Computer Training – CompTIA – Options
There are four specialised areas of training in the overall A+ programme, but you’re just required to achieve pass marks in 2 for competency in A+. However only learning about 2 of the specialised areas is likely to leave your knowledge base somewhat light. Choose a course with all 4 subjects – you’ll be glad you did when it comes to interview time.
As well as learning about the ins and outs of building and maintaining computers, trainees on an A+ training course will be taught how to work in antistatic conditions, as well as diagnostics, fault-finding and remote access.
If you add Network+ to your A+ course, you will additionally be able to assist with or manage networks of computers, giving you the facility to move further up the career path.
A subtle way that colleges make more money is through up-front charges for exams then giving it ‘Exam Guarantee’ status. It looks like a good deal, but let’s just examine it more closely:
You’ll pay for it by some means. You can be assured it’s not a freebie – it’s simply been shoe-horned into the price as a whole.
Should you seriously need to qualify first ‘go’, you must pay for each exam as you go, prioritise it appropriately and be ready for the task.
Does it really add up to pay the training college early for exam fees? Find the best deal you can when you take the exam, rather than pay marked up fees – and sit exams more locally – rather than in some remote place.
Is there a good reason to pay interest on a bigger loan than is necessary because you’ve paid early for examinations when you didn’t need to? A great deal of money is made by companies charging upfront for all their exams – and then cashing in when they’re not all taken.
In addition to this, ‘Exam Guarantees’ often aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. The majority of companies will not pay again for an exam until you’ve completely satisfied them that you’re ready this time.
Exams taken at VUE and Prometric centres are approximately 112 pounds in Britain at the time of writing. Why spend so much more on ‘Exam Guarantee’ costs (usually wrapped up in the course package price) – when good quality study materials, the proper support and commitment, effort and practice with quality exam preparation systems are the factors that really get you through.
Commercially accredited qualifications are now, very visibly, already replacing the traditional routes into IT – but why has this come about?
Corporate based study (as it’s known in the industry) is far more specialised and product-specific. The IT sector has become aware that specialisation is necessary to handle an increasingly more technical world. Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA are the key players in this arena.
They do this through concentrating on the particular skills that are needed (along with a relevant amount of related knowledge,) instead of covering masses of the background non-specific minutiae that computer Science Degrees are prone to get tied up in (because the syllabus is so wide).
What if you were an employer – and you required somebody who had very specific skills. What is easier: Pore through a mass of different academic qualifications from graduate applicants, asking for course details and which workplace skills they have, or choose a specific set of accreditations that precisely match your needs, and draw up from that who you want to speak to. Your interviews are then about personal suitability – rather than on the depth of their technical knowledge.
Finding your first job in the industry sometimes feels easier to handle if you’re supported with a Job Placement Assistance service. Don’t get overly impressed with this service – it isn’t unusual for training companies to overplay it. Ultimately, the massive skills shortage in this country is why employers will be interested in you.
However, don’t leave it until you’ve completed your exams before polishing up your CV. As soon as your training commences, enter details of your study programme and place it on jobsites!
You might not even have taken your exams when you will be offered your first junior support job; yet this isn’t going to happen unless your CV is with employers.
If you’d like to get employment in your home town, then it’s quite likely that a specialist independent regional recruitment consultant or service could serve you better than a national service, for they are much more inclined to be familiar with what’s available near you.
Just be sure that you don’t spend hundreds of hours on your training and studies, only to stop and expect somebody else to secure your first position. Get off your backside and get out there. Invest as much resource into securing your first job as it took to pass the exams.
Massive developments are coming via technology over the next generation – and the industry becomes more ground-breaking every year.
We’re barely beginning to comprehend what this change will mean to us. How we communicate and interact with everyone around us will be inordinately affected by technology and the web.
Should receiving a good salary be high on your goal sheet, then you’ll welcome the news that the regular income for IT employees in general is noticeably more than salaries in the rest of the economy.
With the IT marketplace emerging at an unprecedented rate, it’s likely that demand for certified IT specialists will flourish for a good while yet.
Written by Scott Edwards. Navigate to www.acertification.co.uk or Click Here.