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Training in Cisco is designed for people who want to learn about routers and network switches. Routers join up computer networks via dedicated lines or the internet. It’s most probable that you should first attempt CCNA. It’s not advisable to launch directly into your CCNP as it’s a considerable step up – and you really need experience to have a go at this.

To take this course, you should be clear on computer networks and how they operate and function, because networks are linked to routers. If not, it’s likely you’ll run into difficulties. Why not find training that also includes the basics (maybe the CompTIA Network+, possibly with A+ as well) before you start a CCNA course. Some providers offer this as a career track.

If routers are a new thing for you, then working up to and including the CCNA is all you’ll be able to cope with – you’re not yet ready for your CCNP. When you’ve become more familiar with the work, you can decide if this next level is for you.

It’s incontrovertible, the Information Technology (IT) sector shows excellent opportunities. Yet, to arm ourselves with the correct information, what sort of questions should we pose, and which are the most important factors?

The market provides a plethora of work available in the IT industry. Picking the right one out of this complexity is a mammoth decision. How can we possibly grasp what is involved in a particular job if we’ve never been there? We normally don’t know someone who does that actual job anyway. To attack this, we need to discuss several core topics:

* Your personality can play an important role – what kind of areas spark your interest, and what tasks put a frown on your face.

* What time-frame are you looking at for the training process?

* Is salary further up on your list of priorities than some other areas.

* Understanding what typical career roles and markets are – plus how they’re different to each other.

* How much effort you’ll have available to spend on obtaining your certification.

To bypass the barrage of jargon, and find the best path to success, have an informal meeting with an industry-experienced advisor; an individual who will cover the commercial realities and truth while explaining each certification.

We can guess that you probably enjoy fairly practical work – a ‘hands-on’ personality type. If you’re like us, the unfortunate chore of reading reference guides would be considered as a last resort, but it’s not ideal. Consider interactive, multimedia study if books just don’t do it for you. Our ability to remember is increased with an involvement of all our senses – experts have been clear on this for as long as we can remember.

Top of the range study programs now offer self-contained CD or DVD materials. Instructor-led tutorials will mean you’ll learn your subject through the demonstrations and explanations. Then you test your knowledge by interacting with the software and practicing yourself. It’s very important to see examples of the study materials provided by the company you’re considering. They have to utilise full motion videos of instructors demonstrating the topic with lab’s to practice the skills in.

You’ll find that many companies will only provide training that is purely available online; and although this is okay the majority of the time, imagine the problems if internet access is lost or you get slow speeds and down-time etc. It is usually safer to have DVD or CD discs which removes the issue entirely.

Proper support is incredibly important – find a program that includes 24×7 access, as anything less will frustrate you and could impede your ability to learn. Don’t buy training that only supports students with an out-sourced call-centre message system outside of normal office hours. Companies will try to talk you round from this line of reasoning. But, no matter how they put it – you want support at the appropriate time – not when it’s convenient for them.

The very best programs opt for an online access round-the-clock facility utilising a variety of support centres over many time-zones. You will have an easy to use interface that seamlessly accesses whichever office is appropriate irrespective of the time of day: Support on demand. You can’t afford to accept anything less. 24×7 support is the only kind that ever makes the grade when it comes to computer-based training. It’s possible you don’t intend to study late evenings; usually though, we’re out at work at the time when most support is available.

Make sure that all your exams are current and commercially required – don’t bother with programs which end up with a useless in-house certificate or plaque. Unless the accreditation comes from a conglomerate such as Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco or CompTIA, then you’ll probably find it won’t be commercially viable – as it’ll be an unknown commodity.

Think about the facts below carefully if you’re inclined to think the sales ploy of ‘guaranteeing’ exams sounds like a benefit to the student:

Everyone knows they’re still paying for it – it’s quite obvious to see that it’s already been included in the full cost of the package supplied by the college. Certainly, it’s not a freebie – and it’s insulting that we’re supposed to think it is! The honest truth is that when students fund their own exams, when they’re ready to take them and not before, they’ll be in a better position to pass first time – because they’re aware of their payment and so will prepare more thoroughly.

