There are four A+ exams and specialised sectors, but you’re just expected to achieve certification in two to be thought of as qualified. Because of this, a great number of colleges restrict their course to just 2 areas. But giving you all four options will provide you with a far greater perspective of the subject, which you’ll come to realise is essential in professional employment.

As well as being taught about building and fixing computers, trainees involved in this training will be taught how to work in antistatic conditions, along with remote access, fault finding and diagnostics.

You might also choose to consider adding the CompTIA Network+ training as you’ll then be in a position to work with networks, and have a more responsible working role.

One crafty way that course providers make a big mark-up is by charging for exams up-front and presenting it as a guarantee for your exams. This looks like a great idea for the student, until you think it through:

Patently it isn’t free – you’re still paying for it – it’s just been wrapped up in the price of the package.

It’s everybody’s ambition to qualify on the first attempt. Entering examinations one by one and paying for them just before taking them puts you in a much stronger position to qualify at the first attempt – you put the effort in and are mindful of the investment you’ve made.

Do your exams as locally as possible and don’t pay up-front, but seek out the best deal for you when you’re ready.

Why tie up your cash (or borrow more than you need) for examination fees when you didn’t need to? A lot of profit is made because training colleges are getting money in early for exam fees – and then cashing in when they’re not all taken.

Most companies will insist that you take mock exams first and not allow you to re-take an exam until you’ve demonstrated an excellent ability to pass – which actually leaves you with no guarantee at all.

VUE and Prometric examinations are in the region of 112 pounds in Great Britain. Why spend so much more on fees for ‘exam guarantees’ (usually wrapped up in the course package price) – when good quality study materials, the proper support and a commitment to studying and the use of authorised exam preparation tools are actually the key to your success.

Finding your first job in the industry sometimes feels easier to handle if you’re offered a Job Placement Assistance service. It can happen though that too much is made of this feature, because it’s relatively easy for any motivated and trained individual to secure work in the IT environment – as employers are keen to find appropriately skilled employees.

You would ideally have advice and support about your CV and interviews though; and we’d recommend everyone to work on polishing up their CV the day they start training – don’t procrastinate and leave it until you’ve graduated or passed any exams.

Various junior support jobs have been offered to trainees who’re still on their course and have yet to take their exams. This will at the very least get your CV into the ‘possible’ pile and not the ‘no’ pile.

Most often, a specialist locally based employment service (who will, of course, be keen to place you to receive their commission) is going to give you a better service than a centralised training company’s service. It also stands to reason that they’ll know the area and local employers better.

In a nutshell, if you put as much hard work into securing your first job as into studying, you’re not likely to experience problems. Some people strangely put hundreds of hours into their learning program and just give up once qualified and seem to expect employers to find them.

Of all the important things to consider, one of the most essential is always full 24×7 support with professional mentors and instructors. Far too often we see trainers who only provide office hours (or extended office hours) support.

Don’t accept certification programs which can only support students with a call-centre messaging system when it’s outside of usual working hours. Companies will defend this with all kinds of excuses. Essentially – you need support when you need support – not when it’s convenient for them.

The very best programs tend to use an online access 24×7 facility utilising a variety of support centres throughout multiple time-zones. You’ll have an environment which switches seamlessly to the best choice of centres irrespective of the time of day: Support when you need it.

Never compromise when it comes to your support. The majority of IT hopefuls who give up, are in that situation because of a lack of support.

Now, why is it better to gain qualifications from the commercial sector as opposed to familiar academic qualifications gained through the state educational establishments?

Industry now recognises that to learn the appropriate commercial skills, official accreditation supplied for example by CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA often is more effective in the commercial field – for considerably less.

In essence, students are simply taught the necessary specifics in depth. Actually, it’s not quite as pared down as that, but the principle objective is to concentrate on the fundamentally important skill-sets (with some necessary background) – without trying to cram in every other area (as academia often does).

Put yourself in the employer’s position – and you required somebody who had very specific skills. What should you do: Go through loads of academic qualifications from graduate applicants, asking for course details and which vocational skills they have, or choose particular accreditations that perfectly fit your needs, and make your short-list from that. The interview is then more about the person and how they’ll fit in – rather than establishing whether they can do a specific task.

(C) S. Edwards 2009. Hop over to www.Change-My-Career.co.uk/QCMC.html or HTML Programming.