IT Career Courses
Should you be looking for Microsoft certified training, it stands to reason you’ll want companies to provide a wide range of the finest training courses currently available. Maybe you’d choose to find advisors with experience of the IT industry, who can offer guidance on what sort of job would suit you, and what sort of tasks are suitable for someone with a personality like yours. When you’ve settled on the job you’d like to get into, an appropriate course has to be singled out that’s a match for your current skills and aptitude. This can be personally tailored for your needs.
Apparently, the IT market shows exceptional prospects. But, to arm ourselves with the correct information, what questions do we need to be posing, and which elements are the most important?
A ridiculously large number of organisations only look at the plaque to hang on your wall, and forget the reasons for getting there – getting yourself a new job or career. Always start with the final destination in mind – too many people focus on the journey. Imagine training for just one year and then end up doing the actual job for 10-20 years. Avoid the mistake of finding what seems like an ‘interesting’ training program only to spend 20 years doing something you don’t even enjoy! You also need to know your leanings around earning potential, career development, and how ambitious you are. It’s vital to know what (if any) sacrifices you’ll need to make for a particular role, which particular certifications are required and in what way you can develop commercial experience. Before setting out on a learning programme, you’d be well advised to discuss specific career needs with an experienced industry professional, in order to be sure the retraining program covers all that is required.
It only makes sense to consider study programs which grow into commercially acknowledged exams. There are loads of minor schools promoting unknown ‘in-house’ certificates that are essentially useless in the real world. Unless your qualification is issued by a conglomerate such as Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe, then you’ll probably find it will be commercially useless – as no-one will have heard of it.
Most training companies will only provide support available from 9-6 (office hours) and sometimes later on specific days; It’s rare to find someone who offers late evening or full weekend cover. Never accept training that only supports trainees via a call-centre messaging system after 6-9pm in the evening and during weekends. Training schools will give you every excuse in the book why you don’t need this. Essentially – support is needed when it’s needed – not at times when they find it cheaper to provide it. The most successful trainers have many support offices active in different time-zones. They use an online interactive interface to seamlessly link them all together; any time of the day or night – help is at hand without any contact issues or hassle. Don’t ever make the mistake of taking second best with the quality of your support. The majority of trainees who can’t get going properly, are in that situation because they didn’t get the support necessary for them.
Often, trainers provide a big box of books. This can be very boring and not ideal for studying effectively. Memory is vastly improved when all our senses are brought into the mix – educational experts have expounded on this for many years. Find a course where you’ll receive a library of CD and DVD based materials – you’ll begin by watching videos of instructors demonstrating the skills, and then have the opportunity to use virtual lab’s to practice your new skills. It’s wise to view examples of the courseware provided before you sign the purchase order. The minimum you should expect would be videoed instructor demonstrations and a variety of audio-visual and interactive sections. Often, companies will only use purely on-line training; sometimes you can get away with this – but, imagine the problems if you lose your internet access or you get a slow connection speed. It’s much safer to rely on physical CD or DVD discs which don’t suffer from these broadband issues.
Exam ‘guarantees’ are sometimes offered as part of a training package – inevitably that means paying for the exams when you pay for the rest of your course. However, prior to embracing the chance of a guarantee, be aware of the facts: These days, we are a tad more knowledgeable about sales gimmicks – and the majority of us ought to realise that of course we’re actually paying for it (it’s not a freebie because they like us so much!) Passing first time is everyone’s goal. Taking your exams progressively when it’s appropriate and funding them as you go sees you much better placed to get through first time – you prepare appropriately and are mindful of the investment you’ve made. Do the examinations as locally as possible and don’t pay up-front, but seek out the best deal for you when you’re ready. Considerable numbers of questionable training providers make huge amounts of money through getting in the money for examinations upfront and hoping you won’t see them all through. Many training companies will require you to sit pre-tests and hold you back from re-takes until you’ve demonstrated an excellent ability to pass – so an ‘Exam Guarantee’ comes with many clauses in reality. Splashing out often many hundreds of pounds extra on ‘Exam Guarantees’ is remiss – when a commitment to studying and the use of authorised exam preparation tools is what will really guarantee success.
Now, why is it better to gain commercially accredited qualifications and not more traditional academic qualifications taught at the state educational establishments? With 3 and 4 year academic degree costs increasing year on year, and the industry’s recognition that key company training often has more relevance in the commercial field, there’s been a large rise in Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA authorised training programmes that provide key skills to an employee at a far reduced cost both money and time wise. Higher education courses, for example, become confusing because of a lot of loosely associated study – with a syllabus that’s far too wide. This prevents a student from getting enough specific knowledge about the core essentials. Think about if you were the employer – and you needed to take on someone with a very particular skill-set. What is easier: Trawl through loads of academic qualifications from various applicants, asking for course details and what commercial skills have been attained, or choose particular accreditations that specifically match what you’re looking for, and make your short-list from that. Your interviews are then about personal suitability – instead of long discussions on technical suitability.
We’d all like to believe that our jobs are safe and the future is protected, but the growing likelihood for most jobs in England at the moment seems to be that security may be a thing of the past. Of course, a quickly growing market-place, where staff are in constant demand (because of a massive shortfall of fully trained people), creates the conditions for real job security. The Information Technology (IT) skills deficit around Great Britain currently stands at over 26 percent, as reported by the latest e-Skills study. It follows then that for each 4 job positions that exist across Information Technology (IT), organisations can only find trained staff for 3 of them. This single reality on its own highlights why the country desperately needs considerably more workers to get trained and enter the IT industry. Because the IT sector is developing at the speed it is, it’s unlikely there’s any better sector worth considering for a new future.
