Were it not for a regular deluge of qualified network and PC support staff, commercial enterprise in the United Kingdom (along with most other places) would surely be drawn to a standstill. We have a huge demand for technicians to support both users and the systems they work with. The nation's requirement for increasing numbers of qualified personnel grows, as we become significantly more beholden to computers in these modern times.

The way in which your courseware is broken down for you is often missed by many students. How is the courseware broken down? And in what sequence and at what speed is it delivered? Often, you'll enrol on a course requiring 1-3 years study and get posted one section at a time - from one exam to the next. This sounds logical on one level, until you consider this: Many students find that the company's standard order of study isn't as suitable as another. Sometimes, it's more expedient to use an alternative order of study. Could it cause problems if you don't get everything done at the pace they expect?

For future safety and flexibility, it's not unusual for students to have all their training materials (which they've now paid for) sent immediately, and not in a piecemeal fashion. You can then decide in which order and at what speed you want to work.

One useful service offered by some training providers is a Job Placement Assistance program. This is to help you find your first job in the industry. The fact of the matter is it isn't so complicated as you might think to find your first job - once you're trained and certified; because there's still a great need for IT skills in the UK today.

Whatever you do, don't procrastinate and wait until you've passed your final exams before updating your CV. As soon as you start a course, enter details of your study programme and tell people about it! Getting your CV considered is far better than not even being known about. Many junior jobs are given to people in the early stages of their course. If it's important to you to find work near your home, then you'll often find that a local IT focused recruitment consultancy can generally serve you better than some national concern, due to the fact that they are much more inclined to know what's available near you.

A regular frustration of various training course providers is how much trainees are prepared to study to become certified, but how ill-prepared they are to market themselves for the position they've qualified for. Get out there and hustle - you might find it's fun.

Watch out that all certifications you're working towards are recognised by industry and are up-to-date. 'In-house' exams and the certificates they come with are generally useless. From the viewpoint of an employer, only the major heavyweights like Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe (to give some examples) will open the right doors. Anything less just doesn't cut the mustard.

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