Computer Career Training Across The UK 2009
March 27, 2009 by Jason Kendall
Filed under Online Colleges
Congratulations! By reading this it’s likely you’re thinking about getting re-qualified for a new job – so already you’ve made a start. Less of us than you’d think are pleased to go to work each day, but most just moan and do nothing about it. Why not be one of a small number who make a difference in their lives.
We’d politely request that in advance of taking a course of training, you have a conversation with someone who knows the industry and can give you advice. Such a person will go through personality profiling with you and help you find your ideal job to train for:
* Are you happier left to your own devices at work or is being in a team environment vital for your sanity?
* The banks and building sector are none too stable right now, so think carefully about the sector that would suit you best?
* Once you’ve qualified, are you hoping your new skills will give you the ability to get you jobs for the rest of your working life?
* Are you happy that your chosen retraining will offer you employment opportunities, and have the ability to allow you to work up to retirement age?
A predominant industry in the United Kingdom that fulfils the above criteria is the IT industry. There is a requirement for greater numbers of qualified people in IT, just search any jobsite and you will find them yourself. Don’t misunderstand and think it’s full of techie geeks staring at theirscreens the whole time – there are loads more jobs than that. Most of the people in IT are just like the rest of us, but they enjoy their work and get well paid.
Many people don’t catch on to what IT is doing for all of us. It is stimulating, innovative, and means you’re working on technology that will change our world over the next few decades. We’ve barely started to get an inclination of how technology is going to shape our lives. Technology and the web will massively change the way we view and interrelate with the rest of the world over the years to come.
Let’s not forget that income in IT over Britain as a whole is much greater than the national average salary, which means you’ll more than likely receive significantly more as a trained IT professional, than you’d get in most other industries. It’s no secret that there is a significant nationwide need for certified IT specialists. In addition, as growth in the industry shows little sign of contracting, it seems this pattern will continue for a good while yet.
So, what are the questions we need to raise if we’re to gain the understanding we need? Because it looks like there are many fairly extraordinary prospects for us to think about.
Kick out any salesperson that offers any particular course without a decent chat to gain understanding of your current abilities and also your level of experience. Ensure that they have a expansive stable of training programs from which they could solve your training issues. With a strong background, or perhaps a bit of commercial experience (some certifications gained previously perhaps?) then it’s likely your starting level will vary from someone who is just starting out. If this is your opening effort at IT study then it may be wise to start out with some basic user skills first.
Many trainers provide a big box of books. Obviously, this isn’t much fun and not a very good way of achieving retention. Memory is vastly improved when we use multiple senses – learning experts have been saying this for as long as we can remember.
Learning is now available in the form of CD and DVD ROM’s, where everything is taught on your PC. Using video-streaming, you can sit back and watch the teachers showing you precisely how something is done, with some practice time to follow – with interactive lab sessions. You’ll definitely want a training material demonstration from the training company. The package should contain expert-led demonstrations, slideshows and virtual practice lab’s for your new skills.
Purely on-line training should be avoided. Ideally, you should opt for CD and DVD ROM courseware where obtainable, enabling them to be used at your convenience – it’s not wise to be held hostage to a good broadband connection all the time.
One thing you must always insist on is proper direct-access 24×7 support via trained professional instructors and mentors. So many companies we come across only seem to want to help while they’re in the office (9am till 6pm, Monday till Friday usually) and nothing at the weekends. Avoid, like the plague, any organisations who use ‘out-of-hours’ messaging systems – where you’ll get called back during standard office hours. This is useless when you’re stuck and could do with an answer during your scheduled study period.
Top training companies have many support offices from around the world. Online access provides the interactive interface to join them all seamlessly, no matter what time you login, help is at hand, without any contact issues or hassle. If you fail to get yourself 24×7 support, you’ll end up kicking yourself. You may not need it late in the night, but you may need weekends, early mornings or even late evenings at some point.
Commercially accredited qualifications are now, very visibly, already replacing the older academic routes into the IT sector – so why should this be? The IT sector is of the opinion that to cover the necessary commercial skill-sets, certified accreditation from companies such as CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA is far more effective and specialised – and a fraction of the cost and time. Patently, a necessary degree of relevant additional information needs to be taught, but focused specifics in the required areas gives a vendor educated person a distinct advantage.
What if you were an employer – and you wanted someone who could provide a specific set of skills. What should you do: Pore through loads of academic qualifications from graduate applicants, struggling to grasp what they’ve learned and what vocational skills they’ve mastered, or pick out specific commercial accreditations that exactly fulfil your criteria, and then choose your interviewees based around that. You’ll then be able to concentrate on getting a feel for the person at interview – instead of long discussions on technical suitability.
Charging for examinations with the course fee and offering an ‘Exam Guarantee’ is a popular marketing tool with many companies. But look at the facts:
We all know that we’re still being charged for it – obviously it has been added into the full cost of the package supplied by the course provider. It’s absolutely not free – don’t think these companies are so generous with their money! Trainees who go in for their examinations when it’s appropriate, funding them as they go are in a much stronger position to qualify at the first attempt. They’re aware of their investment and revise more thoroughly to ensure they are ready.
Go for the best offer you can find at the appropriate time, and hang on to your cash. You also get more choice of where you do the examinations – which means you can stay local. A great deal of money is netted by a number of companies that incorporate exam fees into the cost of the course. Many students don’t take them for one reason or another but no refunds are given. Believe it or not, there are providers who depend on students not taking their exams – as that’s how they make a lot of their profit. It’s also worth noting that ‘Exam Guarantees’ often aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. The majority of companies won’t be prepared to pay for you to re-take until you can prove to them you’re ready to pass.
On average, exams cost 112 pounds or thereabouts in the last 12 months via Prometric or VUE centres around the United Kingdom. Therefore, why splash out often many hundreds of pounds extra for ‘Exam Guarantees’, when any student knows that the responsible approach is a regular, committed, study programme, with an accredited exam preparation system.
A service offered by some training providers is a Job Placement Assistance program. This is to help you find your first job in the industry. Ultimately it isn’t a complex operation to find a job – as long as you’ve got the necessary skills and qualifications; employers in this country need your skills.
However, what is relevant is to have help and assistance with preparing a CV and getting interviews though; and we’d encourage any student to work on polishing up their CV right at the beginning of their training – don’t wait till you’ve finished your exams. Quite often, you will be offered your first position whilst still on the course (even when you’ve just left first base). If you haven’t updated your CV to say what you’re studying (and it isn’t in the hands of someone with jobs to offer) then you won’t even be considered! Actually, a specialist independent regional recruitment consultant or service – who make their money when they’ve found you a job – will perform better than any centralised training company’s service. They should, of course, also know local industry and the area better.
Certainly be sure that you don’t spend hundreds of hours on your training and studies, then call a halt and imagine someone else is miraculously going to land you a job. Get off your backside and get out there. Put the same resource into finding the right position as you did to get trained.