Doesn’t it make more sense to find the best exam deal or offer at the time, not to pay any mark-up to a training college, and to do it in a local testing office – instead of miles away at the college’s beck and call? A lot of extra profit is secured by many companies that take the exam money up-front. For various reasons, many students don’t take their exams and so the company is quids-in. Astoundingly enough, there are companies around that depend on students not taking their exams – as that’s where a lot of their profit comes from. The majority of companies will insist that you take mock exams first and with-hold subsequent exam entries from you until you’ve proven conclusively that you can pass – making an ‘exam guarantee’ just about worthless.

Prometric and VUE exams are currently clocking in at an average of 112 pounds in Britain at the time of writing. Why spend so much more on fees for ‘exam guarantees’ (usually wrapped up in the course package price) – when a quality course, support and consistent and systematic learning, coupled with quality exam simulation software is what will really see you through.

Many people question why qualifications from colleges and universities are being overtaken by more commercial certificates? The IT sector is of the opinion that for mastery of skill sets for commercial use, official accreditation from the likes of Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA often is more effective in the commercial field – saving time and money. Many degrees, for example, become confusing because of a lot of loosely associated study – and a syllabus that’s too generalised. This holds a student back from getting enough core and in-depth understanding on a specific area.

Think about if you were the employer – and your company needed a person with some very particular skills. What is easier: Trawl through reams of different degrees and college qualifications from hopeful applicants, trying to establish what they know and which workplace skills they’ve acquired, or choose a specific set of accreditations that precisely match your needs, and make your short-list from that. The interview is then more about the person and how they’ll fit in – instead of long discussions on technical suitability.

There is a tidal wave of change coming via technology as we approach the second decade of the 21st century – and it becomes more and more thrilling each day. We’re only just starting to understand what this change will mean to us. The way we interrelate with the rest of the world will be inordinately affected by computers and the web.

Let’s not ignore salaries moreover – the usual income in the United Kingdom for a typical IT worker is noticeably more than average salaries nationally. Chances are that you’ll earn a much better deal than you’d expect to earn doing other work. Due to the technological sector emerging with no sign of a slow-down, the chances are that the requirement for certified IT specialists will continue to boom for a good while yet.

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If your dream is to become a great web designer with the right credentials for today’s job market, you should find training in Adobe Dreamweaver. In order to take advantage of Dreamweaver professionally as a web designer, an in-depth understanding of the complete Adobe Web Creative Suite (which includes Flash and Action Script) is something to consider very seriously. Having this knowledge will mean, you could subsequently become an ACP (Adobe Certified Professional) or an ACE (Adobe Certified Expert).

Understanding how to create the website is just the start. Traffic creation, maintaining content and various programming skills should follow. Look for courses with additional features that include these skills (such as PHP, HTML, MySQL etc.), alongside E-Commerce and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

Does job security truly exist anywhere now? In the UK for example, with businesses changing their mind on a whim, we’d question whether it does. Wherever we find rising skills shortages and high demand areas of course, we can find a newly emerging type of security in the marketplace; driven by the constant growth conditions, employers just can’t get the staff required.

Looking at the Information Technology (IT) market, the 2006 e-Skills study brought to light a 26 percent shortage in trained professionals. To put it another way, this clearly demonstrates that Great Britain can only locate three properly accredited workers for every four jobs that are available currently. This basic truth clearly demonstrates an urgent requirement for more properly trained computer professionals throughout Great Britain. Because the IT sector is expanding at such a rate, there really isn’t any other sector worth taking into account for your new career.

Picking up on so much talk about computer technology nowadays, how do we recognize what exactly to look for?

