You should feel pleased that you're on the right track! Only one in ten folks are happy and satisfied by their jobs, but a huge number complain to each other and that's it. By looking for this we have a hunch that you're at least considering retraining, so you've already stood out from the crowd. Take your time now to find out more and then take action.

Before we even think about specific training programs, discuss your thoughts with an industry expert who will be able to guide you on which area will be right for you. Someone who has the ability to get to know your personality, and discover what job role you'll be most comfortable with:

* Do you like to be around others at work? Are you better with new people or those you know well? Or you may prefer task-orientated work that you deal with by yourself?

* Which criteria's are important to you regarding the industry you're looking to get into?

* Is it important that this should be the only time you'll need to re-qualify?

* Do you have niggles with regard to the chance of new employment opportunities, and staying employable right up to retirement?

Pay attention to the IT sector, that will be time well spent - it's one of the few sectors of industry still growing in Great Britain and Europe. In addition, salaries and benefits exceed most other industries.

Workshop days get touted as a major benefit by many training schools. When you talk to most IT students who have partaken in a couple, you'll begin to see a common thread - they are viewed as a difficulty to be 'got round' due to many reasons:

* All that travelling - multiple visits and usually hundreds of miles a time.

* If, like many of us, you work, then weekday events are hard to attend. Often you're facing several days in a row too.

* Usually, we discover 4 weeks holiday each year doesn't go very far. Knock off at least half of this for study workshops and watch how much harder things become.

* 'In-Centre' days can become overly large as well.

* Class pace - classes normally contain trainees of varying aptitude, consequently tension can be created between the quicker-learners and those who prefer a more relaxed pace.

* Most students report that the (not inconsiderable) costs of travelling back and forth to the venue while forking out for food and accommodation can get very high.

* Most students want their studies to remain private thus avoiding all questions whilst in their current job.

* It's common to avoid posing questions when surrounded by our fellow trainees - as we don't want to look silly.

* There are those of us who sometimes live away for part of the week, think of the now-increased trouble of reaching the required days in-centre, as time is now more scarce than ever.

An altogether more elegant solution is by viewing a pre-filmed class - giving you the opportunity of instructor-led coaching whenever you wish. You can study at home on your desktop PC or use your laptop to enjoy the sun. Any questions; then utilise the 24x7 Support (that you should have insisted on for any technical study.) Simply watch and re-watch the elements as often as you want or need. And of course, you won't need to make notes as you have the lesson indefinitely. Put directly: You save on money, time, hassle and completely avoid polluting our environment.

We're often asked why academic qualifications are being replaced by more commercial qualifications? The IT sector is now aware that to cover the necessary commercial skill-sets, official accreditation from companies such as Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA often is more effective in the commercial field - saving time and money. They do this through focusing on the particular skills that are needed (together with an appropriate level of background knowledge,) rather than going into the heightened depths of background 'extras' that degree courses can often find themselves doing - to fill a three or four year course.

Think about if you were the employer - and you wanted someone who could provide a specific set of skills. What's the simplest way to find the right person: Pore through a mass of different academic qualifications from graduate applicants, struggling to grasp what they've learned and which workplace skills they've acquired, or choose a specific set of accreditations that precisely match your needs, and then choose your interviewees based around that. The interview is then more about the person and how they'll fit in - rather than on the depth of their technical knowledge.

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