Whether you’re just about to get started, or have a certain amount of knowledge but are about to gain accredited qualifications, you’ll find hands-on MSCA courses that teach both levels of entry. Each option needs a specialised track, so make sure you’re being offered the best one in advance of making a start. Identify a provider that’s eager to understand you, and what you hope to do, and will supply you with enough facts to make your choice.
Full support is of the utmost importance – locate a good company providing 24×7 full access, as anything less will frustrate you and could put a damper on the speed you move through things. You’ll be waiting ages for an answer with email based support, and phone support is often to a call-centre which will chat nicely with you for 5 minutes to ask what the issue is and then simply send an email to an instructor – who will attempt to call you within 24-48 hrs, at a time suitable for them. This isn’t a lot of good if you’re lost and confused and can only study at specific times.
Keep looking and you’ll come across the top providers who provide their students direct-access online support 24×7 – including evenings, nights and weekends. Unless you insist on 24×7 support, you’ll regret it. You may not need it during late nights, but what about weekends, evenings and early mornings at some point.
If there’s any chance you’ll be enrolling with a training school that is still using ‘in-centre’ days as a benefit of their course, then consider these issues encountered by the majority of trainees:
* A lot of journeys to the workshops – often hundreds of miles.
* Taking constant holidays or time off – a lot of training providers can only give Mon-Fri class availability – typically grouping 2 or 3 days together. This isn’t ideal for most people who work, especially if travelling time is added into the mix.
* The majority of us discover 4 weeks holiday each year is not really enough. Take away over half of it for study days and see your problems doubled.
* ‘In-Centre’ workshop days sometimes are over-subscribed, so we end up having to take something that we don’t really want.
* Many students want to study at a different pace to others in the class. Sometimes this causes the tension often found in classrooms.
* Take into account all of all the travel, fares, accommodation, food and parking and you’ll be in for a big surprise. Students have reported extra costs of between several hundred and a couple of thousand pounds. Work it out – and understand where they’re coming from.
* Do you really want even a small chance of being ignored for a possible promotion or income boosts just because you’re retraining.
* Posing questions in the presence of other class-mates can make any one of us feel nervous. Would you admit that you’ve occasionally avoided posing a question because you were worried it might make you look silly?
* If your work takes you away from home, it’s apparent that workshops are now awkward to keep up – unfortunately however, they’ve already been paid for.
Why not watch on-screen and be trained by instructors one-on-one via filmed classes, doing them at a time that’s convenient for you and you alone. Whenever you experience difficulties, logon to the 24×7 support facility (that you should have insisted on for any technical study.) Keep in mind, if you have a laptop, you can study just about anywhere. Note-taking is a thing of the past – all the lessons are prepared and laid out for you – ready to go. Any time you want to repeat something, it’s right there. The bottom line: Less hassle and stress, saved money, and you’ve got no travelling to do.
Being a part of revolutionary new technology really is electrifying. You become one of a team of people creating a future for us all. We’re in the very early stages of beginning to see just how technology will define our world. Computers and the Internet will significantly revolutionise the way we see and interrelate with the world as a whole over the next few years.
And keep in mind that on average, the income of a person in the IT industry throughout this country is much more than the national average salary, so you’ll more than likely gain much more once qualified in IT, than you could reasonably hope to achieve elsewhere. There is a substantial UK-wide demand for professionally qualified IT workers. And as growth in the industry shows little sign of contracting, it appears there’s going to be for years to come.
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