Finding the right training course to match commercial requirements is essential in these uncertain times. But it's just as crucial to select a course that you'll enjoy, that suits your personality and abilities. Whether you're looking for Microsoft Office skills, or want to advance your career and attain IT qualifications at a professional level, there are plain-speaking courses and back-up to help you achieve your goals.
By reducing overhead structures, there are now companies offering contemporary courses with excellent training and guidance for a fraction of the prices charged by traditional establishments.
Commercially accredited qualifications are now, undoubtedly, beginning to replace the more academic tracks into the IT industry - why then has this come about? As demand increases for knowledge about more and more complex technology, the IT sector has had to move to specialist courses that the vendors themselves supply - for example companies like Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA. Frequently this is at a far reduced cost both money and time wise. The training is effectively done through honing in on the skills that are really needed (along with a relevant amount of related knowledge,) instead of going into the heightened depths of background 'padding' that degrees in computing often do - to pad out the syllabus.
What if you were an employer - and you required somebody who had very specific skills. What should you do: Pore through reams of different degrees and college qualifications from graduate applicants, asking for course details and what trade skills they've acquired, or select a specialised number of commercial certifications that perfectly fit your needs, and make your short-list from that. You'll then be able to concentrate on getting a feel for the person at interview - rather than establishing whether they can do a specific task.
One thing you must always insist on is 24x7 round-the-clock support from trained professional instructors and mentors. It's an all too common story to find providers that will only offer a basic 9am till 6pm support period (maybe later on certain days) with very little availability over the weekend. Beware of institutions that use 'out-of-hours' messaging systems - where you'll get called back during standard office hours. It's not a lot of help when you've got study issues and could do with an answer during your scheduled study period.
World-class organisations opt for an internet-based 24 hours-a-day system involving many support centres from around the world. You will be provided with a simple environment which seamlessly accesses whichever office is appropriate at any time of day or night: Support available as-and-when you want it. Don't accept second best when it comes to your support. Most IT hopefuls who drop-out or fail, are in that situation because of a lack of support.
A service that several companies offer is a Job Placement Assistance program. This is to help you get your first commercial position. With the growing shortage of skills in the UK today, it's not necessary to get too caught up in this feature though. It's actually not as hard as some people make out to secure a job once you're well trained and qualified.
Nevertheless, don't leave it until you have finished your training before updating your CV. The day you start training, mark down what you're doing and place it on jobsites! You may not have got to the stage where you've taken your exams when you land your first junior support role; although this is not possible if your CV isn't in front of employers. The top companies to help get you placed are most often specialist locally based employment services. As they will get paid by the employer when they've placed you, they have the necessary incentive to try that bit harder.
A constant grievance of various course providers is how much trainees are focused on studying to get qualified, but how little effort that student will then put into getting the position they're acquired skills for. Get out there and hustle - you might find it's fun.
Finding job security these days is very unusual. Businesses will throw us from the workforce at a moment's notice - whenever it suits. In times of escalating skills shortfalls mixed with escalating demand though, we always hit upon a newly emerging type of security in the marketplace; driven forward by conditions of continuous growth, organisations find it hard to locate enough staff.
The computer industry skills-gap around the country currently stands at roughly 26 percent, according to the latest e-Skills survey. Showing that for every 4 jobs that exist across computing, we've only got three properly trained pro's to do them. Highly taught and commercially grounded new staff are therefore at a complete premium, and it looks like they will be for much longer. It's unlikely if a better time or market circumstances is ever likely to exist for getting trained into this swiftly increasing and blossoming industry.
Frequently, your typical person has no idea what way to go about starting in Information Technology, let alone which sector to focus their retraining program on. Working through long lists of different and confusing job titles is just a waste of time. The vast majority of us have no concept what our good friends do at work - so what chance do we have in understanding the complexities of a particular IT career. Ultimately, the right answer will only come through a careful study of many altering areas:
* The type of personality you have and interests - the sort of working tasks you like and dislike.
* Why you're looking at stepping into the IT industry - it could be you're looking to overcome some personal goal such as self-employment for example.
* What salary and timescale requirements that are important to you?
* Some students don't fully understand the amount of work involved to gain all the necessary accreditation.
* You need to take in what is different for each individual training area.
Ultimately, the best way of understanding everything necessary is via an in-depth discussion with an experienced advisor that has enough background to provide solid advice.
