Adult Retraining

As you’re looking at this we guess you must be considering re-training to work in a different industry - that means you’ve already taken one more step than the majority. Only one in ten of us are content with our jobs, but most just moan and do nothing about it. Why not be one of a small number who decide to make the change.

With regard to specific training programs, find an expert who can help you sort out what to look for. A person who will get an understanding of your personality, and discover what type of job will be right for you:

* Do you operate better working alone or is being in a team environment an essential criteria for you?

* What thoughts do you have with regard to the sector of industry you’ll work in?

* Is it important that this should be the last time you’ll have to retrain?

* Do you expect your new knowledge base to allow you to discover new employment possibilities, and remain in employment until you wish to retire?

We would advise you to really explore the IT sector - there are increasingly more jobs than people to do them, because it’s one of the few choices of career where the market sector is still growing. Contrary to the beliefs of some, it isn’t just geeks gazing at their computer screens the whole time (though those jobs exist.) The majority of jobs are taken by ordinary men and women who like receiving larger than average salaries.

Potential Students looking to get an IT career often haven’t a clue which route to consider, or even what sector to obtain accreditation for. Working through a list of IT job-titles is next to useless. The majority of us don’t even know what our good friends do at work - so we’re in the dark as to the subtleties of a particular IT career. Deliberation over these areas is most definitely required when you want to get to the right answers:

* Your hobbies and interests - these can define what things you’ll get the most enjoyment out of.

* Why you’re looking at moving into the IT industry - maybe you want to triumph over some personal goal like firing your boss and working for yourself for instance.

* What salary and timescale requirements that are important to you?

* Some students don’t fully understand the amount of work expected to achieve their goals.

* You will need to understand what differentiates the myriad of training options.

To be honest, it’s obvious that the only real way to seek advice on these areas will be via a meeting with an experienced advisor who has years of experience in IT (and more importantly the commercial requirements.)

OK, why might we choose commercial certification as opposed to more traditional academic qualifications obtained from schools and Further Education colleges? With an ever-increasing technical demand on resources, industry has had to move to specialist courses that can only come from the vendors - that is companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA. Often this saves time and money for the student. In a nutshell, only that which is required is learned. It’s not quite as straightforward as that, but the principle remains that students need to master the precisely demanded skill-sets (alongside some required background) - without attempting to cover a bit about every other area - in the way that academic establishments often do.

Put yourself in the employer’s position - and your company needed a person with some very particular skills. What is easier: Wade your way through loads of academic qualifications from several applicants, trying to establish what they know and what workplace skills they have, or select a specialised number of commercial certifications that precisely match your needs, and then select who you want to interview from that. You can then focus on how someone will fit into the team at interview - rather than on the depth of their technical knowledge.

Training support for students is an absolute must - ensure you track down something offering 24×7 direct access to instructors, as anything else will annoy you and definitely hamper your progress. Locate training schools with proper support available at all hours of the day and night (irrespective of whether it’s the wee hours on Sunday morning!) You want access directly to professional tutors, and not a call-centre that will take messages so you’re consistently being held in a queue for a call-back - probably during office hours.

We recommend looking for study programmes that use several support centres from around the world. Each one should be integrated to provide a single interface as well as access round-the-clock, when it suits you, without any problems. Never settle for less than this. Support round-the-clock is the only kind to make the grade when it comes to computer-based training. It’s possible you don’t intend to study late evenings; but for most of us, we’re working when traditional support if offered.

Make sure you don’t get caught-up, as a lot of students can, on the training process. Training for training’s sake is generally pointless; this is about gaining commercial employment. Focus on the end-goal. It’s unfortunate, but the majority of trainees commence training that sounds spectacular from the sales literature, but which provides a job that is of no interest at all. Speak to a selection of university graduates for examples.

Make sure you investigate how you feel about earning potential and career progression, and whether you intend to be quite ambitious. It makes sense to understand what (if any) sacrifices you’ll need to make for a particular role, which qualifications are needed and how you’ll gain real-world experience. All students are advised to speak with highly experienced advisors before following a particular study program. This helps to ensure it contains the commercially required skills for the chosen career.

How long has it been since you considered how safe your job is? Normally, we only think of this after something dramatic happens to shake us. But in today’s marketplace, the lesson often learned too late is that true job security simply doesn’t exist anymore, for all but the most lucky of us. Security only exists now through a fast increasing marketplace, fuelled by a shortfall of trained staff. It’s this shortage that creates just the right background for a higher level of market-security - a far better situation.

Recently, a UK e-Skills survey highlighted that over 26 percent of IT jobs cannot be filled as an upshot of a chronic shortage of trained staff. Alternatively, you could say, this shows that Great Britain is only able to source three properly accredited workers for each 4 positions existing today. This single notion in itself reveals why Great Britain requires so many more workers to get trained and enter the Information Technology market. While the market is growing at such a quick pace, it’s unlikely there’s any better market worth looking at as a retraining vehicle.