Throw out any salesman that pushes one particular program without an in-depth conversation to better understand your current abilities as well as level of experience. Make sure they can draw from a large product range so they’re able to provide you with what’s right for you. Occasionally, the training inception point for a trainee experienced in some areas can be massively dissimilar to the student with no experience. If you’re a student commencing IT study from scratch, you might like to break yourself in gently, starting with some basic Microsoft package and Windows skills first. This is often offered with most training packages.

We need to make this very clear: It’s essential to obtain proper 24×7 round-the-clock instructor and mentor support. We can tell you that you’ll strongly regret it if you don’t. Avoid training that only supports you via an out-sourced call-centre message system after office-staff have gone home. Training companies will try to talk you round from this line of reasoning. The bottom line is – you want support at the appropriate time – not at their convenience.

Top training providers offer an online access round-the-clock package combining multiple support operations across the globe. You get a single, easy-to-use interface that seamlessly accesses whichever office is appropriate no matter what time of day it is: Support when you need it. If you accept anything less than online 24×7 support, you’ll regret it very quickly. It may be that you don’t use it late in the night, but what about weekends, evenings and early mornings at some point.

We can guess that you’re a practical sort of person – a ‘hands-on’ personality type. If you’re like us, the trial of reading reference books and manuals is something you’ll make yourself do if you have to, but you’d hate it. Check out video-based multimedia instruction if learning from books is not your thing. We see a huge improvement in memory retention with an involvement of all our senses – experts have been clear on this for years now.

Courses are now available via DVD-ROM discs, so everything is learned directly from your own PC. Utilising the latest video technology, you will be able to see the instructor presenting exactly how something is done, followed by your chance to practice – via the interactive virtual lab’s. It would be silly not to view some examples of the kind of training materials you’ll be using before you sign on the dotted line. You should expect video tutorials, instructor demo’s and interactive audio-visual sections with practice modules.

You should avoid purely online training. Physical CD or DVD ROM materials are preferable where offered, as you need to be able to use them whenever it’s convenient for you – ISP quality varies, so you don’t want to be totally reliant on your internet connection always being ‘up’ and available.

Many men and women presume that the tech college or university route is still the most effective. So why is commercial certification beginning to overtake it? With the costs of academic degree’s becoming a tall order for many, alongside the IT sector’s growing opinion that key company training is closer to the mark commercially, we’ve seen a great increase in CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA accredited training programmes that supply key solutions to a student at a fraction of the cost and time involved. Clearly, a reasonable portion of relevant additional detail needs to be taught, but precise specifics in the required areas gives a commercially educated person a distinct advantage.

If an employer understands what work they need doing, then they simply need to advertise for the particular skill-set required. The syllabuses all have to conform to the same requirements and do not vary between trainers (as academic syllabuses often do).

A successful training package will incorporate Microsoft (or key company) simulation materials and exam preparation packages. Don’t go for training programs relying on unauthorised exam preparation systems. The way they’re phrased is often somewhat different – and this leads to huge confusion when it comes to taking the real exam. Practice exams will prove enormously valuable as a resource to you – so when it comes to taking your actual exams, you don’t get phased.

A useful feature offered by some training providers is a programme of Job Placement assistance. It’s intention is to help you get your first commercial position. But don’t place too much emphasis on it – it’s easy for training companies to overstate it’s need. The fact of the matter is, the still growing need for IT personnel in the UK is why employers will be interested in you.

CV and Interview advice and support is sometimes offered (if not, see one of our sites for help). Ensure you polish up your CV immediately – don’t wait until you’ve finished your exams! Getting onto the ‘maybe’ pile of CV’s is more than not being regarded at all. A surprising amount of junior support jobs are bagged by students (sometimes when they’ve only just got going.) You can usually expect better performance from an independent and specialised local recruitment consultancy than you will through a training company’s recruitment division, as they’ll know the area better.

A slight grievance for some training companies is how much students are prepared to work to become certified, but how little effort that student will then put into getting the role they have trained for. Don’t falter at the last fence.