Many trainers will provide a useful Job Placement Assistance program, to help you into your first commercial role. Because of the great demand for appropriately skilled people in the United Kingdom at the moment, it's not too important to become overly impressed with this service however. It's not as difficult as you may be led to believe to get a job as long as you're correctly trained and certified.

Ideally you should have CV and Interview advice and support though; also we would encourage any student to work on polishing up their CV right at the beginning of their training - don't put it off until you've qualified. It's not uncommon to find that junior support jobs have been offered to people who're still on their course and have yet to take their exams. This will at the very least get you on your way. If you'd like to get employment in your home town, then you may well find that a local (but specialised) recruitment consultancy can generally serve you better than some national concern, as they're far more likely to be familiar with what's available near you.

A slight aggravation of many training course providers is how hard students are prepared to study to become certified, but how un-prepared that student is to get the job they've trained for. Don't give up when the best is yet to come.

Charging for exam fees as an inclusive element of the package price and offering an 'Exam Guarantee' is common for a number of training colleges. But let's examine why they really do it:

Thankfully, today we're a little more 'marketing-savvy' - and most of us grasp that it is something we're paying for (it isn't free or out of the goodness of their hearts!) The honest truth is that when students fund each progressive exam, when they're ready to take them and not before, there's a much better chance they'll qualify each time - because they're aware of their payment and will therefore apply themselves appropriately.

Isn't it outrageous to have to pay the training company up-front for examinations? Go for the best offer when you take the exam, rather than coughing up months or even a year or two in advance - and do it locally - instead of miles away at the college's beck and call. Buying a course that includes payments for examination fees (which also includes interest if you've taken out a loan) is bad financial management. Why fill a company's coffers with your money just to give them more interest! A lot bank on the fact that you won't get round to taking them - so they don't need to pay for them. In addition to this, many exam guarantees are worthless. The majority of companies won't pay again for an exam until you have demonstrated conclusively that you won't fail again.

Exams taken at local centres are currently clocking in at an average of 112 pounds in Britain at the time of writing. Students should be very wary of forking out hundreds of pounds extra in charges for 'Exam Guarantees' (most often hidden in the package) - when the best course materials, the right level of support and commitment, effort and practice with quality exam preparation systems are the factors that really get you through.

Many people question why academic qualifications are being overtaken by more qualifications from the commercial sector? With 3 and 4 year academic degree costs increasing year on year, plus the industry's general opinion that key company training is closer to the mark commercially, we have seen a large rise in Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe based training programmes that create knowledgeable employees at a much reduced cost in terms of money and time. This is done through honing in on the skill-sets required (along with a proportionate degree of associated knowledge,) instead of trawling through all the background non-specific minutiae that computer Science Degrees are prone to get tied up in (to fill up a syllabus or course).

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty: Authorised IT qualifications provide exactly what an employer needs - it says what you do in the title: for example, I am a 'Microsoft Certified Professional' in 'Planning and Maintaining a Windows 2003 Infrastructure'. So employers can identify just what their needs are and what certifications will be suitable to deal with those needs.

It's important to understand: the course itself or a qualification is not the ultimate goal; the particular job that you're getting the training for is. A lot of colleges seem to completely prioritise the actual accreditation. It's quite usual, for example, to find immense satisfaction in a year of study and then find yourself trapped for decades in something completely unrewarding, as a consequence of not performing some quality research at the beginning.

You also need to know your feelings on career progression and earning potential, and whether you intend to be quite ambitious. You should understand what (if any) sacrifices you'll need to make for a particular role, what particular exams they want you to have and in what way you can develop commercial experience. It's worth seeking help from an advisor who can explain the sector you're hoping to qualify in, and will be able to provide 'A typical day in the life of' explanation for that career-path. These things are incredibly important because you obviously have to know if this change is right for you.

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