by June 4th, 2009. Filed under: Uncategorized.
Currently in the UK, commercial institutions could not function efficiently without assistance from support workers mending networks and computers, while recommending solutions to users each and every day. The need for better qualified personnel multiplies, as we turn out to be vastly more reliant on computers in the twenty first century.
Listening to the sheer volume of debate on the area of IT at present, how do we know what exactly to look for?
Make sure you don’t get caught-up, like so many people do, on the training course itself. 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 a terrible situation, but a large percentage of students kick-off study that often sounds wonderful in the marketing materials, but which provides a job that doesn’t fulfil at all. Speak to a selection of university students for examples.
You’ll want to understand what expectations industry may have of you. Which precise accreditations you’ll be required to have and how to gain experience. It’s also worth spending time considering how far you wish to progress your career as it will often affect your choice of certifications. Our recommendation would be to seek guidance and advice from a skilled advisor before embarking on some particular training programme, so you can be sure that the specific package will give the appropriate skill-set.
You have to be sure that all your exams are what employers want - don’t bother with programmes which end up with a useless in-house certificate or plaque. From an employer’s perspective, only the major heavyweights like Microsoft, CompTIA, Adobe or Cisco (as an example) really carry any commercial clout. Nothing else will cut the mustard.
Often, trainers provide piles of reference manuals and workbooks. This isn’t very interesting and not really conducive to remembering. Long-term memory is enhanced when we use multiple senses - learning experts have been saying this for many years.
Find a course where you’re provided with an array of CD and DVD ROM’s - you’ll begin by watching videos of instructors demonstrating the skills, and be able to hone your abilities through virtual lab’s. Don’t take any chances and look at some examples of the kind of training materials you’ll be using before you hand over your cheque. The minimum you should expect would be instructor-led video demonstrations and a variety of audio-visual and interactive sections.
You’ll find that many companies will only provide purely on-line training; and although this is okay the majority of the time, imagine the problems if you lose your internet access or you get intermittent problems and speed issues. A safer solution is the provision of actual CD or DVD ROMs that will solve that problem.
Most training providers will only provide basic 9am till 6pm support (maybe a little earlier or later on certain days); very few go late in the evening or at weekends. Beware of institutions who use messaging services ‘out-of-hours’ - with the call-back coming in during office hours. This is no use if you’re stuck and want support there and then.
Be on the lookout for training schools that incorporate three or four individual support centres across multiple time-zones. Each one should be integrated to provide a single interface and also access round-the-clock, when you need it, with no hassle. Always pick a training company that gives this level of learning support. Only true 24×7 round-the-clock live support delivers what is required.
Review the following points very carefully if you’re inclined to think the sales ploy of an ‘Exam Guarantee’ sounds great value:
Everyone knows they’re ultimately paying for it - it’s not so hard to see that it’s been added into the gross price invoiced by the training provider. It’s certainly not free (although some people will believe anything the marketing companies think up these days!) Passing first time is everyone’s goal. Taking your exams progressively when it’s appropriate and paying for them just before taking them puts you in a much stronger position to qualify at the first attempt - you revise thoroughly and think carefully about the costs.
Don’t you think it’s more sensible to not pay up-front, but at the appropriate time, rather than coughing up months or even a year or two in advance to the training company, and to do it in a local testing office - instead of miles away at the college’s beck and call? Many questionable training colleges secure a great deal of profit because they’re getting paid for all the exam fees up-front then hoping you won’t see them all through. Remember, with most ‘Exam Guarantees’ - they control when and how often you can re-take the exam. Subsequent exam attempts are only authorised at the company’s say so.
Paying maybe a thousand pounds extra on ‘Exam Guarantees’ is foolish - when study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will get you through.
Qualifications from the commercial sector are now, very visibly, beginning to replace the traditional academic paths into the industry - so why is this? With a growing demand for specific technological expertise, industry has had to move to specific, honed-in training only available through the vendors themselves - that is companies like Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA. Frequently this is at a far reduced cost both money and time wise. Academic courses, for example, often get bogged down in a lot of background study - with much too broad a syllabus. This prevents a student from getting enough specific knowledge about the core essentials.
The bottom line is: Authorised IT qualifications tell an employer precisely what skills you have - the title is a complete giveaway: for example, I am a ‘Microsoft Certified Professional’ in ‘Planning and Maintaining a Windows 2003 Infrastructure’. Therefore companies can look at the particular needs they have and what certifications will be suitable to deal with those needs.
At times individuals don’t catch on to what information technology is doing for all of us. It is electrifying, revolutionary, and means you’re working on technology that will affect us all over the next generation. We are really only just starting to understand how this will truly impact our way of life. How we communicate and interact with everyone around us will be profoundly affected by technology and the internet.
If making decent money is up there on your wish list, then you will welcome the news that the usual remuneration for IT employees in general is significantly greater than salaries in the rest of the economy. Experts agree that there’s a significant UK-wide need for trained and qualified IT technicians. In addition, as growth in the industry shows little sign of contracting, it appears this pattern will continue for the significant future.
Filed under: Uncategorized
