Well done! Hitting upon this feature means you’re likely to be pondering over your options, and if it’s new career training you’re deliberating over you’ve already done more than almost everybody else. It’s a frightening thought that surprisingly few of us would say we are satisfied and happy at work – yet the vast majority of us won’t do a thing about it. Why not stand out from the crowd and do something – think about how you could enjoy Monday mornings.
It’s advisable to get some help before you start – talk to a knowledgeable person; an advisor who can get to the bottom of what you’ll like in a job, and work out what career tracks you may be suited to:
* Is working with other people your thing? Are you better with new people or those you know well? Perhaps you prefer not to be disturbed and enjoy responsibilities that only you know how to deal with?
* The building trade and the banking industry are none too stable today, so which sector will be best for you?
* How long a career do you hope to have once retrained, and can the industry you choose give you the confidence that will happen?
* Will the information you learn give you the chance to find new work easily, and stay employable until you wish to retire?
Prioritise Information Technology, that’s our recommendation – unusually, it’s one of the growth areas in the UK and Europe. Salaries are also more generous than most.
Incorporating examinations upfront and presenting it as a guarantee for your exams is common for a good many training companies. However, let’s consider what’s really going on:
These days, we are a little bit more aware of sales ploys – and most of us cotton on to the fact that it is something we’re paying for – it’s not because they’re so generous they want to give something away!
Those who take each progressive exam, funding them as they go are far more likely to pass first time. They’re thoughtful of their investment and revise more thoroughly to be ready for the task.
Shouldn’t you be looking to not pay up-front, but at the appropriate time, not to pay the fees marked up by the training course provider, and to take it closer to home – rather than in some remote centre?
Big margins are made by some training companies that take the exam money up-front. A number of students don’t take them for various reasons and so they pocket the rest. Surprising as it sounds, there are companies around that depend on students not taking their exams – as that’s very profitable for them.
Many training companies will require you to sit pre-tests and hold you back from re-takes until you’ve proven conclusively that you can pass – which actually leaves you with no guarantee at all.
Paying maybe a thousand pounds extra on ‘Exam Guarantees’ is naive – when consistent and systematic learning, coupled with quality exam simulation software is what will really see you through.
Many people presume that the state educational track is still the best way into IT. So why are commercially accredited qualifications becoming more in demand?
Key company training (as it’s known in the industry) is far more specialised and product-specific. The IT sector is aware that a specialist skill-set is essential to meet the requirements of an increasingly more technical commercial environment. CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA dominate in this arena.
Academic courses, for example, can often get caught up in a lot of background study – and much too wide a syllabus. This holds a student back from getting enough specific knowledge about the core essentials.
Just as the old advertisement said: ‘It does what it says on the label’. All an employer has to do is know where they have gaps, and then request applicants with the correct exam numbers. Then they’re assured that a potential employee can do exactly what’s required.
Remember: a actual training program or an accreditation isn’t the end-goal; the career that you want to end up in is. A lot of colleges seem to put too much weight in the piece of paper.
You could be training for only a year and end up doing the actual job for 10-20 years. Don’t make the error of opting for what may seem to be a program of interest to you and then put 10-20 years into an unrewarding career!
You need to keep your eye on where you want to go, and create a learning-plan from that – don’t do it back-to-front. Stay focused on the end-goal – making sure you’re training for something you’ll enjoy for years to come.
You’d also need help from someone that understands the market you think may suit you, and will be able to provide ‘A typical day in the life of’ explanation for each job considered. This really is very important because you need to know whether or not you’ve chosen correctly.
Finding job security in this economic down-turn is very rare. Businesses frequently drop us out of the workforce at the drop of a hat – as and when it suits them.
In actuality, security now only emerges via a fast rising market, fuelled by a shortage of trained workers. It’s this alone that creates the appropriate environment for market-security – definitely a more pleasing situation.
Offering the computer market for instance, the most recent e-Skills analysis showed a skills gap throughout the United Kingdom around the 26 percent mark. Basically, we can only fill just three out of each four job positions in Information Technology (IT).
This basic notion shows an urgent requirement for more appropriately qualified computing professionals around the United Kingdom.
Undoubtedly, now, more than ever, really is a fabulous time for retraining into the IT industry.
(C) S. Edwards 2009. Visit This Site or DatabaseTrainingUK.co.uk.
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