If we didn’t have a constant influx of well educated PC and network support workers, commercial enterprise in Great Britain (as elsewhere) would inevitably grind to a halt. We have a huge demand for technicians to support both users and the systems they work with. The need for larger numbers of skilled and qualified individuals grows, as human beings become vastly more reliant on PC’s in the modern world.

With so much talk on the area of IT these days, how are we supposed to appreciate what in particular to look for?

A expert and specialised advisor (vs a salesperson) will cover in some detail your abilities and experience. This is paramount to understanding the starting point for your education. Often, the training start-point for a student with experience is often vastly different to someone just starting out. Always consider starting with a user-skills course first. It will usually make the transition to higher-level learning a much easier going.

A study programme has to build towards a nationally (or globally) recognised exam as an end-result - not some little ‘in-house’ diploma - fit only for filing away and forgetting. If your certification doesn’t come from a major player like Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco or CompTIA, then chances are it won’t be commercially viable - because no-one will recognise it.

We can guess that you’re a practical sort of person - the ‘hands-on’ individual. Usually, the painful task of reading endless manuals is something you’ll make yourself do if you have to, but it doesn’t suit your way of doing things. You should use video and multimedia based materials if learning from books is not your thing. Our ability to remember is increased when we use multiple senses - learning experts have been saying this for as long as we can remember.

Find a course where you’ll receive a library of DVD-ROM’s - you’ll be learning from instructor videos and demo’s, followed by the chance to fine-tune your skills in fully interactive practice sessions. You must ensure that you see courseware examples from any company that you may want to train through. It’s essential they incorporate instructor-led video demonstrations with virtual practice-lab’s.

Purely on-line training should be avoided. Physical CD or DVD ROM materials are preferable where offered, enabling them to be used at your convenience - ISP quality varies, so you don’t want to be totally reliant on a good broadband connection all the time.

Proper support should never be taken lightly - locate a good company providing 24×7 full access, as not obtaining this level of support will severely impede your ability to learn. Many only provide email support (too slow), and phone support is often to a call-centre which will chat nicely with you for 5 minutes to ask what the issue is and then simply send an email to an instructor - who will then call back sometime over the next 24hrs, when it suits them. This is not a lot of use if you’re sitting there confused over an issue and have a one hour time-slot in which to study.

We recommend looking for colleges that use several support centres across multiple time-zones. All of them should be combined to give a single entry point and also 24 hours-a-day access, when it’s convenient for you, without any problems. Don’t compromise when you’re looking for the right support service. Most students that drop-out or fail, are in that situation because of a lack of support.

It’s not uncommon for companies to offer inclusive exam guarantees - they always involve paying for the exam fees up-front, at the start of your training. Before you jump at the chance of a guarantee, look at the following:

Thankfully, today we tend to be a tad more knowledgeable about sales gimmicks - and the majority of us ought to realise that of course it is actually an additional cost to us - they’re not just being charitable and doling out freebies! Evidence shows that if students pay for each examination, one after the other, there’s a much better chance they’ll get through on the first attempt - since they’ll be conscious of the cost and will therefore apply themselves appropriately.

Do your exams somewhere local and go for the best offer you can find when you’re ready. Considerable numbers of current training course providers make big margins because they’re charging for exam fees early then hoping that you won’t take them all. It’s also worth noting that exam guarantees often have very little value. Many training companies won’t be prepared to pay again for an exam until you have demonstrated conclusively that you won’t fail again.

Splashing out often many hundreds of pounds extra on an ‘Exam Guarantee’ is short-sighted - when study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will really see you through.

Commercial certification is now, undoubtedly, taking over from the older academic routes into the industry - but why is this? With fees and living expenses for university students increasing year on year, alongside the industry’s recognition that vendor-based training often has more relevance in the commercial field, there’s been a great increase in Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe accredited training routes that supply key solutions to a student for considerably less. Many degrees, for example, can often get caught up in a great deal of loosely associated study - and much too wide a syllabus. This holds a student back from understanding the specific essentials in enough depth.

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty: Accredited IT qualifications tell an employer precisely what skills you have - it says what you do in the title: for example, I am a ‘Microsoft Certified Professional’ in ‘Planning and Maintaining a Windows 2003 Infrastructure’. Therefore an employer can identify just what their needs are and which qualifications will be suitable to deal with those needs.

Being a part of progressive developments in new technology is about as exciting as it can get. You personally play your part in shaping the next few decades. We are really only just starting to comprehend how all this change will affect us. The way we interrelate with the rest of the world will be significantly affected by technology and the internet.

And keep in mind that the average salary in the IT sector in Great Britain is a lot more than remuneration packages in other industries, so you will more than likely earn a lot more as a trained IT professional, than you’d get in most other industries. It’s no secret that there is a significant country-wide need for trained and qualified IT technicians. In addition, with the constant growth in the marketplace, it seems this will be the case for a good while yet.

Tags: Online Colleges

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