by Jason Kendall
The CompTIA A+ course covers 4 different sectors – you’ll need exam certification in two of these areas to be considered A+ competent. For this reason, most colleges restrict their A+ to just two of the four in the syllabus. To us, this is selling you short – certainly you’ll have the qualification, but knowing about the others will set you apart in the workplace, where gaps in your knowledge will expose weaknesses. So that’s why you need education in everything.
As well as being taught how to build and fix computers, students on an A+ training course will be shown how to work in antistatic conditions, along with remote access, fault finding and diagnostics. If your ambition is taking care of computer networks, you’ll need to add CompTIA Network+ to your training package. This qualification will mean you can command a more senior job role. Other ones that might be interesting to you are the networking qualifications from Microsoft, i.e. MCP, MCSA MCSE.
Usually, your normal student doesn’t know where to start with IT, or even which area to focus their retraining program on. Since without any solid background in the IT industry, how can most of us be expected to understand what anyone doing a particular job actually does? To get through to the essence of this, a discussion is necessary, covering several definitive areas:
* Our personalities play a starring role – what things get your juices flowing, and what are the things that put a frown on your face.
* Are you hoping to obtain training for a precise motive – for instance, are you pushing to work based from home (working for yourself?)?
* Does salary have a higher place on your wish list than some other areas.
* Always think in-depth about the level of commitment required to attain their desired level.
* You’ll also need to think hard about what kind of effort and commitment that you will set aside for your training.
The best way to avoid the industry jargon, and uncover the most viable option for your success, have an informal chat with an industry-experienced advisor; a person who will cover the commercial realities and truth while explaining the accreditations.
Exam ‘guarantees’ are sometimes offered as part of a training package – they always involve paying for the exam fees up-front, when you pay for the rest of your course. Before you get carried away with the chance of a guarantee, be aware of the facts:
You’re paying for it ultimately. One thing’s for sure – it isn’t free – it’s simply been shoe-horned into the price as a whole. It’s everybody’s ambition to qualify on the first attempt. Going for exams in order and funding them one at a time makes it far more likely you’ll pass first time – you put the effort in and are mindful of the investment you’ve made.
Do the examinations somewhere close to home and find the best deal for you at the time. Is there a good reason to pay interest on a bigger loan than is necessary because you’ve paid early for examination fees when there was no need to? A lot of profit is secured by training companies charging all their exam fees up-front – and hoping either that you won’t take them, or it will be a long time before you do. In addition to this, you should consider what an ‘exam guarantee’ really means. Many training companies will not pay again for an exam until you have demonstrated conclusively that you won’t fail again.
Exam fees averaged approximately 112 pounds twelve months or so ago through Prometric or VUE centres around the United Kingdom. So don’t be talked into shelling out hundreds or thousands of pounds more to get ‘Exam Guarantees’, when common sense dictates that what’s really needed is a commitment to studying and the use of authorised exam preparation tools.
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 identify with this, go for more modern interactive training, with on-screen demonstrations and labs. Research has always verified that getting into our studies physically, is proven to produce longer-lasting and deeper memory retention.
Fully interactive motion videos utilising video demo’s and practice lab’s will forever turn you away from traditional book study. And you’ll find them fun and interesting. Make sure to obtain a study material demo’ from the school that you’re considering. The materials should incorporate slide-shows, instructor-led videos and virtual practice lab’s for your new skills.
It’s folly to go for purely on-line training. With highly variable reliability and quality from the ISP (internet service provider) market, make sure you get CD or DVD ROM based materials.
Most of us would love to think that our careers will remain secure and the future is protected, but the growing likelihood for most sectors throughout England at the moment is that there is no security anymore. Where there are rising skills shortfalls coupled with increasing demand however, we generally locate a newly emerging type of market-security; as fuelled by the constant growth conditions, organisations find it hard to locate the number of people required.
The computing Industry skills shortfall throughout the United Kingdom falls in at approx twenty six percent, as reported by the latest e-Skills analysis. It follows then that for each four job positions that exist in the computer industry, employers can only source trained staff for three of the four. This single notion alone clearly demonstrates why the country needs considerably more workers to get trained and enter the IT industry. Actually, acquiring professional IT skills as you progress through the years to come is probably the safest career move you’ll ever make.
Considering how a program is ‘delivered’ to you isn’t always given the appropriate level of importance. In what way are your training elements sectioned? What is the order and at what speed is it delivered? Typically, you will purchase a course taking 1-3 years and receive a module at a time. While this may sound logical on one level, consider this: What would happen if you didn’t finish each and every exam at the required speed? Sometimes their preference of study order won’t be as easy as some other structure would for you.
To be straight, the perfect answer is to have their ideal ‘order’ of training laid out, but get everything up-front. Everything is then in your possession if you don’t manage to finish at their required pace.