It’s really great that you’re reading this article! A small number of workers say they enjoy their work, but a huge number simply moan about it and that’s it. As you’ve reached this page we can guess that you’ve a personal interest in re-training, which means you’re already ahead of the pack. The next step is to discover where you want to go and get going.

We suggest that you discuss your ideas first – talk to someone who’s familiar with your chosen field; an advisor who can get to the bottom of what you’ll like in a job, and offer only the learning programs which will get you there:

* Do you hope for interaction with others? If so, do you like working with the same people or are you more comfortable dealing with strangers? Alternatively, do you like to deal with your responsibilities alone?

* What’s important that you get from the industry your job is in? (Building and banking – not so stable as they once were.)

* Once you’ve qualified, are you hoping your new skills will give you the ability to see you to retirement age?

* Do you feel uncomfortable with regard to your chances of getting another job, and keeping a job to the end of your working life?

We ask you to have a good look at Information Technology – there are a larger number of jobs than people to do them, and it’s a rare career choice where the industry is on the grow. Despite what some people believe, IT isn’t all techie people gazing at their computer screens the whole day (though naturally some jobs are like that.) The vast majority of roles are occupied by ordinary people who want to earn a very good living.

In amongst the top nominees for the biggest single let-down across all IT training is a requirement to attend multiple workshop days. Many certification companies push the so-called ‘benefits’ of these classes, usually though, they end up as a burden to be carried because of:

* The amount of travel required – multiple visits and quite often 100’s of miles each time.

* For those of us that work, then Mon-Fri events represent a difficulty in getting time off. You’re usually having to deal with 2-3 days at a time as well.

* If we get 20 days holiday per year, sacrificing half of them for training events means we’ll be hard-pushed to get a holiday with our families.

* Training events fill up fast and can be very crammed in.

* Workshop pace – workshops usually consist of students of varied skill, consequently tension can run high between students with more background knowledge and the ones who need a little longer.

* Let’s not disregard the added expense of driving or bed and breakfast for the night either. This may well run to many hundreds of pounds more – sometimes thousands. Take some time to add it all up – it’ll shock and surprise you.

* We all enjoy our privacy. We don’t want to risk throwing away any potential advancement that we’re owed while we retrain.

* It’s really not that uncommon for students to hide the fact that they want to raise a question – purely because they’re with their peers.

* Living away for part of your working week – a lot of students have to work or live away for part of the program. Events are very difficult then, unfortunately the monies have already been handed over as part of your fees.

It would be better to simply watch and study with industry specialists one-to-one through pre-made modules, studying them when it suits you – not somebody else.

Training can take place wherever it suits you. If your PC is a laptop, take in some sun outside while you learn. If you have any problems then make use of the 24×7 support.

All the lessons can be repeated at any time you need to brush up – memory is aided by repetition. And note-taking is a thing of the past – it’s already laid on for you.

Could it get any simpler: No wasted time or money, travelling is avoided; and you end up with a more comfortable study setting.

Potential Students hoping to begin an IT career often have no idea of which route is best, or what area to build their qualifications around.

Because in the absence of any previous experience in the IT industry, in what way could we understand what someone in a particular job does?

Generally, the way to deal with this question appropriately flows from an in-depth talk over several different topics:

* Your hobbies and interests – as they can show the possibilities will give you the most reward.

* Do you want to obtain training for a specific reason – e.g. do you aim to work based at home (working for yourself?)?

* How highly do you rate salary – is an increase your main motivator, or is day-to-day enjoyment a lot higher on your priority-list?

* Considering the huge variation that computing covers, it’s a requirement that you can understand how they differ.

* What effort, commitment and time you’ll commit the training program.

For the average person, getting to the bottom of each of these concepts tends to require the help of a professional who can explain things properly. And we don’t just mean the qualifications – but also the commercial requirements and expectations also.

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When you decide upon a training program it’s crucial that the qualification it leads to falls in line with the needs of industry. As well as this, be sure that the program is a match for you, and is pitched at the right level.

Whether it’s office skills you’re looking to polish up on, or dream of getting professional IT certifications, there are technically advanced courses and assistance to turn your goals into reality.

By utilising modern training techniques and keeping costs to a minimum, there is a new type of course provider supplying a superior brand of teaching and assistance for hundreds of pounds less.

Does job security really exist anywhere now? Here in the UK, with industry changing its mind on a day-to-day basis, there doesn’t seem much chance.

Wherever we find growing skills deficits mixed with increasing demand however, we can discover a newer brand of market-security; as fuelled by a continual growth, companies just can’t get the number of people required.

