Finding The Right CompTIA Training – Update

Written by Jason Kendall on July 5th, 2009 in Self Development.

The CompTIA A+ course covers 4 different sectors – you’ll need exam certification in two of these areas to be considered A+ competent. For this reason, most colleges restrict their A+ to just two of the four in the syllabus. To us, this is selling you short – certainly you’ll have the qualification, but knowing about the others will set you apart in the workplace, where gaps in your knowledge will expose weaknesses. So that’s why you need education in everything.

A+ computer training courses cover fault-finding and diagnostics – both remote access and hands-on, in addition to building, fixing, repairing and working in antistatic conditions. You may also want to think about doing Network+ as you can then also work with networks, which is where the bigger salaries are.

Looking around, we find a plethora of work available in computing. Finding the particular one for you is generally problematic. Since in the absence of any commercial background in IT, how can most of us be expected to know what anyone doing a particular job actually does? Contemplation on many factors is most definitely required when you want to discover the right answer for you:

* Our personalities play a starring role – what things get your juices flowing, and what are the things that put a frown on your face.

* For what reasons you’re moving into computing – it could be you’re looking to overcome a long-held goal such as working for yourself maybe.

* What priority do you place on job satisfaction vs salary?

* Looking at the many markets that the IT industry encompasses, you’ll need to be able to see what’s different.

* It makes sense to understand the differences across the myriad of training options.

To be honest, your only option to investigate these matters is via a conversation with an advisor or professional that understands the IT industry (and chiefly the commercial requirements.)

Exam ‘guarantees’ are sometimes offered as part of a training package – they always involve paying for the exam fees up-front, when you pay for the rest of your course. Before you get carried away with the chance of a guarantee, be aware of the facts:

You’re paying for it ultimately. One thing’s for sure – it isn’t free – it’s simply been shoe-horned into the price as a whole. It’s everybody’s ambition to qualify on the first attempt. Going for exams in order and funding them one at a time makes it far more likely you’ll pass first time – you put the effort in and are mindful of the investment you’ve made.

Do the examinations somewhere close to home and find the best deal for you at the time. Is there a good reason to pay interest on a bigger loan than is necessary because you’ve paid early for examination fees when there was no need to? A lot of profit is secured by training companies charging all their exam fees up-front – and hoping either that you won’t take them, or it will be a long time before you do. In addition to this, you should consider what an ‘exam guarantee’ really means. Many training companies will not pay again for an exam until you have demonstrated conclusively that you won’t fail again.

Shelling out hundreds or thousands of pounds on ‘Exam Guarantees’ is remiss – when study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will really see you through.

Usually, trainers will provide a bunch of books and manuals. Learning like this is dull and repetitive and isn’t the best way to go about studying effectively. Studies have repeatedly verified that becoming involved with our studies, to utilise all our senses, will more likely produce memories that are deeper and longer-lasting.

Locate a program where you’ll receive a library of DVD-ROM’s – you’ll be learning from instructor videos and demo’s, with the facility to use virtual lab’s to practice your new skills. You’ll definitely want a study material demo’ from the training company. You should ask for expert-led demonstrations, slideshows and interactive labs where you get to practice.

Pick physical media such as CD or DVD ROM’s every time. You can then avoid all the difficulties of broadband ‘downtime’ or slow-speeds.

When did you last consider your job security? Typically, this only rears its head when we experience a knock-back. But really, the lesson often learned too late is that job security simply doesn’t exist anymore, for most of us. It’s possible though to hit upon security at the market sector level, by looking for high demand areas, together with a shortage of skilled staff.

The IT skills shortfall in the UK currently stands at approximately 26 percent, as reported by the 2006 e-Skills analysis. Basically, we’re only able to fill just 3 out of 4 positions in Information Technology (IT). Fully taught and commercially certified new employees are as a result at a total premium, and it’s estimated to remain so for many years to come. Surely, now really is the very best time for retraining into the IT industry.

Students often end up having issues because of a single courseware aspect which doesn’t even occur to them: The way the training is divided into chunks and delivered to your home. Delivery by courier of each element one piece at a time, taking into account your exam passes is how things will normally arrive. This sounds sensible, but you might like to consider this: What if you don’t finish every single exam? And what if the order provided doesn’t meet your requirements? Because of nothing that’s your fault, you may not meet the required timescales and not receive all the modules you’ve paid for.

In all honesty, the very best answer is to have a copy of their prescribed order of study, but get everything up-front. You then have everything in the event you don’t complete everything inside of their required time-scales.

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