Good for you! As you’re reading this article we guess you must be considering retraining for a new career - that puts you way ahead of the crowd. Very few of us are satisfied with our careers, but no action is ever taken. Why not be one of a small number who take responsibility for their future.
We’d strongly advise that prior to beginning any individual training program, you chat with an expert who has knowledge of the industry and can point you in the right direction. Such a person will go through personality profiling with you and assist in finding the right role for you:
* Do you like working on your own or perhaps being around others is an important option?
* Are you thinking carefully about which industry you would be suited to? (These days, it’s more important than ever to be selective.)
* Is this the last time you envisage re-training, and if so, will this new career give you scope to do that?
* Do you have niggles about the chance of getting another job, and being gainfully employed right up to retirement?
We would advise you to have a good look at the IT industry - there are more positions than employees, plus it’s one of the few choices of career where the market sector is still growing. Contrary to the opinions of certain people, IT is not full of nerdy individuals lost in their PC’s every day (though those jobs exist.) Most positions are done by average folk who enjoy a very nice lifestyle due to better than average wages.
Commercial certification is now, undoubtedly, taking over from the more academic tracks into the IT sector - why then has this come about? With 3 and 4 year academic degree costs increasing year on year, alongside the industry’s increasing awareness that corporate based study often has more relevance in the commercial field, we’ve seen a great increase in CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA certified training paths that educate students at a fraction of the cost and time involved. Academic courses, as a example, often get bogged down in a lot of background study - with a syllabus that’s far too wide. This holds a student back from learning the core essentials in sufficient depth.
Assuming a company understands what work they need doing, then all they have to do is advertise for someone with a specific qualification. Syllabuses are set to meet an exact requirement and aren’t allowed to deviate (in the way that degree courses can).
Make sure you don’t get caught-up, like so many people do, on the accreditation program. Training for training’s sake is generally pointless; you should be geared towards the actual job at the end of it. Begin and continue with the end in mind. It’s quite usual, in many cases, to get a great deal of enjoyment from a year of study but end up spending 10 or 20 years in something completely unrewarding, entirely because you stumbled into it without the correct level of soul-searching when it was needed - at the start.
You’ll want to understand what industry will expect from you. What particular exams they’ll want you to gain and how to gain experience. You should also spend a little time considering how far you think you’ll want to go as it will affect your choice of accreditations. Look for advice and guidance from a skilled advisor, even if you have to pay - as it’s a lot cheaper and safer to investigate at the start if a chosen track will suit, rather than realise after several years of study that the job you’ve chosen is not for you and now need to go back to square one.
Many training providers still use the rather old-fashioned idea of classroom attendance. Quite often pushed as a positive point, after discussion with someone who has first-hand experience, you’ll find them listing some or all of the following problems:
* Regular travelling - 100’s of miles usually.
* If, like many of us, you work, then weekday events cause problems at work. More than likely you will be contending with several days in a row too.
* And don’t ignore the lost vacation days. We typically get four weeks vacation allowance. If over 50 percent is used in classes, then we aren’t going to be doing much vacationing.
* Workshops sometimes become quickly full, giving us the only option of the ‘2nd best’ solution.
* The ‘pace’ - classes usually contain students of mixed skill, so tension develops between the quicker-learners and those who want to go a little slower.
* The cost of travel - driving to the training centre and of course several days bed and breakfast can really add up with each visit. Assuming just an average of 5 to 10 classes at a cost of 35 pounds for one night’s accommodation, plus 40 pounds petrol and 15 pounds for food, that becomes a minimum of four to nine hundred pounds of hidden costs on top.
* Study privacy can be very important to most attendees. You don’t want to sacrifice potential advancement, pay-rises or accomplishment with your current employer just because you’re retraining. When your boss discovers that you’re undertaking certification in a different industry, what are they going to be thinking?
* Raising questions in the presence of other class-mates will sometimes make us a little awkward. Have you ever left a question un-asked because you honestly thought you might seem thick?
* Working and living away - some students find they have to work or live somewhere else for certain parts of the programme. Classes end up being very difficult then, but the monies have already been handed over with your initial fees.
A more flexible training route is to make use of videoed lessons at home, in comfort - and do it when it’s convenient to you - not some other person. If anything comes up, use the provided 24×7 live support (that should come with any technical program.) You should remember, if you have a notebook PC, you could study in breaks at work. Repeat any modules if you need to - memory is aided by repetition. And no worrying about keeping up with note-taking either - everything’s laid on for you. The final upshot: Reduced hassle, more money in the bank, and you’ve got no travelling to do.