The CompTIA A+ course covers four specialised areas – you’ll have to qualify in just two sectors to be A+ competent. Because of this, most colleges only offer two of the 4 sectors. We consider that this will under prepare you – certainly you’ll have the qualification, but training on all 4 will set you apart in your working life, where knowledge of all four will be necessary. That’s why we believe you should train in the whole course.

Once on the CompTIA A+, you will learn how to build, fix, repair and work in antistatic conditions. Diagnostic techniques and fault finding are also on the syllabus, as is remote access.

If you would like to be the person who works in a multi-faceted environment – fixing and supporting networks, build on A+ with Network+, or consider the Microsoft networking route (MCSA – MCSE) as you’ll need a deeper understanding of how networks work.

The perhaps intimidating chore of getting your first role in IT is often eased by some companies, via a Job Placement Assistance service. With the huge demand for appropriately skilled people in the United Kingdom right now, it’s not necessary to get too caught up in this feature though. It isn’t so complicated as you might think to get your first job as long as you’ve got the necessary skills and qualifications.

Help with your CV and interview techniques is sometimes offered (if not, see one of our sites for help). Make sure you bring your CV right up to date right away – don’t leave it till you pass the exams!

Getting onto the ‘maybe’ pile of CV’s is far better than not even being known about. Often junior support jobs are given to students (who’ve only just left first base.)

If you’d like to keep travelling time and costs to a minimum, then you may well find that a local (but specialised) recruitment consultancy may be more appropriate than a centralised service, for they’re far more likely to be familiar with local employment needs.

To bottom line it, if you put as much hard work into finding your first IT position as into studying, you’re not likely to experience problems. Some trainees inexplicably spend hundreds of hours on their course materials and then just stop once they’ve passed their exams and seem to suppose that interviewers know they’re there.

You should remember: the course itself or the accreditation isn’t the end-goal; a job you’re training for is. Too many training companies over-emphasise the certificate itself.

You may train for one year and then end up doing the job for 20 years. Avoid the mistake of finding what seems like a very ‘interesting’ program only to spend 20 years doing a job you hate!

Spend some time thinking about how much you want to earn and the level of your ambition. This will influence which precise certifications you’ll need to attain and how much effort you’ll have to give in return.

Before you embark on a study course, trainees are advised to chat over the specific job requirements with an experienced industry advisor, in order to be sure the retraining programme covers all that is required.

One area often overlooked by those weighing up a particular programme is the concept of ‘training segmentation’. Basically, this means how the program is broken down into parts for drop-shipping to you, which makes a huge difference to the point you end up at.

Usually, you’ll join a programme staged over 2 or 3 years and receive a module at a time. This sounds logical on one level, until you consider this:

Many students find that the trainer’s ’standard’ path of training isn’t as suitable as another. They might find varying the order of study will be far more suitable. And what if you don’t get to the end at the pace they expect?

To be in the best situation you would have all the learning modules packed off to your address right at the beginning; the whole caboodle! Thus avoiding any future problems that could impede the reaching of your goals.

Traditional teaching in classrooms, involving piles of reference textbooks, is often a huge slog for most of us. If this describes you, look for learning programmes that are multimedia based.

We see a huge improvement in memory retention when all our senses are brought into the mix – educational experts have expounded on this for decades now.

Interactive full motion video involving demonstration and virtual lab’s will beat books every time. And you’ll find them fun and interesting.

It would be silly not to view a small selection of training examples before you purchase a course. You should expect video tutorials, instructor demo’s and audio-visual elements backed up by interactive lab’s.

Pick CD and DVD ROM based physical training media every time. This then avoids all the potential pitfalls with broadband ‘downtime’ or slow-speeds.

(C) 2009 S. Edwards. Check out Website Design Course or Click HERE.