Using the computer business for example, the 2006 e-Skills study highlighted a skills gap in Great Britain in excess of 26 percent. Accordingly, for every 4 jobs in existence in Information Technology (IT), companies can only find certified professionals for 3 of them.

This one idea alone shows why the United Kingdom urgently requires a lot more workers to get trained and enter the Information Technology market.

Without a doubt, this really is a fabulous time to join Information Technology (IT).

Incorporating exams upfront and offering an ‘Exam Guarantee’ is a popular marketing tool with a number of training colleges. However, let’s consider what’s really going on:

Obviously it’s not free – you are paying for it – it’s just been wrapped up in the price of the package.

Should you seriously need to qualify first ‘go’, then the most successful route is to pay for each exam as you go, give it the priority it deserves and give the task sufficient application.

Find the best exam deal or offer available at the appropriate time, and hang on to your cash. You’ll then be able to select where you do your exams – which means you can stay local.

What’s the point in paying early for exams when there was no need to? Huge profits are secured by training companies charging upfront for all their exams – and then hoping that you won’t take them all.

Remember, with most ‘Exam Guarantees’ – you are not in control of when you are allowed to have another go. You will have to demonstrate an excellent pass-rate before they’ll approve a re-take.

Spending hundreds or even thousands extra on ‘Exam Guarantees’ is remiss – when consistent and systematic learning, coupled with quality exam simulation software is actually the key to your success.

Don’t accept anything less than an accredited exam preparation programme included in your course.

Often students can find themselves confused by trying to prepare themselves with questions that aren’t recognised by the authorised examining boards. Often, the question formats and phraseology is unfamiliar and you should be prepared for this.

Be sure to have some simulated exam questions that will allow you to check your comprehension at all times. Simulations of exams add to your knowledge bank – then you won’t be quite so nervous at the actual exam.

Qualifications from the commercial sector are now, undoubtedly, beginning to replace the more academic tracks into the IT industry – so why should this be?

Vendor-based training (to use industry-speak) is far more effective and specialised. The IT sector is aware that this level of specialised understanding is what’s needed to meet the requirements of a technologically complex marketplace. Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA are the big boys in this field.

Patently, an appropriate amount of background knowledge has to be learned, but focused specialised knowledge in the exact job role gives a vendor trained student a massive advantage.

Imagine if you were an employer – and you needed to take on someone with a very particular skill-set. Which is the most straightforward: Go through loads of academic qualifications from several applicants, trying to establish what they know and what vocational skills have been attained, or choose particular accreditations that perfectly fit your needs, and draw up from that who you want to speak to. The interview is then more about the person and how they’ll fit in – instead of long discussions on technical suitability.

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We all know people who appear to breeze through life, happily moving from one triumph to the next. On the other hand, we know others who never quite make it, and always have an answer why life has dealt them a hard blow. Society is made up of victors and victims, and the difference can very often be boiled down to one key factor – attitude.

When moving in a new career direction, it’s essential to learn the habits of the victor to achieve a successful outcome. The victims attempt actions in a timid manner, hoping for good things, but never really believing they’re worthy of great things. Victors commit mentally to a successful outcome, and back their actions with emotion.

Take a couple of tennis players about to play a championship game. One says “It’s my last chance – I’ll give it my best efforts,” but the other one says “Winning is my destiny – it’s everything to me.” No prizes for guessing who’ll win the championship. They might both put in the same amount of time, but the victor spends more of it on his mental training to win.

The victim is defined by the word BED – one who stays in bed and gives up. The victor is defined by the word OAR – a figure paddling towards success. BED = Blame, Excuses and Denial. OAR = Ownership, Accountability and Responsibility.

The victor takes responsibility for his or her tasks, and doesn’t hope for someone else to lead the way. He’s accountable for his actions, so takes them seriously, and sees things through by tackling problems not creating them. He doesn’t take excuses from himself and is responsible for the outcome of his actions.

The victim can always come up with a reason for not achieving, and it’s rarely to do with himself. Everything is always somebody else’s fault – he doesn’t feel in control so puts the blame at someone else’s door. He gives excuses for his lack of performance, and doesn’t realise the only person he’s convincing is himself. After repeating this pattern of blame and excuses for a while, the victim is in denial, absolutely convinced that there’s nothing he can do about this situation.

Students approaching a life-changing training program need to give themselves a mental work-out, to stack the odds in their favour. Anyone who’s a fully paid up member of the victim society will have to address their issues before they start, to truly embrace the potential in front of them.

