Everybody is busy these days, and generally if we want to study for a new career, taking a course at the same time as holding down a job is what we have to do. Training tracks certified by Microsoft could offer a solution. Perhaps you'd like to discuss the job possibilities with a training advisor - and if you're uncertain, then get some ideas on which area of the industry would work for you, dependent on your abilities and personality. When you've chosen your career path, you'll need an appropriate course tailored to go with your skills and abilities. Your study program ought to be of an excellent standard.
Trainees looking at this market are often very practical, and don't always take well to classrooms, and endless reading of dry academic textbooks. If this is putting you off studying, go for more modern interactive training, where everything is presented via full motion video. Where we can utilise all of our senses into our learning, then the results are usually dramatically better.
Find a course where you'll receive a selection of CD and DVD ROM's - you'll begin by watching videos of instructors demonstrating the skills, with the facility to hone your abilities through virtual lab's. Always insist on a demonstration of the study materials from your training provider. You should ask for demo's from instructors, slideshows and interactive labs where you get to practice.
It's folly to go for purely on-line training. Connection quality and reliability varies hugely across all internet service providers, it makes sense to have CD or DVD ROM based materials.
At the top of your shopping list for a training program should be full 24x7 support through expert mentors and instructors. Far too often we see trainers who will only offer a basic 9am till 6pm support period (maybe later on certain days) with very little availability over the weekend. Never buy training courses that only support you via a call-centre messaging system when it's outside of usual working hours. Colleges will try to talk you round from this line of reasoning. But, no matter how they put it - you want support at the appropriate time - not as-and-when it's suitable for their staff.
We recommend that you search for providers that use several support centres from around the world. Each one should be integrated to enable simple one-stop access as well as round-the-clock access, when you want it, with the minimum of hassle. Never make do with less than this. Support round-the-clock is the only kind that ever makes the grade for technical study. Maybe late-evening study is not your thing; often though, we're out at work when traditional support if offered.
The somewhat scary thought of securing your first computer related job can be eased by training colleges, through a Job Placement Assistance facility. The need for this feature can be bigged up out of proportion though - it's quite easy for training companies to make it sound harder than it is. At the end of the day, the need for well trained IT people in the United Kingdom is what will make you attractive to employers.
However, don't procrastinate and wait until you have completed your exams before updating your CV. As soon as your training commences, mark down what you're doing and tell people about it! It's possible that you won't have even passed your first exam when you'll secure your initial junior support job; but this can't and won't happen if your CV isn't in front of employers. The top companies to get you a new position are generally specialist independent regional recruitment consultancies. Because they make their money when they've found you a job, they're perhaps more focused on results.
Various trainees, apparently, put a great deal of effort into their studies (sometimes for years), and just give up when it comes to attempting to secure a good job. Sell yourself... Do everything you can to let employers know about you. Don't think a job's just going to jump out in front of you.
Consider only study courses that'll progress to industry accepted accreditations. There are way too many small colleges proposing 'in-house' certificates which will prove unusable in the real world. If your certification doesn't come from a company like Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco or Adobe, then you may discover it will have been a waste of time - as no-one will have heard of it.
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