Have a conversation with a practiced advisor and they can normally tell you many horror stories of students who've been conned by dodgy salespeople. Ensure you only ever work with an experienced industry professional that asks some in-depth questions to find out what's right for you - not for their retirement-fund! You must establish the right starting point of study for you. Often, the training inception point for a trainee experienced in some areas is substantially dissimilar to the student with none. Opening with a user skills program first may be the ideal way to start into your IT program, depending on your current skill level.

What is the reason why traditional degrees are now falling behind more commercially accredited qualifications? Key company training (as it's known in the industry) is far more effective and specialised. Industry has become aware that a specialist skill-set is essential to cope with a technologically complex marketplace. CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA dominate in this arena. Vendor training works through concentrating on the skill-sets required (together with a proportionate degree of related knowledge,) as opposed to covering masses of the background 'padding' that academic courses are prone to get tied up in - to pad out the syllabus.

Think about if you were the employer - and you needed to take on someone with a very particular skill-set. What's the simplest way to find the right person: Pore through loads of academic qualifications from hopeful applicants, having to ask what each has covered and what vocational skills have been attained, or pick out specific commercial accreditations that specifically match what you're looking for, and then choose your interviewees based around that. You can then focus on how someone will fit into the team at interview - rather than on the depth of their technical knowledge.

Exam 'guarantees' are sometimes offered as part of a training package - this always means you have to pay for the exams when you pay for the rest of your course. Before you jump at the chance of a guarantee, think about this:

Obviously it's not free - you're still coughing up for it - it's just been wrapped up in the price of the package. People who take each progressive exam, paying as they go are far more likely to pass first time. They're thoughtful of their spending and revise more thoroughly to be up to the task.

Shouldn't you be looking to hold on to your money and pay for the exam at the appropriate time, rather than coughing up months or even a year or two in advance to a training course provider, and to take it closer to home - rather than in some remote centre? A surprising number of so-called credible training providers make huge profits through getting paid for examinations upfront and cashing in if they're not all taken. In addition to this, exam guarantees often have very little value. The majority of organisations won't be prepared to pay for you to re-take until you're able to demonstrate an excellent mock pass rate.

Due to typical VUE and Prometric exams costing in the region of 112 pounds in this country, 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. Commitment, effort and practice with quality exam preparation systems are the factors that really get you through.

Those that are drawn to this type of work are usually quite practically-minded, and aren't really suited to the classroom environment, and slogging through piles of books. If you identify with this, try the newer style of interactive study, where you can learn everything on-screen. Studies have always demonstrated that an 'involved' approach to study, where we utilise all our senses, is proven to produce longer-lasting and deeper memory retention.

Fully interactive motion videos featuring instructor demo's and practice lab's will turn you off book-based study for ever more. And they're a lot more fun to do. Be sure to get a study material demo' from the school that you're considering. The materials should incorporate demo's from instructors, slideshows and lab's for you to practice your skills in.

Many companies provide just online versions of their training packages; and while this is acceptable much of the time, imagine the problems when you don't have access to the internet or you get slow speeds and down-time etc. It is usually safer to have physical CD or DVD discs that don't suffer from these broadband issues.

CompTIA Support Commercial Computer Online Home-Study Certification Courses >>