Many students come unstuck over one area of their training very rarely considered: The way the training is divided into chunks and physically delivered to you. Most companies will sell you a program typically taking 1-3 years, and deliver each piece one-by-one as you get to the end of each exam. This sounds reasonable until you consider the following: What would happen if you didn't finish each and every module at the required speed? Sometimes their preference of study order doesn't work as well as an alternative path could be.

Put simply, the very best answer is to have their ideal 'order' of training laid out, but make sure you have all of your learning modules right from the beginning. Meaning you've got it all if you don't manage to finish within their ideal time-table.

The sometimes daunting task of securing your first IT job can be made easier by some companies, via a Job Placement Assistance service. With the growing demand for appropriately skilled people in Great Britain at the moment, it's not too important to become overly impressed with this service however. It isn't so complicated as you might think to secure the right work once you're properly qualified.

CV and Interview advice and support should be offered (if not, see one of our sites for help). It's essential that you update that dusty old CV right away - not after you've qualified! Having the possibility of an interview is far better than not even being known about. A decent number of junior support roles are got by people who are still at an early stage in their studies. In many cases, a local IT focused employment agency - who make their money when they've found you a job - should get better results than any division of a training company. It also stands to reason that they'll know the area and local employers better.

Fundamentally, as long as you put the same commitment into landing your first job as into studying, you won't find it too challenging. A number of men and women curiously put hundreds of hours into their training course and then call a halt once certified and seem to suppose that interviewers know they're there.

A lot of students think that the tech college or university system is the right way even now. So why then is commercial certification beginning to overtake it? As we require increasingly more effective technological know-how, industry has of necessity moved to specialist courses that can only be obtained from the actual vendors - that is companies such as Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe. This frequently provides reductions in both cost and time. The training is effectively done through concentrating on the actual skills required (together with a relevant amount of related knowledge,) rather than covering masses of the background 'padding' that computer Science Degrees are prone to get tied up in (to fill up a syllabus or course).

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty: Accredited IT qualifications provide exactly what an employer needs - everything they need to know is in the title: for example, I am a 'Microsoft Certified Professional' in 'Managing and Maintaining Windows Server 2003'. Consequently companies can identify just what their needs are and what certifications will be suitable to deal with those needs.

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