The two sets of attitudes are both just habits. With constant repetition over time, habits can be changed. Listen to the little voice in your head – if it’s obviously a victim, then consciously stop it and verbalise why you can achieve. Nobody else is any better than you are – some have just conquered their demons and emerged victorious.

“There is no such thing as a hero, only those who rise to the occasion”. Those were the words of Winston Churchill, and they’re just as valid today. We need to have the attitude of a winner in order to become a winner, both in learning and in life.

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I’m not professing that IT training and careers within IT are the be-all and end-all of futures on this planet. God forbid where we would be without the highly paid football stars to entertain us so well on a week by week basis. Yet there has to be a reason why more and more people are studying for careers within the IT industry.

An interesting development has been the increase in IT training for those people who are seeking a career change or an enhancement to their existing skill sets. In reviewing this, I’m curious as to why IT continues to offer the attraction, and is this option really viable?

When looking at relationships, we all accept that people and key elements can change. A girlfriend or boyfriend at the age of 10 is often thought a cute thing, but it’s not expected to last. Relationships at the age of 18-20 can be less transient, but again have a greater rate of short-term life span than those formed later in life.

We ask young people to make decisions and plan their working career fairly early on in life. Yet historically there seems to be an inherent resistance to change as times passes. So if we accept that life changes, and we accept that circumstances also change, isn’t it prudent for us to accept that career paths can and indeed ought to change?

The continued dependence of modern society on IT, and IT related factors, leads many people to assume that a career in this field would be reliable and well paid, based on simple economics of supply and demand. Many people see a direct transfer of how they utilise IT systems in a social environment (such as playing games and social interaction on the internet e.g. facebook etc.) into a career. Is this a genuine realism of a career within IT, and what factors would actually lead towards a successful career?

I would suggest that a key element in answering this is acknowledging that a career in IT is as dependent on factors such as an employer (or client base if self-employed,) and economic circumstances, as any other career path. There is, however considerable evidence to show that professional IT personnel can move between employers and industry sectors more freely, due to the great dependence on IT services across both geographic and industry models.

One of the key elements here is the term ‘Professional IT People’. Just as in any other industry, employers consistently seek human resources where skills can be proven by both experience and an approved benchmark. This applies whether that is a degree, or a recognised apprenticeship that leads to an industry standard qualification, such as plumber and electrician.

The IT industry is no different. Just because many people have access to a computer at home, and can experience many factors of the IT industry in a refined environment, this is in many cases vastly different from the skills and resources required in the commercial sector. I’m sure we’d all agree that spending four hours a night playing games or surfing the internet doesn’t make us a qualified games designer, or a qualified webmaster.

Professional qualifications such as MCSE or MCSA within the IT field are instantly recognisable as an industry standard. Employers can rely upon the skills offered. This means there’s a reduced risk of breach of commercial insurance policies for work and services provided by such people, whether they are directly employed or self-employed.

Anyone seriously considering a future within this field must look at how best to position themselves to become attractive to an employer – and surely holding a professional qualification goes a long way towards this. As it’s the employer or client who pays the salary, we should at least be aware of what they’re looking for in recruitment or engagement.

Plenty of data exists to support the view that the growth in the IT sector is faster and more resilient than many other industry sectors. We’re witnessing a transitional shift in industry sectors, from the first world through to the third world, and the rate at which many growing or ‘tiger’ economies are adapting to (and embracing) long standing IT systems is very fast indeed.

Up to now in this article we’ve looked at the trends, which with the slow down and in some cases demise of traditional industry (and therefore traditional job-for-life expectancies), there will be an increasing propensity towards several jobs and career paths over our lifetime.

What’s more, we’ve noted that the IT industry remains attractive consistently as it continues to provide both supply and demand across geographical boundaries and across industry sectors. Todays forecasts also predict the increasing long-term dependence on IT systems overall. This includes the professional individuals who develop, utilise and maintain those systems, as they remain integral to many organisations long-term requirements.

Salary forecasts remain high within this industry, with plenty of evidence to suggest that this is achievable. It’s worth noting however,that in many other sectors the top-people get paid the top-money, and just ‘being there’ isn’t good enough and doesn’t guarantee the top-money.

We’ve also argued the case that employers view recruitment for IT skills as no different to any other facet of their business. They expect the individuals to formally demonstrate their skills and qualifications, in exactly the same way as they expect their accountants and electricians to be professionally qualified to do the work they’re employed to do.

