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If we didn’t have a regular deluge of qualified network and computer support staff, business throughout the country (along with most other places) would inevitably grind to a halt. There is a constantly increasing demand for men and women with technical ability to support both users and the systems they work with. With the increasingly complex nature of technological advances, more and more IT professionals are required to specialise in the many areas we’ve come to rely on.

‘In-Centre’ days can be offered as a big positive benefit by a lot of training academies. When you chat with most computer industry trainees that have tried them out, you’ll discover that they’re really a major problem as they hadn’t properly considered the following:

* Loads of travelling – multiple trips and often 100’s of miles at a go.

* Accessibility to workshops; frequently Monday to Friday and 2-3 days in a row. It’s never convenient to take the required days away from work.

* At just twenty days annual leave, giving half of them to educational events means we’ll be hard-pushed to get a holiday with our families.

* Training classes sometimes get over full.

* The ‘pace’ – workshops usually feature trainees of varying abilities, consequently tension develops between the quicker-learners and the ones who need a little longer.

* The cost of travel – travelling to the training facility plus over-night bed and breakfast can start to get expensive each time you attend. Assuming just 5-10 classes at about thirty-five pounds for one night’s accommodation, plus forty pounds for petrol and food at 15.00, that becomes a minimum of 450-900 pounds of hidden costs on top.

* Keeping your training private from your employer will be of paramount importance to a lot of students. There’s no need to sacrifice any possible promotions, pay-rises or accomplishment at work just because you’re retraining. If your employer knows you’ve committed to accreditation in another sector, what do you think they’ll do?

* Every one of us must, at some time, have avoided posing that question we were dying to ask, just because we didn’t want to look stupid?

* When your work takes you away from home, you face the added difficulty that classes now become impossible to get to – unfortunately however, the fees were paid along with everything else at the start.

It really does make much more sense to study when it suits you — not the training company – and employ virtual lab environments with videos of your instructors. Study from home on your PC or out in the garden on your laptop. If you’ve got questions, then use the provided 24×7 live support (that we hope you’ll insist on with any technical courses.) No matter how regularly you feel you need to repeat something, on-screen teachers aren’t ever likely to rush you! And remember, because of this, note-taking becomes a thing of the past. It’s already there for immediate use. Could it get any simpler: No travelling, wasted time or money; plus you end up with a more peaceful study atmosphere.

A number of students are under the impression that the tech college or university system is the way they should go. Why then is commercial certification beginning to overtake it? Industry now acknowledges that for mastery of skill sets for commercial use, certified accreditation from the likes of CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA is closer to the mark commercially – at a far reduced cost both money and time wise. Patently, a necessary degree of associated information must be covered, but essential specialised knowledge in the required areas gives a commercially educated person a distinct advantage.

It’s a bit like the TV advert: ‘It does what it says on the label’. All an employer has to do is know what they’re looking for, and then advertise for someone with the specific certification. That way they can be sure they’re interviewing applicants who can do the job.