a feel for the person at interview – rather than establishing whether they can do a specific task.

Beginning from the idea that it’s necessary to locate the area of most interest first and foremost, before we can even weigh up what training course meets that requirement, how can we choose the correct route?

As having no commercial skills in Information Technology, in what way could we be expected to know what a particular job actually consists of?

Arriving at any kind of right answer only comes via a methodical examination of several changing areas:

* Your individual personality as well as your interests – the sort of work-related things please or frustrate you.

* Is your focus to obtain training for a particular motive – e.g. are you pushing to work based at home (self-employment possibly?)?

* What are your thoughts on salary vs the travel required?

* Because there are so many markets to choose from in computing – you will have to achieve some background information on what separates them.

* Having a good look at what commitment and time that you’re going to put into it.

To be honest, your only option to investigate these matters is through a chat with an advisor or professional that understands Information Technology (as well as it’s commercial needs.)

Many commercial training providers only provide basic 9am till 6pm support (maybe a little earlier or later on certain days); It’s rare to find someone who offers late evening or full weekend cover.

Don’t accept training courses that only support you with an out-sourced call-centre message system after 6-9pm in the evening and during weekends. Companies will defend this with all kinds of excuses. Essentially – you want to be supported when you need the help – not when it’s convenient for them.

The best trainers use multiple support centres around the globe in several time-zones. They use an online interactive interface to seamlessly link them all together, any time of the day or night, help is just seconds away, with no hassle or contact issues.

If you fail to get yourself online 24×7 support, you’ll quickly find yourself regretting it. It may be that you don’t use it during late nights, but consider weekends, early mornings or late evenings.