Programs for CompTIA A Plus Training in 2009
April 6, 2009 by Jason Kendall
Filed under Online Colleges
CompTIA A+ consists of 4 training sections; you’re seen as an A+ achiever when you’ve passed the test for two of the four areas. For this reason, most training providers only have two of the courses on their syllabus. You’ll find that it’s necessary to have the information on each subject as many jobs will be looking for the skills and knowledge of each specialist area. It’s not essential to qualify in them all, however we’d advise that you at least have a working knowledge of every area.
A+ certification by itself will mean that you’re able to repair and fix stand alone Macs, computers and laptops; ones that are most often not part of a network – this generally applies to home use and small companies. You may also want to think about adding Network+ training to your A+ as you can then also look after networks of computers, which is where the bigger salaries are.
Evidently, the UK IT market promises impressive opportunities. However, to investigate it properly, what questions do we need to be raising, and what are the most important considerations?
A capable and specialised advisor (vs a salesperson) will want to thoroughly discuss your current experience level and abilities. This is useful for working out the starting point for your education. Of course, if in the past you’ve acquired any qualifications that are related, then you can sometimes expect to begin at a different level to a student who’s starting from scratch. Starting with a basic PC skills program first can be the best way to get up and running on your IT program, but depends on your skill level.
Many trainers provide a bunch of books and manuals. This can be very boring and not a very good way of taking things in. If we can get all of our senses involved in our learning, our results will often be quite spectacular.
Learning is now available on CD and DVD discs, where everything is taught on your PC. Utilising the latest video technology, you can sit back and watch the teachers showing you precisely how to do something, and then have a go at it yourself – in a virtual lab environment. Each company you’re contemplating must be able to demonstrate samples of their training materials. Expect video tutorials, instructor led classes and many interactive sections.
Often, companies will only use purely on-line training; and while this is acceptable much of the time, imagine the problems if internet access is lost or you get intermittent problems and speed issues. It’s much safer to rely on DVD or CD discs which will solve that problem.
Training support for students is an absolute must – find a program offering 24×7 direct access to instructors, as anything less will frustrate you and could hamper your progress. Avoid training that only supports you with an out-sourced call-centre message system outside of normal office hours. Colleges will always try to hide the importance of this issue. Essentially – support is required when it’s required – not at times when they find it cheaper to provide it.
World-class organisations provide a web-based 24×7 service involving many support centres over many time-zones. You will have an interface which switches seamlessly to the best choice of centres irrespective of the time of day: Support on demand. Never settle for a lower level of service. Support round-the-clock is the only way to go with IT study. Maybe burning the midnight-oil is not your thing; often though, we’re at work when traditional support if offered.
If there’s any chance you’ll be enrolling with a training company that still provides ‘in-centre workshop days’ as a benefit of their course, then consider these typical downsides met by almost all students:
* The amount of travel required – frequent trips and sometimes hundreds of miles a time.
* Workshop accessibility; usually Mon-Fri and 2-3 days in a row. You then have the difficulty of the leave of absence.
* The majority of us find 4 weeks holiday each year doesn’t go very far. Knock off over half of it for training events and watch how much harder things become.
* Training workshops fill up fast and can be very crammed in.
* A lot of attendees hope to push through at quite a pace, but some like to take it easier and not be forced to adopt an uncomfortable speed for them. This causes tension and bad atmosphere in most cases.
* Many students talk of the high costs involved with all the travelling back and forth to the training venue whilst paying for accommodation and food becomes prohibitively expensive.
* Keeping your training private from your employer can be high on the list of priorities to most trainees. There’s no need to sacrifice any possible promotions, salary hikes or success at your current job just because you’re retraining. If your work discovers you’re putting yourself through qualification in a different industry, what are they going to be thinking?
* Every one of us must, at some time, have avoided putting our hand’s up, because we didn’t want to look stupid?
* Don’t forget, workshops frequently become simply unreachable, when you live away for part of your week or month.
Wouldn’t it be better to watch a video and gain knowledge from teachers one-on-one through pre-filmed lessons, doing them at a time that’s convenient for you and you alone. Any time you get a problem, get onto the live 24×7 support (that should’ve been packaged with any technical type of training.) Bear in mind, if you own a laptop, you can study just about anywhere. Modules and lessons can be repeated as often as you want – doing something over will help you remember it. And you don’t have to worry about any note-taking – everything is already provided. The final outcome: Much less stress and hassle, less cost, and travelling is removed.
Discovering job security in this economic down-turn is very unusual. Businesses will remove us out of the workplace with very little notice – as and when it suits them. When we come across growing skills shortfalls coupled with high demand areas of course, we can find a fresh type of security in the marketplace; driven by the conditions of constant growth, employers find it hard to locate the staff required.
Taking a look at the computing sector, the recent e-Skills survey showed an over 26 percent deficit in trained staff. Meaning that for each 4 job positions that exist throughout the computer industry, we’ve only got three properly trained pro’s to do them. Highly trained and commercially certified new professionals are as a result at an absolute premium, and it’s estimated to remain so for a long time. Unquestionably, now really is such a perfect time to train for Information Technology (IT).