Computer and network support workers are more and more sought after in the United Kingdom, as businesses are becoming more reliant upon their knowledge and skills. The world’s hunger for the above mentioned people is growing at an impressive rate, as everything becomes more and more computer dependent.
Many people question why qualifications from colleges and universities are being overtaken by more commercially accredited qualifications?
The IT sector is of the opinion that for mastery of skill sets for commercial use, official accreditation from companies such as Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe most often has much more specialised relevance – saving time and money.
In a nutshell, only that which is required is learned. It isn’t quite as lean as that might sound, but the principle remains that students need to cover the precise skills needed (including a degree of required background) – without trying to cram in everything else (as universities often do).
As long as an employer knows what work they need doing, then they just need to look for someone with a specific qualification. The syllabuses are set to exacting standards and can’t change from one establishment to the next (as academic syllabuses often do).
It can be a nerve-racking task, but landing your first job can be relieved by some companies, via a Job Placement Assistance service. Often, too much is made of this feature, as it is actually not that hard for a well trained and motivated person to secure work in IT – because there’s a great need for trained staff.
Nevertheless, don’t wait till you have passed your final exams before bringing your CV up to date. The day you start training, mark down what you’re doing and place it on jobsites!
A good number of junior support jobs have been bagged by people who are still learning and have yet to take their exams. This will at least get your CV into the ‘possible’ pile and not the ‘no’ pile.
If you’d like to keep travelling time and costs to a minimum, then you’ll probably find that a specialist independent regional recruitment consultant or service can generally work much better for you than a national service, because they’re far more likely to know the local job scene.
Essentially, if you put as much hard work into getting a position as into training, you’re not likely to experience problems. A number of trainees strangely invest a great deal of time on their learning program and just give up once they’ve got certified and seem to expect employers to find them.
You should only consider retraining paths that grow into commercially approved accreditations. There are way too many minor schools promoting unknown ‘in-house’ certificates which are worthless when it comes to finding a job.
If your certification doesn’t come from a big-hitter like Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco or CompTIA, then it’s likely it will be commercially useless – because it won’t give an employer any directly-useable skills.
Always expect the current Microsoft (or Cisco, CompTIA etc.) accredited exam simulation and preparation packages.
Some students can get thrown by going through practice questions that aren’t from authorised sources. Sometimes, the phraseology can be completely unlike un-authorised versions and it’s vital that you know this.
Ensure that you verify whether you’re learning enough through tests and mock ups of exams prior to taking the actual exam.
(C) 2009 S. Edwards. Look at Microsoft Training or Network Training Courses.
I found the information on this blog handy.