Training for your CompTIA A+ covers 4 different sectors - you’ll have to qualify in 2 specialities to reach the level of competent in A+. Because of this, most colleges only offer two of the 4 sectors. To us, this will under prepare you - yes you’ll have qualified, but experience of all four will give you a distinct advantage in your working life, where knowledge of all four will be necessary. That’s why we believe you should train in the whole course.

A+ computer training courses cover fault-finding and diagnostics - via hands on and remote access, alongside building, fixing, repairing and understanding antistatic conditions.

You may also want to think about adding Network+ training to your A+ as it will give you the knowledge to work with networks, which is where the bigger salaries are.

An advisor that doesn’t question you thoroughly - the likelihood is they’re just trying to sell you something. If they’re pushing towards a particular product before learning about your history and current experience level, then you know you’re being sold to.

If you’ve got a strong background, or sometimes a little commercial experience (possibly even some previous certification?) then obviously your starting level will be very different from someone who is just starting out.

For students beginning IT exams and training anew, it can be helpful to break yourself in gently, kicking off with some basic Microsoft package and Windows skills first. This is often offered with most accreditation programs.

A fatal Faux-Pas that potential students often succumb to is to concentrate on the course itself, and not focus on the desired end-result. Schools have thousands of students who took a course because it seemed fun - instead of the program that would surely get them the job they want.

It’s an awful thing, but a large percentage of students start out on programs that sound great from the sales literature, but which gets us a career that is of no interest. Speak to a selection of university graduates for examples.

It’s well worth a long chat to see what industry will expect from you. Which particular exams they will want you to have and how you’ll build your experience level. It’s definitely worth spending time setting guidelines as to how far you wish to go as often it can affect your choice of qualifications.

The best advice for students is to chat with an experienced industry professional before they embark on a training program. This helps to ensure it features what is required for the career path that has been chosen.

Watch out that all accreditations you’re considering doing will be recognised by employers and are current. The ‘in-house’ certifications provided by many companies are generally useless.

If your certification doesn’t come from a conglomerate such as Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe, then you may discover it will be commercially useless - because it won’t give an employer any directly-useable skills.

Looking around, we find a plethora of jobs and positions available in IT. Finding the particular one in this uncertainty can be very difficult.

Perusing a list of odd-sounding and meaningless job titles is a complete waste of time. Surely, most of us have no idea what our own family members do for a living - so we have no hope of understanding the subtleties of a particular IT career.

Consideration of many points is essential when you want to get to the right answer for you:

* The sort of individual you reckon you are - the tasks that you get enjoyment from, and on the other side of the coin - what makes you unhappy.

* What length of time can you allocate for the retraining?

* Your earning requirements that are important to you?

* Many students don’t properly consider the amount of work needed to attain their desired level.

* How much time you’re prepared to commit your training.

At the end of the day, the most intelligent way of investigating all this is via an in-depth discussion with someone who knows the industry well enough to lead you to the correct decision.

Author: Scott Edwards. Pop to MCSE Course or www.SQLTraining4U.co.uk.