There are four A+ exams and study sections, but you only need to get your exams in 2 of them to be considered A+ competent. As this is the case, a great number of colleges simply offer two. However, training you in all four will help you to build a far greater perspective of it all, something you’ll appreciate as an important asset in industry.

As well as being taught about building and fixing computers, trainees on an A+ training course will learn how to operate in antistatic conditions, how to fault find, to diagnose and to remotely access problems.

If you aspire to maintaining networks, add the very comprehensive CompTIA Network+ to your A+ course. Including Network+ will prepare you to apply for more interesting jobs. Other ones that might be interesting to you are the networking qualifications from Microsoft, i.e. MCP, MCSA MCSE.

The way in which your courseware is broken down for you is usually ignored by most students. How is the courseware broken down? What is the order and do you have a say in when you’ll get each part?

Training companies will normally offer some sort of program spread over 1-3 years, and send out each piece as you complete each section or exam. Sounds reasonable? Well consider these facts:

Students often discover that their training company’s usual training route isn’t ideal for them. It’s often the case that varying the order of study will be far more suitable. And what if you don’t get to the end in the allotted time?

Ideally, you want ALL the study materials up-front – so you’ll have them all for the future to come back to – at any time you choose. This allows a variation in the order that you complete your exams if another more intuitive route presents itself.

Doing your bit in progressive developments in new technology really is electrifying. Your actions are instrumental in impacting progress around the world.

It’s a common misapprehension that the technological revolution we have experienced is cooling down. Nothing could be further from the truth. Massive changes are on the horizon, and most especially the internet will be the biggest thing to affect the way we live.

Wages in the IT sector aren’t to be ignored either – the income on average in the UK for the usual IT employee is much higher than in the rest of the economy. It’s a good bet that you’ll receive quite a bit more than you’d expect to earn doing other work.

Due to the technological sector developing year on year, it’s likely that demand for qualified professionals will continue actively for quite some time to come.

Let’s admit it: There really is no such thing as individual job security anymore; there can only be industry and business security – as any company can drop any single member of staff whenever it fits the company’s trade needs.

Security can now only exist in a quickly growing marketplace, fuelled by a shortage of trained workers. It’s this shortage that creates the appropriate background for a secure market – a far better situation.

Reviewing the Information Technology (IT) market, the most recent e-Skills survey brought to light an over 26 percent deficit in trained staff. Or, to put it differently, this shows that the United Kingdom can only locate three properly accredited workers for each 4 job positions existing now.

Appropriately skilled and commercially certified new employees are correspondingly at a resounding premium, and it’s estimated to remain so for many years longer.

It would be hard to imagine if a better time or market settings will exist for getting trained into this quickly expanding and blossoming business.

The perhaps intimidating chore of finding your first job can be made easier by training colleges, through a Job Placement Assistance programme. The fact of the matter is it isn’t so complicated as you might think to secure your first job – once you’re trained and certified; employers in this country need your skills.

Advice and support about getting interviews and your CV might be provided (if it isn’t, consult one of our sites). Ensure you update that dusty old CV right away – don’t leave it till you pass the exams!

You may not have got to the stage where you’ve qualified when you will get your initial junior support role; but this can’t and won’t happen unless you’ve posted your CV on job sites.

Actually, a local IT focused recruitment consultant or service – who make their money when they’ve found you a job – will be more pro-active than a division of a training company. It also stands to reason that they’ll know the area and local employers better.

Please ensure you don’t spend hundreds of hours on your training and studies, and then do nothing more and expect somebody else to sort out your employment. Get off your backside and get out there. Put as much resource into finding your new role as it took to get qualified.

(C) Scott Edwards 2009. Check out Graphic Design Portfolio or CLICK HERE.