Foreword By The Editor
Jason Kendall gives an appraisal of the employment environment available now and in the future for people interested in the Information Technology field in the UK. He also covers the area of home study for those considering entering the field professionally. The opportunities are immense and, even though he is pushing a particular solution in CompTIA, his article is a fair representation of of what is generally available there and what to look out for if you are an IT wannabe anywhere.
Mike Alexander
For all your content needs go to ClipCopy Content Solutions
The Technological Environment
- Image via WikipediaComputer and network support technicians are ever more sought after in the United Kingdom as companies and institutions rely more and more heavily upon their knowledge and ability to fix and repair their systems. Both the commercial and non-commercial sector’s requirements for better skilled and qualified individuals is still growing as we become consistently more dependent upon computers in today’s tech-oriented environment.
Many people simply don’t understand what information technology (IT) is doing for all of us. It’s thrilling, changing, and means we’re all part of a huge step forward in technology that will impact the world for generations to come. There are people who believe that the technological advancement we are experiencing is slowing in pace. Nothing could be more wrong. We are still still about to experience the most incredible advances and, as a result, the internet is going to significantly dominate our future existence.
The Future Of IT
Putting first things first, the remuneration for working in IT is nothing to scoff at. Typical pay rates throughout Britain for an average IT professional are already considerably more than the national average. Chances are that you’ll earn a whole lot more than you’d have any chance of earning doing other work. As the IT industry continues to grow, both nationally and internationally, it’s a sure bet that the requirement for well trained and qualified IT technicians will continue to increase for many years to come.
IT Training Courses
Considering how a program is ‘delivered’ is often missed by many potential students. How many parts is the training broken down into? What is the order and how fast does each element come? By and large, you’ll enrol in a course that takes between and one and three years and gets posted a section at a time; from one exam to the next. While this may sound logical on one level, consider this:
- What if there turn out to be reasons why you can’t finish every single section?
- What if the prescribed order of sections doesn’t suit you?
- What if, through no fault of your own, you can’t meet the required timescales and consequently do not get all your materials?
The perfect answer, of course, is to have a copy of their prescribed order of study but to receive all the materials in one go, up-front. Everything is then in your possession should you not complete it at their required pace.
Importance Of Accreditation
It only makes sense to consider training programmes that will lead to commercially acknowledged exams. There’s an endless list of trainers promoting minor ‘in-house’ certificates which will prove virtually unusable in today’s commercial market. If the accreditation doesn’t have the backing of a company like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA, then it most likely won’t be commercially viable: it’ll be an unknown commodity.
Shopping Around
At the top of your shopping list for a training program should be round-the-clock support by professional mentors and instructors. So many companies only offer a basic nine till six support period (maybe later on certain days) with very little availability over the weekend.
You’ll find yourself waiting ages for an answer from email based support, and telephone support is usually to a call-centre that will just take down the issue and email it over to their technical team. Then (with a bit of luck) they will call back sometime over the next twenty four hours, and at a time suitable to them, not you. This is all next to useless if you are lost and confused and only have a specific time you can study.
Conclusion
As long as you look hard and diligently, you will find top providers that give students online support all the time, including evenings, nights and weekends. If you accept anything less than direct-access 24/7 support, you’ll regret it very quickly. You might not want to use the service late in the night, but consider weekends, early mornings or late evenings.
About The Author
Try Comptia Training or Click HERE. Copyright 2009 S. Edwards.
