Companies Training In CompTIA Network Plus in 2009

Posted on | March 27, 2009 |

In the UK today, industry could not function efficiently without assistance from support workers fixing PC’s and networks, while recommending solutions to users on a constant basis. Because we become massively more beholden to technology, we also become more dependent on the skilled and qualified IT networkers, who keep the systems going.

It would be wonderful to believe that our careers are secure and our work prospects are protected, but the growing reality for most sectors in the United Kingdom currently seems to be that security may be a thing of the past. However, a fast growing sector, with huge staffing demands (because of an enormous shortage of properly qualified workers), opens the possibility of lasting job security.

Offering the computing business as an example, the 2006 e-Skills survey showed a skills gap in Great Britain of over 26 percent. To put it another way, this clearly demonstrates that the UK can only find three properly accredited workers for each 4 positions available at the moment. This one idea alone underpins why the UK urgently requires many more new trainees to get into the IT sector. Undoubtedly, it really is such a perfect time to retrain into IT.

Arriving at the most fitting career development option is hard enough - so which sectors are important to investigate and what are the questions we need to pose?

A skilled and practiced consultant (as opposed to a salesman) will talk through your current situation. There is no other way of understanding the point at which you need to start your studies. An important point to note is that, if in the past you’ve acquired any qualifications that are related, then it’s not unreasonable to expect to commence studying further along than a trainee with no history to speak of. If you’re a student commencing IT study from scratch, it can be helpful to break yourself in gently, kicking off with some basic PC skills training first. This can be built into most types of training.

At the top of your shopping list for a training program should be full 24×7 support through trained professional instructors and mentors. Too many companies only provide support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later (but not weekends usually). Never buy certification programs which can only support students via a call-centre messaging system when it’s outside of usual working hours. Trainers will give you every excuse in the book why you don’t need this. The simple fact of the matter is - you need support when you need support - not at times when they find it cheaper to provide it.

Keep your eyes open for providers that utilise many support facilities across multiple time-zones. Each one should be integrated to offer a simple interface as well as 24 hours-a-day access, when it suits you, with no hassle. Never ever take second best when you’re looking for the right support service. Many trainees that drop-out or fail, are in that situation because they didn’t get the support necessary for them.

Students who consider this area of study are often very practical, and aren’t really suited to the classroom environment, and poring through books and manuals. If you’re thinking this sounds like you, opt for more involving, interactive learning materials, where learning is video-based. Memory is vastly improved with an involvement of all our senses - educational experts have expounded on this for decades now.

Fully interactive motion videos with demonstrations and practice sessions will forever turn you away from traditional book study. And you’ll find them fun and interesting. All companies must be able to demonstrate a few examples of the materials provided for study. You should hope for instructor-led videos and many interactive sections.

Avoiding training that is delivered purely online is generally a good idea. Ideally, you should opt for CD and DVD ROM courseware where offered, so that you have access at all times - you don’t want to be reliant on a quality and continuous internet connection.

Commercial certification is now, undoubtedly, already replacing the traditional routes into the industry - why then is this the case? With university education costs spiralling out of control, plus the IT sector’s general opinion that accreditation-based training most often has much more commercial relevance, there has been a great increase in CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA accredited training programmes that educate students at a much reduced cost in terms of money and time. Clearly, a reasonable amount of associated detail has to be learned, but core specialisation in the particular job function gives a commercially trained student a distinct advantage.

The bottom line is: Commercial IT certifications give employers exactly what they’re looking for - everything they need to know is in the title: as an example - I am a ‘Microsoft Certified Professional’ in ‘Managing and Maintaining Windows Server 2003′. So employers can identify exactly what they need and which qualifications are required to perform the job.

Adding in the cost of exam fees up-front and presenting it as a guarantee for your exams is a common method with many training course providers. But look at the facts:

We all know that we’re ultimately paying for it - obviously it has been inserted into the overall figure from the course provider. It’s definitely not free (although some people will believe anything the marketing companies think up these days!) Those who enter their exams one by one, funding them one at a time are in a much stronger position to qualify at the first attempt. They’re thoughtful of what they’ve paid and take the necessary steps to be ready for the task.

Hold on to your money and pay for the exam when you’re ready, and hang on to your cash. You also get more choice of where you take your exam - which means you can stay local. A great deal of money is netted by a significant number of organisations that incorporate exam fees into the cost of the course. For quite legitimate reasons, a number of students don’t get to do their exams but no refunds are given. Amazingly, providers exist that actually rely on students not sitting all the exams - as that’s how they make a lot of their profit. Pay heed to the fact that, with ‘Exam Guarantees’ from most places - you are not in control of when you can do your re-takes. You’ll have to prove conclusively that you can pass before they’ll pay for another exam.

Exam fees averaged about 112 pounds last year through Prometric or VUE centres around the United Kingdom. So what’s the point of paying maybe a thousand pounds extra to have ‘Exam Guarantees’, when common sense dictates that what’s really needed is study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams.

Any program that you’re going to undertake really needs to work up to a fully recognised major certification at the end - not a useless ‘in-house’ piece of paper. From the perspective of an employer, only the top companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA (for instance) really carry any commercial clout. Nothing else hits the mark.

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