CareerChangeIdea.co.uk

A New IT Career With Distance Learning Training Courses

If you're quite a technical sort of person, and love playing around on your computer, why not pursue a career in IT? We live in an increasingly technological society, so it's a great thing to have qualifications in computing and IT. Survival would now be impossible for most businesses without the input of skilled and qualified IT personnel.

Is It User Skills You're After?

When we refer to work in the IT sector, we're primarily talking here about developer skills. You may be looking for computer literacy skills, which are skills in using office applications and programs.

Many training companies will offer short courses on, for example, PowerPoint Presentations or understanding spreadsheets and the finer points of Excel. Try working through the ECDL program (European Computer Driving Licence) for starters, and then specialise wherever you need more.

Work In Cutting-Edge Technology

It's not always easy today to know what career will be best, but it's worth remembering that IT was one of the last areas to suffer as the economy slowed down. Similarly, it's being viewed as one of the first to recover as the upturn steadily builds its momentum. Plus we're talking about the most progressive, state-of-the-art field of work that exists in the world today. We're going to see huge changes in the not so distant future because of the developments taking place in IT. Don't miss out on the excitement of being part of this truly great movement.

A Great Variety of Roles...

There are a great variety of roles in IT, and thus a great many training courses.

Some roles will be quite stationary with work predominantly at a PC, whereas others involve a lot more movement. Some need a considerable amount of focus and analytics, whereas others demand a more practical application.

There are IT service positions where the work is all about staff support, and programming positions where you tend to need some peace and quiet!

...Discover Your Route

If this is your first stab at entering the world of IT, make sure you get a good understanding of which job function is right for you. Training advisors should be happy to answer any questions you have. Find out what the daily working life would be like before you opt for a particular training course. Treat this research as your first 'student' assignment - and talk to a number of trainers.

Support Work and Networking

There is a shortage of trained and qualified Network Support technicians throughout industry. Have you thought about starting on a Helpdesk answering people's queries, or becoming a technician?

Support work covers a multitude of different jobs, or there's work in Communications, Security, Server Admin and Networking. Plus there's Systems Planning and Design work - that might be more up your street.

Early work could have you very much involved as a local technician, but in time you could find yourself travelling around the globe. You could start your career solving other people's PC or network problems, and steadily progress as you build your experience and certifications to designing major security systems.

It's thanks to men and women in this type of work that industry functions at all these days. With no PC technicians, designers and trouble-shooters, trade and commerce would be a very different state of affairs.

There are now many millions of computers being used for business purposes, and the figure is constantly rising. So of course more and more technical support staff are needed to keep up with these numbers. Do you have the aptitude to learn how to fault-find, analyse and diagnose technical problems? If you're nodding then it would be well worth taking a look at a number of Microsoft or CompTIA training programs on the subject.

The Importance of Professional Certifications

You will have increased job security if you arm yourself with professional qualifications. And when you've got some experience as well, many more opportunities will come your way for advancement up the career ladder.

Professionally qualified networkers who've built their industrial experience over three or more years are usually paid upwards of 35k a year.

There are many people who've developed a certain understanding of hardware, software and how Networks operate etc. Although they can offer a valuable contribution to a department or company, employers can't be absolutely sure they've got the right person for the job.

Professional certifications give an excellent measure of what someone can do, and to what level of competence. Employees with commercial certifications have been shown to be faster, more confident and more dependable in their work than their non-certified colleagues. Moreover a person who has trained and passed commercial exams not only demonstrates a skill level, they also demonstrate an attitude and work ethic that is very attractive to employers. In closing, it's worth pointing out that a growing number of companies can only permit fully qualified workers to handle their computer systems as they can't get insurance on them if they don't.