An IT Course In 2009
February 26, 2009 by Jason Kendall
Filed under Online Colleges
These days, commercial institutions could not function efficiently if it weren’t for support workers fixing PC’s and networks, while making recommendations to users on a day to day basis. Whilst we are getting progressively dependent on advanced technology, we in turn inevitably become increasingly more reliant upon the skilled and qualified IT professionals, who maintain those systems.
Bearing in mind the sheer volume of discussion on the area of computing technology nowadays, how can we understand what in particular to look for? …In order for us to obtain the evidence needed to come to the right verdict for us?
Get rid of any salesperson who recommends a training program without a thorough investigation to assess your abilities and level of experience. Ensure that they have a expansive product range so they’re actually equipped to provide you with what’s right for you. Where you have a strong background, or sometimes a little live experience (possibly even some previous certification?) then obviously the point from which you begin your studies will be different from a student that is completely new to the industry. Working through a foundation program first may be the ideal way to start into your IT program, depending on your current skill level.
You have to make sure that all your certifications are commercially valid and current – you’re wasting your time with studies which end up with a useless in-house certificate or plaque. Only nationally recognised accreditation from the top companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe and CompTIA will mean anything to employers.
We can’t make a big enough deal out of this point: You absolutely must have proper 24×7 instructor and mentor support. Later, you’ll kick yourself if you don’t heed this. You’ll be waiting ages for an answer with email based support, and phone support is often to a call-centre which will chat nicely with you for 5 minutes to ask what the issue is and then simply send an email to an instructor – who will call back over the next day or so (assuming you’re there), at a time suitable for them. This is not a lot of use if you’re lost and confused and only have certain times available in which to do your studies.
Keep looking and you’ll come across the top providers who give students direct-access support around the clock – no matter what time of day it is. Never settle for a lower level of service. Support round-the-clock is the only viable option with technical courses. Maybe late-evening study is not your thing; often though, we’re at work when traditional support if offered.
We can guess that you’ve always enjoyed practical work – a ‘hands-on’ type. Typically, the painful task of reading endless manuals is something you’ll make yourself do if you have to, but it’s not ideal. Consider interactive, multimedia study if you’d really rather not use books. We see a huge improvement in memory retention when we use multiple senses – educational experts have expounded on this for years now.
Top of the range study programs now offer interactive discs. By watching and listening to instructors on video tutorials you’ll absorb the modules, one by one, by way of the demonstrations and explanations. You can then test yourself by utilising the practice lab’s and modules. It makes sense to see some examples of the kind of training materials you’ll be using before you purchase a course. What you want are video tutorials, instructor demo’s and interactive modules with audio-visual elements.
Often, companies will only use just online versions of their training packages; and while this is acceptable much of the time, consider how you’ll deal with it when you don’t have access to the internet or you get intermittent problems and speed issues. It’s much safer to rely on physical CD or DVD discs that will not have these problems.
Adding in the cost of examination fees with the course fee then including an exam guarantee is popular with many companies. However, let’s consider what’s really going on:
These days, we have to be a bit more aware of hype – and usually we grasp that we are actually being charged for it – it’s not because they’re so generous they want to give something away! Should you seriously need to qualify first ‘go’, then you should avoid exam guarantees and pay when entering exams, focus on it intently and apply yourself as required.
Do your exams somewhere local and go for the best offer you can find when you’re ready. A great deal of money is made by a number of companies who get money for exam fees in advance. A number of students don’t take them for various reasons but no refunds are given. Surprising as it sounds, there are providers who actually rely on students not sitting all the exams – and that’s how they increase their profits. In addition to this, you should consider what an ‘exam guarantee’ really means. Most companies won’t be prepared to pay again for an exam until you can prove to them you’re ready to pass.
Paying maybe a thousand pounds extra on ‘Exam Guarantees’ is foolish – when a commitment to studying and the use of authorised exam preparation tools is actually the key to your success.
Sometimes men and women think that the school and FE college path is still the best way into IT. So why are commercially accredited qualifications beginning to overtake it? Industry is of the opinion that to learn the appropriate commercial skills, certified accreditation from the likes of Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA most often has much more specialised relevance – for considerably less. Clearly, a certain amount of associated knowledge has to be taught, but core specialisation in the particular job function gives a vendor trained student a distinct advantage.
If an employer is aware what areas need to be serviced, then they just need to look for the exact skill-set required to meet that need. Vendor-based syllabuses are set to meet an exact requirement and do not vary between trainers (in the way that degree courses can).
Discovering job security in this economic down-turn is very unusual. Businesses can remove us out of the workplace at the drop of a hat – as and when it suits them. But a quickly growing market-place, where staff are in constant demand (as there is a massive shortfall of properly qualified people), provides a market for true job security.
Using the computer market for example, a key e-Skills study demonstrated massive skills shortages throughout the United Kingdom of over 26 percent. It follows then that for each four job positions in existence across Information Technology (IT), organisations are only able to locate properly accredited workers for three of them. Achieving proper commercial computing exams is thus a quick route to succeed in a life-long as well as gratifying living. Unquestionably, it really is the very best time to retrain into IT.