Does an MCSE appeal to you? If the answer’s ‘yes’, there’s a good chance that you’re in one of two situations: You’re someone with a certain amount of knowledge and you should formalise your skills with an MCSE. Instead this could be your first step into commercial IT, but it’s apparent to you that there’s a growing demand for men and women who are commercially qualified.
As you try to find out more, you will notice colleges that compromise their offerings by failing to provide the latest version from Microsoft. Steer clear of training companies like these as it will create challenges for you with the present exams. If you’re learning from an old version, it will be hard to pass. Computer training companies must be devoted to discovering the ultimate program for their trainees. Directing study is as much about helping people to work out where to go, as it is giving them help to reach their destination.
Can job security truly exist anywhere now? In the UK for example, with businesses changing their mind at alarming speeds, we’d question whether it does. In actuality, security now only emerges through a fast growing marketplace, pushed forward by a shortfall of trained staff. It’s this shortage that creates the correct environment for a secure market - a more attractive situation all round.
The Information Technology (IT) skills deficit throughout the UK clocks in at approx 26 percent, according to the 2006 e-Skills survey. To put it another way, this reveals that the country is only able to source three qualified staff for each 4 positions that exist today. Attaining full commercial Information Technology certification is therefore an effective route to succeed in a long-term and enjoyable profession. Quite simply, acquiring professional IT skills throughout the next year or two is most likely the best career choice you could ever make.
How do we reach the right decisions then? With all this potential, it’s essential to be guided as to where to dig - and of course, what to actually be digging for.
Beginning with the understanding that it’s necessary to locate the job we want to do first and foremost, before we’re even able to ponder what career development program would meet that requirement, how can we choose the correct route? How likely is it for us to understand what is involved in a particular job when it’s an alien environment to us? Most likely we haven’t met someone who performs the role either. Getting to a well-informed answer really only appears via a thorough examination of several different criteria:
* What nature of individual you are - what kind of jobs you find interesting, and on the other side of the coin - what don’t you like doing.
* Do you want to get certified for a precise reason - e.g. do you aim to work at home (maybe self-employment?)?
* Is your income higher on your priority-list than other requirements.
* Many students don’t properly consider the work needed to gain all the necessary accreditation.
* You should also think long and hard about the level of commitment you’re going to invest in your education.
For most people, sifting through each of these concepts will require meeting with an advisor that knows what they’re talking about. And we’re not only talking about the accreditations - you also need to understand the commercial needs and expectations of industry too.
Traditional teaching in classrooms, using textbooks and whiteboards, is an up-hill struggle for the majority of us. If you’re nodding as you read this, find training programs which have a majority of interactive, multimedia parts. Research into the way we learn shows that long term memory is improved when we receive multi-sensorial input, and we get practically involved in what we’re studying.
Courses are now available on CD and DVD discs, so everything is learned directly from your own PC. Video streaming means you can watch instructors demonstrating how it’s all done, and then practice yourself - with interactive lab sessions. It’s very important to see the type of training provided by any company that you may want to train through. Be sure that they contain video demo’s and interactive elements such as practice lab’s.
Go for CD and DVD ROM based physical training media wherever available. This then avoids all the potential pitfalls with the variability of broadband quality and service.
Students will sometimes miss checking on something of absolutely vital importance - how their company divides up the courseware elements, and into how many separate packages. By and large, you will purchase a course staged over 2 or 3 years and get sent one module each time you pass an exam. This sounds logical on one level, until you consider this: Maybe the order of study pushed by the company’s salespeople doesn’t suit all of us. What if you find it hard to complete each and every section within their timetable?
An ideal situation would be to have all the learning modules posted to your home before you even start; the entire package! Thus avoiding any future problems that could impede your capability of finishing.
One of the most important things to insist on has to be 24×7 round-the-clock support through professional mentors and instructors. It’s an all too common story to find providers that only seem to want to help while they’re in the office (9am till 6pm, Monday till Friday usually) and nothing at the weekends. Beware of institutions which use call-centres ‘out-of-hours’ - where an advisor will call back during normal office hours. This is useless when you’re stuck and need an answer now.
The best trainers use multiple support centres from around the world. They use an online interactive interface to link them all seamlessly, irrespective of the time you login, help is just seconds away, without any contact issues or hassle. Seek out a company that offers this level of study support. As only true round-the-clock 24×7 support provides the necessary backup.
Exam ‘guarantees’ are sometimes offered as part of a training package - inevitably that means paying for the exams at the very beginning of your studies. Before you jump at guaranteed exams, be aware of the facts:
They’ve allowed costings for it somehow. It’s definitely not free - it’s simply been shoe-horned into the price as a whole. It’s well known in the industry that when trainees fund each progressive exam, when they’re ready to take them and not before, they will be much more likely to qualify each time - as they’ll be conscious of what they’ve paid and their application will be greater.
Why should you pay your college at the start of the course for examinations? Hold on to your money and pay for the exam when you’re ready, rather than pay marked up fees - and do it in a local testing centre - rather than possibly hours away from your area. A great deal of money is secured by many training colleges who get money upfront for exam fees. For various reasons, many students don’t take their exams and so the company is quids-in. Surprising as it sounds, there are training companies who actually rely on students not sitting all the exams - as that’s where a lot of their profit comes from. The majority of companies will require you to do mock exams and with-hold subsequent exam entries from you until you’ve completely proven that you’re likely to pass - which actually leaves you with no guarantee at all.
Exams taken at local centres are approximately 112 pounds in this country. Why spend so much more on charges for ‘Exam Guarantees’ (often covertly rolled into the cost of the course) - when good quality study materials, the proper support and a commitment to studying and the use of authorised exam preparation tools are actually the key to your success.
Be on the lookout that any exams you’re studying for will be recognised by employers and are up-to-date. The ‘in-house’ certifications provided by many companies are not normally useful in gaining employment. Unless the accreditation comes from a conglomerate such as Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco or CompTIA, then chances are it could have been a waste of time and effort - because no-one will recognise it.
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