It’s my belief that there is considerable evidence to view a career in IT as a strong and viable option for many people in today’s economic and social climate. Significant salaries are definitely achievable. And yet, it’s equally clear and only common sense to expect to have to gain a recognisable professional IT qualification. This not only clearly demonstrate one’s own ability, but at the very least it displays the attitude that your prospective employer can rely on you in the commercial field and that you are serious about this career path.

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Long term studies recently indicated that the average cost of bringing up a child in the UK amounted to 193,000 pounds in total – equating to approximately 26-28 pounds per day. The news was greeted with a swathe of cynical retorts from long suffering parents almost unified in their total lack of surprise.

Many people are now weighing up the current recession and its effect on traditional education systems. Consistent reference is being made to the strategies to survive adopted by parents, educators and students in the recession of the 1990’s.

On average, analysis suggests that up to 40 percent of the entire disposable income in a household is spent on education and schooling overall. With the tightening attitude towards bank lending and mortgage allocation, this figure could increase as youngsters stay with their parents for longer before leaving the nest and lengthen their education programs – perhaps as a by product of something to do whilst they wait for things to get better.

The cost of living is increasingly monopolising the family focus. Additionally, many companies are cutting back on training and development programs. So people feel it’s pointless spending money on training when they do not know for certain that they will not be made redundant – it is little wonder that many are now re-accessing their method of personal development and the subject matter that they study in.

Historically, public services, banking and the like have all been thought of as stable long term employers and attracted people accordingly. Over the last decade or so this has largely been superseded by the perception of employment offered within the IT industry.

Training in the motor industry or engineering demands that key skills often have to be gained in a practical environment. By contrast, IT training can be predominantly home-based. It would be impossible to transport a complete car production line into the home, yet computer based training is easily at hand. Enhancements in the intellectual property field such as IT have grown exponentially as a result of this and the continued progression in the way the skills are learnt and taught.

New training methodology utilising 24/7 remote access to highly skilled lecturers adds weight to the strategy and the final result is certification in a field that is widely sought after throughout the world. Along with easily quantified salary and career structures it is little wonder that IT training is so attractive.

As many people are unsure of their future, (whether early on in their career or mid-way through life), home-based training in subjects such as IT can often be seen as a superb, low cost, easy paced development program. Skills can be gained that are readily accepted anywhere in the world and are highly resilient in a changing economic environment.

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Dividing the different stages of learning into sections can be really helpful when we’re trying to work out where we are and how far we can go. Looking at the big goal can be quite scary – (let’s say professional web designer with a big portfolio of customers who are dependent on our expertise), when it’s as much as we can do to recall the names of the software we’ll be learning from!

Let’s look at four different levels of understanding. Whenever we take on anything new, we all experience these stages, and recognising them helps us to evaluate ourselves and our progress.

Unconscious Incompetent, Conscious Incompetent, Conscious Competent, Unconscious Competent.

Unconscious Incompetent – This is stage one where career changers often start. At this stage we know we want to change, but we don’t yet know what we don’t know, what we need to know, how to learn it or where it might take us! Sounds a bit desperate, but the main thing is knowing we want to change – everything else can be taught.

The main thing is to take advice. The stage one person can discover what’s involved in the process by talking things through with an experienced advisor; then they can find out where they want to go and what they need to learn.

Next comes stage two – Conscious Incompetent. We’re now probably at the start of our training course. Having been explained the different options, we’ve decided on our career path. So we now know what we have to learn – in other words we’re conscious of what we don’t know yet, or what we’re currently incompetent at.

Understanding this is important, to have the wisdom of knowing where we are. Grasping conscious incompetence means that we don’t get quite so frustrated in the early stages of our learning – it’s possible we’re not very good at it (especially if it’s been a while since we were at school…) but we know we’ll get better. Modern interactive learning accelerates this process, so we won’t be at this stage for long.

Conscious Competent takes us to stage three. We’re in the flow of the learning environment, and can pick things up much more quickly. We still have to consciously think about what we’re doing on a continuous basis, but we’re able to learn competently. We’ll most likely complete our studies and successfully pass our exams during this learning stage, which will probably also extend into our working life too.

Think about when we learned to drive a car. We’d reached conscious competency at the time of our exam – still very conscious of every manoeuvre, but good enough to pass the test. We could only move into stage four when we gained more experience along with the knowledge.

Unconsciously Competent – In IT, we’ll probably be several years into our working experience before we reach stage four. We understand what we need to know, and no longer have to consciously think about why we do something. Although for the true professional school’s never over, (and definitely in computer-related careers the joy is there’s always more to learn) achieving these dizzy heights of understanding makes all the hard work worth it.

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