Well done! Discovering this piece proves you must be pondering over your options, and if it’s re-training you’re considering that means you’ve taken it further than most. Can you believe that just one in ten of us consider ourselves fulfilled in our working life – but the majority will take no corrective action. We implore you to liberate yourself and do something – those who do hardly ever regret it.
We’d politely request that before you start any study program, you run through some things with a mentor who can see the bigger picture and can make recommendations. They can assess your personality and help you sort out a role to fit you:
* Do you want to interact with other people? If you say yes, are you a team player or are you hoping to meet new people? Or are you better working in isolation?
* Do you have a preference which area you could be employed in? (In this economy, it’s vital to get it right.)
* How long a career do you hope to have once retrained, and can your chosen industry give you the confidence that will happen?
* Are you happy that the training program you’ve chosen can help you find employment, and will make it possible to be employed until retirement?
The most significant market sector in Great Britain to tick all of the above boxes is the IT industry. There’s a need for more skilled people in this market, – take a look at any jobs website and you’ll discover what we mean. Don’t let people tell you it’s all techie people looking at their computerscreens all day long – it’s much more diverse than that. Most of the people in the industry are just like you and me, with well paid and stimulating jobs.
If you’re like many of the students we talk to then you probably enjoy fairly practical work – a ‘hands-on’ type. If you’re anything like us, the painful task of reading endless manuals would be considered as a last resort, but you’d hate it. Consider interactive, multimedia study if book-based learning really isn’t your style. Studies in learning psychology have shown that much more of what we learn in remembered when we involve as many senses as possible, and we take action to use what we’ve learned.
The latest home-based training features interactive discs. Real-world classes from the instructors will mean you’ll learn your subject by way of the expert demonstrations. Then it’s time to test your knowledge by interacting with the software and practicing yourself. Each company you’re contemplating should be able to show you a few samples of the materials provided for study. Make sure you encounter videos of instructor-led classes and interactive areas to practice in.
It doesn’t make sense to go for purely on-line training. Connection quality and reliability varies hugely across your average broadband company, it makes sense to have disc based courseware (On CD or DVD).
Most people don’t even think to ask about a painfully important area – how their company actually breaks down and delivers the courseware sections, and into how many bits. Individual deliveries for each training module piece by piece, according to your own speed is the normal way of receiving your courseware. This sounds logical, but you must understand the following: What could you expect if you didn’t actually complete everything at the required speed? Sometimes their preference of study order doesn’t work as well as an alternative path could be.
In all honesty, the best solution is to get an idea of what they recommend as an ideal study order, but get all the study materials at the start. Everything is then in your possession should you not complete it as fast as they’d like.
So many training providers only look at the plaque to hang on your wall, and completely avoid what it’s all actually about – which is of course employment. Always begin with the final destination in mind – don’t make the vehicle more important than the destination. It’s a sad fact, but the majority of trainees kick-off study that often sounds spectacular from the syllabus guide, but which delivers a career that doesn’t satisfy. Just ask several university leavers for a real eye-opener.
Make sure you investigate how you feel about career development, earning potential, and whether you intend to be quite ambitious. You need to know what (if any) sacrifices you’ll need to make for a particular role, what qualifications are needed and in what way you can develop commercial experience. You’d also need help from an advisor that can explain the market you’re considering, and who can give you ‘A typical day in the life of’ outline of the job being considered. These things are absolutely essential as you’ll need to know if you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Huge changes are coming via technology over the next generation – and it only gets more exciting every day. Computing technology and interaction through the internet is going to dramatically affect the direction of our lives over future years; to a vast degree.
Should receiving a good salary be around the top on your scale of wants, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised to hear that the regular income of the majority of IT staff is noticeably greater than with much of the rest of industry. Excitingly, there is a lot more room for IT industry increases throughout this country. The industry is continuing to expand enormously, and as we have a skills gap that means we only typically have three IT workers for every four jobs it’s not likely that there’ll be any kind of easing off for decades to come.
Several companies will provide a useful Job Placement Assistance facility, designed to steer you into your first job. It can happen though that people are too impressed with this facility, for it’s really not that difficult for any focused and well taught person to secure work in the IT environment – because there’s a great need for trained staff.
Get your CV updated straight-away though – you should get plenty of help from your training provider on this. Don’t delay until you’ve graduated or passed any exams. It’s not uncommon to find that junior support jobs have been offered to trainees who are still learning and have yet to take their exams. At least this will get you into the ‘maybe’ pile of CV’s – rather than the ‘No’ pile. You’ll normally experience better results from a local IT focused recruitment consultant or service than you’ll experience from any course provider’s national service, because they will understand the local industry and employment needs.
A regular grievance for many training providers is how much students are prepared to work to get qualified, but how ill-prepared they are to market themselves for the position they have acquired skills for. Don’t falter at the last fence.
You must log in to post a comment.