Programming Courses Around The UK - Update

Category:

By Jason Kendall

Should you be looking for certified training from Microsoft, it stands to reason you'll want training providers to supply a large selection of the best training programs on the market today.

It's advisable to shortlist your ideas with an advisor who understands the IT industry, and will help you select the most appropriate area to match your character.

Courses should be designed to suit your ability level and skills. Hence, having got to grips with the right IT job for you, your next requirement is the most applicable training course that will get you into that job.

It's essential to have the current Microsoft (or relevant organisation's) authorised simulation materials and exam preparation packages.

Steer clear of depending on unauthorised exam preparation questions. The way they're phrased can be quite different - and this leads to huge confusion in the actual examination.

Simulated exams will prove enormously valuable for confidence building - so much so, that at the real thing, you don't get phased.

How the program is actually delivered to you is often missed by many students. How many parts is the training broken down into? And in what order and what control do you have at what pace it arrives?

Many companies enrol you into a program typically taking 1-3 years, and drop-ship the materials to you piecemeal as you complete each exam. This sounds reasonable until you consider the following:

Sometimes the steps or stages insisted on by the company won't suit you. And what if you don't finish each and every section within the time limits imposed?

Put simply, the best option is to obtain their recommendation on the best possible order of study, but make sure you have all of your learning modules right from the beginning. Meaning you've got it all should you not complete it within their ideal time-table.

A service provided by many trainers is job placement assistance. This is to help you get your first commercial position. Don't get overly impressed with this service - it's easy for companies marketing departments to overplay it. In reality, the massive skills shortage in Great Britain is why employers will be interested in you.

Advice and support about getting interviews and your CV should be offered (if it isn't, consult one of our sites). Be sure to you polish up your CV right away - don't wait until you've finished your exams!

You may not have got to the stage where you've passed your first exam when you will get your initial junior support position; but this is not possible unless you've posted your CV on job sites.

Normally you'll get quicker results from a specialist independent regional employment service than you'll experience from any training provider's recruitment division, because they'll know the local area and commercial needs better.

Just make sure you don't conscientiously work through your course materials, and then just stop and expect somebody else to find you a job. Take responsibility for yourself and get on with the job. Put the same resource into getting your first job as it took to get qualified.

Qualifications from the commercial sector are now, most definitely, taking over from the traditional academic paths into IT - but why is this the case?

With university education costs becoming a tall order for many, together with the IT sector's increasing awareness that vendor-based training most often has much more commercial relevance, there has been a dramatic increase in CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA authorised training courses that provide key skills to an employee at a much reduced cost in terms of money and time.

University courses, for instance, can often get caught up in too much loosely associated study - with a syllabus that's far too wide. This holds a student back from understanding the specific essentials in enough depth.

Assuming a company knows what they're looking for, then they simply need to advertise for the particular skill-set required. The syllabuses are set to meet an exact requirement and can't change from one establishment to the next (like academia frequently can and does).

About the Author: