These days, many workplaces couldn’t function properly if it weren’t for support workers fixing networks and computers, while advising users on a day to day basis. Because of the multifaceted levels of technology, growing numbers of trained staff are required to specialise in the various different areas we rely on.
A lot of training providers will only provide basic 9am till 6pm support (maybe a little earlier or later on certain days); not many go late into the evening (after 8-9pm) or cover weekends properly.
You’ll be waiting ages for an answer with email based support, and phone support is often to a call-centre which will just take down the issue and email it over to their technical team – who’ll call back sometime over the next 1-3 days, when it suits them. This is not a lot of use if you’re stuck with a particular problem and have a one hour time-slot in which to study.
If you look properly, you’ll find the top providers which provide their students direct-access support 24×7 – even in the middle of the night.
If you accept anything less than support round-the-clock, you’ll end up kicking yourself. It may be that you don’t use it late at night, but you’re bound to use weekends, late evenings or early mornings.
It’s important to understand: the training program or a certification is not what you’re looking for; the particular job you’re training for is. Far too many training organisations put too much weight in the piece of paper.
Avoid becoming part of the group who choose a training program that sounds really ‘interesting’ and ‘fun’ – and end up with a certification for a career they’ll never really get any satisfaction from.
It’s essential to keep your focus on where you want to get to, and create a learning-plan from that – not the other way round. Stay focused on the end-goal – making sure you’re training for something you’ll still be enjoying many years from now.
We’d recommend you seek advice from a professional advisor before making your final decision on some particular study program, so there’s little doubt that the specific package will give the skill-set required for your career choice.
How can job security truly exist anymore? Here in the UK, where industry can change its mind whenever it suits, there doesn’t seem much chance.
In actuality, security now only emerges in a fast rising market, driven by a lack of trained workers. It’s this shortage that creates the right conditions for a secure marketplace – definitely a more pleasing situation.
The IT skills-gap in the United Kingdom is standing at approximately twenty six percent, according to the most recent e-Skills survey. That means for each four job positions existing across computing, we have only 3 certified professionals to fulfil that role.
Accomplishing proper commercial computing certification is consequently a fast-track to achieve a life-long and rewarding living.
In reality, acquiring professional IT skills as you progress through the next year or two is probably the greatest career choice you could ever make.
Sometimes men and women assume that the state educational system is still the most effective. So why are commercially accredited qualifications beginning to overtake it?
With a growing demand for specific technological expertise, industry has moved to the specialised core-skills learning only available through the vendors themselves – in other words companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA. This usually turns out to involve less time and financial outlay.
Academic courses, for example, become confusing because of a great deal of loosely associated study – with much too broad a syllabus. Students are then held back from understanding the specific essentials in enough depth.
Just as the old advertisement said: ‘It does what it says on the tin’. Employers simply need to know where they have gaps, and then match up the appropriate exam numbers as a requirement. They’ll know then that all applicants can do what they need.
(C) 2009 Scott Edwards. Try Flash Training or CLICK HERE.
