Good for you! As you’re reading this article it’s likely you’re thinking about getting re-qualified for a new job – that means you’ve already taken one more step than the majority. Very few of us are pleased to go to work each day, but most just moan and do nothing about it. You could join a select group who make a difference in their lives.
When considering retraining, it’s crucial to initially know what you DO want and DON’T want from the position you would like to get. It’s important to discover if you would be more satisfied before much time and effort is spent re-directing your life. We recommend looking at the end goal first, to avoid disappointment:
* Are you hoping to be involved with others in the workplace? Would that be with a small ‘tightly-knit’ team or with a lot of new people? Perhaps working alone in a task-based situation may be your preference?
* Banking and building are not coping well at the moment, so think carefully about the sector that would give you the most options?
* Is it important that this should be the last time re-training is necessary?
* Do you think being qualified will give you the opportunity to find the work you’re looking for, and keep working until you wish to retire?
Don’t overlook the IT sector, that will be time well spent – it’s one of the only market sectors still on the grow in this country and overseas. Another benefit is that remuneration packages are much better than most.
There is a tidal wave of change about to hit technology over the next few decades – and this means greater innovations all the time. We’ve only just begun to scrape the surface of how technology will affect our lives in the future. The internet will significantly revolutionise how we view and interrelate with the entire world over the coming years.
The standard IT employee in the UK will also earn a lot more than his or her counterpart in other market sectors. Standard IT wages are around the top of national league tables. Due to the technological sector emerging nationally and internationally, it’s looking good that the requirement for certified IT professionals will continue to boom for quite some time to come.
It’s irrefutable, the UK computing market promises phenomenal potential. But, to fully investigate, which questions do we need to pose, and what are the areas we need to look at?
A capable and professional consultant (in contrast with a salesperson) will want to thoroughly discuss your current level of ability and experience. This is paramount to understanding your study start-point. Occasionally, the training inception point for a person with experience is substantially dissimilar to someone without. Working through a user skills program first can be the best way to get into your computer programme, depending on your current skill level.
Training support for students is an absolute must – locate a good company providing 24×7 full access, as anything else will annoy you and definitely put a damper on the speed you move through things. Avoid, like the plague, any organisations that use ‘out-of-hours’ messaging systems – where an advisor will call back during office hours. It’s no use when you’re stuck on a problem and could do with an answer during your scheduled study period.
Keep your eyes open for study programmes that use several support centres active in different time-zones. Every one of them needs to be seamlessly combined to give a single entry point and round-the-clock access, when you want it, without any problems. Never ever take second best when you’re looking for the right support service. Many IT hopefuls that give up, are in that situation because they didn’t get the support necessary for them.
Those that are drawn to this type of work can be very practical by nature, and don’t really enjoy classrooms, and struggling through thick study-volumes. If you’re thinking this sounds like you, opt for more involving, interactive learning materials, where you can learn everything on-screen. Many years of research has consistently confirmed that connecting physically with our study, is far more likely to produce long-lasting memories.
Find a course where you’ll get a host of CD and DVD based materials – you’ll learn by watching video tutorials and demonstrations, and be able to fine-tune your skills in fully interactive practice sessions. Make sure to obtain a demonstration of the study materials from your training provider. You should ask for expert-led demonstrations, slideshows and lab’s for you to practice your skills in.
You’ll find that many companies will only provide purely on-line training; and while this is acceptable much of the time, think what will happen if you lose your internet access or you only get very a very slow connection sometimes. It’s much safer to rely on CD and DVD ROM materials that will solve that problem.
Many students come unstuck over a single training area which doesn’t even occur to them: The method used to ‘segment’ the courseware before being delivered to your home. The majority of training companies will set up a program spread over 1-3 years, and drop-ship the materials to you piecemeal as you complete each exam. Sounds reasonable? Well consider these facts: Often, the staged breakdown insisted on by the company won’t suit you. You may find it a stretch to finalise all the elements inside of their particular timetable?
To provide the maximum security and flexibility, it’s not unusual for students to make sure that every element of their training is delivered immediately, and not in stages. It’s then up to you how fast or slow and in what order you’d like to work.
‘Exam Guarantees’ are often bundled with training offers – they always involve paying for the exam fees up-front, at the very beginning of your studies. Before you get carried away with the chance of a guarantee, consider this:
Patently it isn’t free – you are paying for it – the price has simply been included in the whole thing. Qualifying on the first ‘go’ is what everyone wants to do. Going for exams in order and paying for them just before taking them has a marked effect on pass-rates – you revise thoroughly and are conscious of what you’ve spent.
Why pay the training college up-front for exams? Find the best exam deal or offer when you take the exam, don’t pay mark-ups – and sit exams more locally – not at somewhere of their bidding. 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’s absolutely nothing that says you have to? A great deal of money is secured by training companies charging upfront for all their exams – and then cashing in when they’re not all taken. Re-takes of previously unsuccessful exams through training course providers who offer an ‘Exam Guarantee’ are always heavily controlled. They will insist that you take pre-tests first so you can prove to them you have a good chance of passing.
With average prices for VUE and Pro-metric exams in the United Kingdom costing around 112 pounds, it makes sense to pay as you go. It’s not in the student’s interests to fork out hundreds or thousands of pounds for exams when enrolling on a course. Study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will really guarantee success.
A service offered by some training providers is job placement assistance. The service is put in place to assist your search for your first position. Because of the massive shortage of skills in Great Britain today, it’s not too important to become overly impressed with this service however. It really won’t be that difficult to find the right work once you’re trained and certified.
Ideally you should have help with your CV and interview techniques though; additionally, we would recommend everyone to work on polishing up their CV the day they start training – don’t put it off until you’ve qualified. It’s not unusual to find that you’ll secure your first position while still studying (even in the early stages). If your CV doesn’t say what you’re learning (and it hasn’t been posted on jobsites) then you don’t stand a chance! If it’s important to you to find work near your home, then you’ll often find that a specialist locally based employment agency may be of more use than a centralised service, due to the fact that they are much more inclined to know local employment needs.
Not inconsiderable numbers of trainees, so it seems, put a great deal of effort into their studies (sometimes for years), only to do nothing special when trying to get their first job. Introduce yourself… Make an effort to get in front of employers. Don’t expect a job to just fall into your lap.
