An advisor that doesn't question you thoroughly - it's more than likely they're just trying to sell you something. If they push a particular product before understanding your background and whether you have any commercial experience, then it's definitely the case. Quite often, the starting point of study for a student with some experience is often substantially different to someone without. Opening with a foundation course first can be the best way to get up and running on your IT training, but depends on your skill level.

In most cases, the normal IT hopeful has no idea how they should get into the IT industry, let alone what sector is worth considering for retraining. How can most of us possibly understand the tasks faced daily in an IT career if we've never been there? We normally don't know someone who does that actual job anyway. Contemplation on these different factors is imperative when you need to reveal a solution that suits you:

- Your personal interests and hobbies - these often show the things will satisfy you.

- Why you want to consider getting involved with computing - is it to triumph over a particular goal like self-employment for example.

- Your earning requirements you may have?

- Many students don't properly consider the energy demanded to get fully certified.

- You have to understand what differentiates each individual training area.

For the average person, getting to the bottom of so much data tends to require the help of a professional who can explain things properly. And not just the qualifications - you also need to understand the commercial requirements and expectations besides.

A lot of training companies still use the slightly musty old method of classroom days. Very often portrayed as a huge benefit, if you track down someone who's been through a few, you'll hear a common theme of many or most of these problems:

- Constant travelling - hundreds of miles a lot of the time.

- Availability of classes; frequently Monday to Friday and sometimes 2-3 days at a time. This can be difficult to get the days away from work.

- I think you'd agree that we usually end up feeling 4 weeks holiday each year isn't enough by far. Take away at least half of this for study classes and see your problems doubled.

- Workshop days normally reach their maximum intake very quickly, so we end up having to take something that we don't really want.

- The pace of the class - workshops often have students of varying skill, therefore tension can be created between students with more background knowledge and those who want to go a little slower.

- A lot of students tell us of the considerable cost of getting transport to and from the training centre whilst paying for accommodation and food becomes prohibitively expensive.

- Most students want to keep their training private and therefore avoiding all management questions from their current employer.

- It's very common for students to not ask questions they want answered - just because they're with their peers.

- For students working away from home occasionally, you now have to deal with the fact that days in-centre are now very hard to attend - but unfortunately, the fees were paid along with everything else at the start.

The most elegant solution is by viewing a ready-made, videoed lesson - providing direct instruction whenever it's convenient for you. Imagine... If you have a notebook PC then you could study in the garden, a park, or just outside. And live 24 hr-a-day support is an online click away at times of difficulty. You have the ability to go back and re-cover all the study units whenever you need to prep for an exam. And of course, you won't need to take notes as the teaching is yours forever. While this doesn't take away any normal learning difficulties, it unquestionably removes stress and makes things simpler. And you've reduced hassle, travel and costs.

Far too many companies focus completely on the certification process, and forget the reasons for getting there - which is of course employment. Always start with the end in mind - don't get hung-up on the training vehicle. It's unfortunate, but thousands of new students commence training that sounds wonderful in the syllabus guide, but which gets us a career that is of no interest at all. Talk to many college leavers and you'll see where we're coming from.

Stay tuned-in to where you want to go, and formulate your training based on that - avoid getting them back-to-front. Stay on target and ensure that you're training for something that'll reward you for many long and fruitful years. Talk to an industry professional that has a commercial understanding of the realities faced in the industry, and could provide detailed descriptions of the kind of things you'll be doing on a daily basis. Establishing this long before starting out on a retraining programme has obvious benefits.

So, why should we consider qualifications from the commercial sector rather than more traditional academic qualifications obtained from schools and Further Education colleges? With the costs of academic degree's spiralling out of control, and the industry's recognition that key company training most often has much more commercial relevance, there's been a large rise in Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe authorised training routes that educate students for much less time and money. Vendor training works by honing in on the actual skills required (alongside a proportionate degree of background knowledge,) rather than covering masses of the background non-specific minutiae that computer Science Degrees can often find themselves doing - to fill a three or four year course.

It's rather like the advert: 'It does what it says on the tin'. Employers simply need to know where they have gaps, and then request applicants with the correct exam numbers. Then they know that anyone who applies can do the necessary work.

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