With so many computer training courses to be had, it’s not always easy to find the right one. Go for one that’s in line with your personality and your level of ability, and that will be a useful asset commercially.
Should you be considering advancing your technological abilities, maybe with some office user skills, or even becoming an IT professional, your study options are plentiful.
By concentrating on service and delivery, there are training providers today supplying modern courses that have great quality training and guidance for considerably less money than is asked for by old-school colleges.
Considering how a program is ‘delivered’ to you is often missed by many students. In what way are your training elements sectioned? What is the specific order and do you have a say in when you’ll get each part?
Training companies will normally offer a program typically taking 1-3 years, and courier the materials in pieces as you complete each section or exam. On the surface this seems reasonable – until you consider the following:
What happens when you don’t complete all the sections or exams? Maybe the prescribed order won’t suit you? Through no fault of your own, you may not meet the required timescales and not get all the study materials as a result.
Truth be told, the very best answer is to get an idea of what they recommend as an ideal study order, but get all the study materials at the start. You then have everything in the event you don’t complete everything at their required pace.
So, why should we consider commercial certification rather than the usual academic qualifications taught at tech’ colleges and universities?
Industry now recognises that for mastery of skill sets for commercial use, official accreditation from such organisations as CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA most often has much more specialised relevance – at a far reduced cost both money and time wise.
They do this by honing in on the particular skills that are needed (together with an appropriate level of background knowledge,) instead of going into the heightened depths of background ‘extras’ that degree courses are prone to get tied up in (because the syllabus is so wide).
Put yourself in the employer’s position – and your company needed a person with some very particular skills. What is easier: Wade your way through reams of different degrees and college qualifications from various applicants, trying to establish what they know and which vocational skills they’ve acquired, or select a specialised number of commercial certifications that exactly fulfil your criteria, and draw up from that who you want to speak to. Your interviews are then about personal suitability – instead of having to work out if they can do the job.
Of all the important things to consider, one of the most essential is always 24×7 round-the-clock support via expert mentors and instructors. So many companies we come across only provide support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later (but not weekends usually).
Look for training where you can receive help at all hours of the day and night (even 1am on Sunday morning!) Make sure it’s always direct-access to qualified mentors and tutors, and not access to a call-in service which takes messages – so you’re constantly waiting for a call-back during office hours.
The most successful trainers have many support offices across multiple 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, without any problems or delays.
Find a training company that is worth purchasing from. Because only live 24×7 round-the-clock support provides the necessary backup.
It would be wonderful to believe that our jobs will remain secure and our work prospects are protected, but the growing likelihood for the majority of jobs in the UK currently seems to be that there is no security anymore.
In times of rising skills deficits coupled with high demand areas though, we always find a new kind of market-security; as fuelled by the conditions of constant growth, companies find it hard to locate enough staff.
The Information Technology (IT) skills-gap across the UK falls in at approximately twenty six percent, as noted by the most recent e-Skills study. Therefore, for each 4 job positions that exist throughout the computer industry, organisations are only able to find trained staff for 3 of them.
This one truth on its own is the backbone of why the UK urgently requires many more trainees to become part of the IT sector.
Because the IT sector is increasing at such a quick pace, could there honestly be a better area of industry worth investigating for your new career.
(C) S. Edwards 2009. Try Click HERE or Which Career.
