by Jason Kendall
As there are a plethora of computer study programs to be had, it’s not always easy to know what to look for. Select one that’s on a par with your personality and your level of ability, and that’s needed in the working environment. Pick out training for office skills packages from Microsoft, or become a specialist IT professional. Plain speaking courses will help you to realise your dreams.
By maximising state-of-the-art training techniques and keeping costs to a minimum, you will start to see a new kind of training company supplying a superior brand of training and mentoring for hundreds of pounds less.
How are we supposed to go about making an informed decision then? With all these possibilities, we have to know where we should look – and what to be looking for.
In most cases, a everyday trainee doesn’t have a clue what way to go about starting in a computing career, let alone what area they should be considering getting trained in. Because with no commercial background in computing, in what way could we understand what any job actually involves? Reflection on several factors is essential when you want to dig down the right answers:
* Your personality type and interests – what work-centred jobs you enjoy or dislike.
* Do you want to re-train because of a certain motive – e.g. do you aim to work based at home (self-employment possibly?)?
* Any personal or home needs you may have?
* Understanding what the main Information technology types and markets are – including what sets them apart.
* The time and energy you will commit getting qualified.
For the majority of us, dissecting so much data will require meeting with an advisor who has direct industry experience. Not only the certifications – you also need to understand the commercial expectations and needs also.
Traditional teaching in classrooms, involving piles of reference textbooks, is usually pretty hard going. If this describes you, check out study materials which feature interactive and multimedia modules. Studies have consistently shown that getting into our studies physically, is far more likely to produce long-lasting memories.
Interactive audio-visual materials with demonstrations and practice sessions will beat books every time. And they’re a lot more fun to do. Always insist on a demonstration of the study materials from your training provider. You should ask for expert-led demonstrations, slideshows and fully interactive skills-lab’s.
Avoid training that is purely online. You want physical CD/DVD ROM course materials where obtainable, enabling them to be used at your convenience – ISP quality varies, so you don’t want to be totally reliant on a good broadband connection all the time.
Workshop days can be portrayed as a strong aspect by many certification companies. After chatting with many IT hopefuls who have partaken in a couple, you’ll begin to see a common thread – they are viewed as a difficulty to be ‘got round’ as they hadn’t properly considered the following:
* Loads of journeys to the workshops – sometimes quite a distance away.
* Access to classes; often Mon-Fri and two or three days in a row. It’s never convenient to take the required time off work.
* Most of us discover 20 days holiday per year is not really enough. Sacrifice a big chunk of this for study events and see how much more difficult it makes things.
* With the high costs involved, many schools make the classes quite large – which is not ideal (increasing the ratio of students to teachers).
* Class pace – workshops typically feature students of varied abilities, consequently there is often tension between students with more background knowledge and those who want to go a little slower.
* Count the cost of all the fares or petrol, accommodation, parking and food and you may be surprised (and not pleasantly). Attendees have reported extra costs mounting to several hundred and sometimes thousands of pounds. Work it out – and understand where they’re coming from.
* Not wanting employers to know about the training can be very important to many students. There’s no need to give up any job advancement, income boosts or achievement at your current job because you’re getting trained in a different area. When your boss discovers you’re taking steps towards qualification in a different industry, what do you think they’ll do?
* Asking questions in front of other class-mates can make us feel nervous. Ever avoided asking a question just because you were worried it might make you look silly?
* Typically, days in-centre become virtually unreachable, in cases where you live away for some part of the year.
The best possible solution comes from viewing a pre-filmed lesson – having instructor-led teaching on hand whenever you’d like. You can study anywhere you want. Got a laptop?… Then you could catch some sunshine in your garden at the same time. Any difficulties and logon to the 24×7 support facility. You can repeat the study modules as often as you need to prep for an exam. And of course, you don’t have to write any notes as the teaching is yours forever. What could be simpler: A lot of money is saved and you avoid all the travelling; and of course you get a more comfortable study atmosphere.
Of all the important things to consider, one of the most essential is always full 24×7 support with dedicated instructors and mentors. Far too often we see trainers who only provide support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later (but not weekends usually). You’ll be waiting ages for an answer with email based support, and phone support is usually just a call-centre who will make some notes and then email an advisor – who will attempt to call you within 24-48 hrs, at a suitable time to them. This is no good if you’re stuck with a particular problem and can only study at specific times.
Top training providers provide an internet-based 24×7 facility utilising a variety of support centres throughout multiple time-zones. You’ll have an easy to use interface that seamlessly selects the best facility available at any time of day or night: Support on demand. Never settle for less than you need and deserve. Direct-access 24×7 support is the only way to go for IT courses. Perhaps you don’t intend to study during the evenings; often though, we’re out at work at the time when most support is available.
It would be wonderful to believe that our jobs will always be secure and our work prospects are protected, however, the truth for the majority of jobs around England right now appears to be that there is no security anymore. Where there are escalating skills deficits coupled with increasing demand however, we almost always find a newly emerging type of security in the marketplace; as fuelled by the constant growth conditions, businesses just can’t get the influx of staff needed.
Recently, a British e-Skills survey demonstrated that over 26 percent of all available IT positions haven’t been filled because of a chronic shortage of trained staff. That means for each 4 job positions that exist in Information Technology (IT), we’ve only got three properly trained pro’s to do them. Well trained and commercially educated new professionals are correspondingly at an absolute premium, and it seems it will continue to be so for a long time. Unquestionably, it really is a fabulous time for retraining into the computing industry.
