Online Colleges

With so many computer courses on the market today, it can be mind-boggling to know what to look for. Select one that matches up with your abilities and personality, and one that is in demand in the commercial world. There’s a huge choice with these courses – from basic office skills up to training programs for programmers, networkers, web designers etc. Share your ideas before you dive in – discuss your options with somebody who has experience of the IT world. Someone who can help you select the right career path for you – one that’s both commercially relevant and leads to a job you’ll love.

By keeping costs to a minimum, computer training providers can now offer up-to-the-minute courses that blend the finest training and guidance for considerably less money than is expected from the traditional establishments.

Does job security honestly exist anymore? Here in the UK, where industry can change its mind on a whim, there doesn’t seem much chance. Wherever we find increasing skills shortfalls mixed with areas of high demand of course, we always discover a newly emerging type of security in the marketplace; where, fuelled by the conditions of constant growth, employers find it hard to locate the influx of staff needed.

Looking at the Information Technology (IT) business, a recent e-Skills analysis highlighted a 26 percent shortfall of skilled workers. Therefore, for every four jobs available across the computer industry, employers can only locate trained staff for three of them. This worrying concept shows the validity and need for more technically accredited computing professionals around the United Kingdom. It’s unlikely if a better time or market state of affairs is ever likely to exist for getting certified in this quickly emerging and blossoming business.

Making a sensible job option is fraught with stress – so what research do we need to do and what are the questions we need to seek the answer to?

Looking at the myriad of choice out there, it’s not really surprising that the majority of students don’t really understand the best career path they should even pursue. Flicking through long lists of different and confusing job titles is a complete waste of time. Most of us have no idea what our good friends do at work – let alone understand the intricacies of a particular IT career. Contemplation on many areas is required when you want to get to the right answers:

* Personality factors plus what interests you – what kind of work-oriented areas you like and dislike.

* What time-frame are you looking at for retraining?

* The income requirements you have?

* With everything that Information Technology encapsulates, you’ll need to be able to understand how they differ.

* What effort, commitment and time you’ll have available to set aside for your training.

To cut through the industry jargon, and find the best path to success, have an informal meeting with an industry expert and advisor; an individual who will cover the commercial realities and truth whilst covering each accreditation.

Those that are drawn to this type of work are often very practical, and don’t always take well to classrooms, and poring through books and manuals. If you’re thinking this sounds like you, use multimedia, interactive learning, where you can learn everything on-screen. Where possible, if we can utilise all of our senses into our learning, then the results are usually dramatically better.

Learning is now available in the form of CD and DVD ROM’s, where everything is taught on your PC. Utilising the latest video technology, you are able to see your instructors showing you how to perform the required skill, and then practice yourself – via the interactive virtual lab’s. All companies should be able to show you a few examples of their training materials. Expect video tutorials, instructor led classes and a wide selection of interactive elements.

It’s usually bad advice to select online only courseware. Connection quality and reliability varies hugely across the ISP (internet service provider) market, you should always obtain disc based courseware (On CD or DVD).

An important area that is sometimes not even considered by people weighing up a particular programme is the issue of ‘training segmentation’. This is essentially the method used to break up the program to be delivered to you, which can make a dramatic difference to the point you end up at. Students often think it makes sense (when study may take one to three years to achieve full certification,) for your typical trainer to courier the courseware in stages, as you pass each element. However: What if you find the order pushed by the company’s salespeople doesn’t suit all of us. It may be difficult to get through all the modules at the speed required?

For maximum flexibility and safety, it’s normal for most trainees to have all their training materials (which they’ve now paid for) delivered immediately, and not in stages. It’s then your own choice how fast or slow and in what order you want to go.

Of all the important things to consider, one of the most essential is always full 24×7 support from expert mentors and instructors. Far too often we see trainers who only provide office hours (or extended office hours) support. Avoid, like the plague, any organisations that use messaging services ‘out-of-hours’ – with the call-back coming in during typical office hours. This is no use if you’re stuck and want support there and then.

If you look properly, you’ll find the top providers that offer direct-access online support all the time – including evenings, nights and weekends. Never settle for anything less. Support round-the-clock is really your only option with technical training. Perhaps you don’t intend to study during the evenings; but for most of us, we’re working when traditional support if offered.

One interesting way that course providers make more money is by charging for exams up-front and offering an exam guarantee. This looks like a great idea for the student, till you look at the facts:

In this day and age, we’re a little more ‘marketing-savvy’ – and most of us know that for sure it is actually an additional cost to us (it’s not a freebie because they like us so much!) Should you seriously need to pass in one, then you should pay for each exam as you go, focus on it intently and give the task sufficient application.

Go for the best offer you can find at the time, and hang on to your cash. You’ll also be able to choose where to do your exams – meaning you can choose a local testing centre. Many questionable training colleges secure huge amounts of money because they’re getting paid for all the exam fees up-front then hoping that you won’t take them all. Pay heed to the fact that, with most ‘Exam Guarantees’ – the company decides when you are allowed to have another go. You’ll have to prove conclusively that you can pass before they’ll pay for another exam.

Paying maybe a thousand pounds extra on ‘Exam Guarantees’ is naive – when a commitment to studying and the use of authorised exam preparation tools is actually the key to your success.

Watch out that all qualifications you’re working towards are commercially relevant and are up-to-date. The ‘in-house’ certifications provided by many companies are not normally useful in gaining employment. From the viewpoint of an employer, only the major heavyweights such as Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe (for example) will get you short-listed. Anything less won’t make the grade.