Good for you! As you’re looking at this you’ve doubtless been pondering on retraining for a new career – that means you’ve already taken one more step than the majority. A small minority of us are content with our jobs, but most just moan and do nothing about it. So, why not be one of the few who take responsibility for their future.

With regard to individual training courses, look for an advisor who will give you advice on the right type of training for you. An advisor who will take time to get an understanding of your personality, and find out what types of work suit you:

* Do you want to interact with other people? If so, do you like working with the same people or are you hoping to meet new people? Alternatively, do you like to deal with your responsibilities alone?

* What do you require from the market sector you work in? – We all know that things have changed, look at building and banking for instance.

* Is this the final time you envisage re-training, and therefore, do you believe this career choice will allow you to do that?

* Do you think being qualified will make it easier to find new work easily, and stay employable until your retirement plans kick in?

Don’t overlook the IT industry, it will be well worth your time – unusually, it’s one of the growing market sectors in this country and overseas. And the salaries are much higher than most.

Looking at the myriad of choice out there, there’s no surprise that nearly all trainees get stuck choosing the job they will enjoy.

As without any commercial background in IT, how should we possibly be expected to understand what someone in a particular job does?

Consideration of these different factors is important if you need to dig down the right answer for you:

* Our personalities play a starring role – what kind of areas spark your interest, and what are the areas that put a frown on your face.

* Are you driven to obtain training due to a particular raison d’etre – e.g. is it your goal to work based from home (maybe self-employment?)?

* What scale of importance is the salary – is it very important, or is enjoying your job a lot higher on the scale of your priorities?

* Always think in-depth about the energy required to achieve their goals.

* What effort, commitment and time you will put into the training program.

The best way to avoid the barrage of jargon, and reveal what’ll really work for you, have an informal chat with an industry-experienced advisor; an individual that can impart the commercial reality whilst covering each qualification.

Review the facts below and pay great regard to them if you’re inclined to think the sales ploy of an ‘Exam Guarantee’ sounds great value:

They’ve allowed costings for it by some means. You can be assured it’s not a freebie – they’ve simply charged more for the whole training package.

Evidence shows that when students fund each progressive exam, one at a time, they will be much more likely to pass every time – as they’re aware of their investment in themselves and their application will be greater.

Don’t pay up-front, but seek out the best deal for you when you take the exam, and save having to find the money early. You’ll then be able to select where you sit the exam – so you can choose somewhere closer to home.

Paying in advance for exams (and if you’re financing your study there’ll be interest on that) is a false economy. Why fill a company’s coffers with your hard-earned cash just to give them more interest! There are those who hope that you won’t get to do them all – so they don’t need to pay for them.

Remember, with the majority of Exam Guarantees – you are not in control of when you can do your re-takes. You will have to demonstrate an excellent pass-rate before they’ll approve a re-take.

On average, exams cost approximately 112 pounds in the last 12 months when taken at VUE or Pro-metric centres in the UK. Therefore, why splash out often many hundreds of pounds extra to have ‘Exam Guarantees’, when common sense dictates that the responsible approach is consistent and systematic learning, coupled with quality exam simulation software.

One thing you must always insist on is comprehensive 24×7 direct-access support with expert mentors and instructors. It’s an all too common story to find providers that only provide support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later (but not weekends usually).

Never accept certification programs which can only support trainees with a call-centre messaging service after 6-9pm in the evening and during weekends. Colleges will try to talk you round from this line of reasoning. Essentially – support is required when it’s required – not as-and-when it’s suitable for their staff.

Keep your eyes open for providers that utilise many support facilities across multiple time-zones. These should be integrated to offer a simple interface as well as 24×7 access, when it’s convenient for you, with the minimum of hassle.

If you opt for less than support round-the-clock, you’ll very quickly realise that you’ve made a mistake. You may avoid using the support in the middle of the night, but you may need weekends, late evenings or early mornings.

Finding your first job in the industry can feel more straightforward with the help of a Job Placement Assistance service. Because of the great skills shortage in Great Britain at the moment, it’s not too important to get too caught up in this feature though. It’s not as difficult as you may be led to believe to find the right work once you’re properly qualified.

Get your CV updated straight-away though (advice and support for this should come from your course provider). Don’t procrastinate and leave it till the exams have actually been passed.

Various junior support roles have been offered to students who are still studying and haven’t even passed a single exam yet. This will at the very least get you on your way.

If you don’t want to travel too far to work, then it’s quite likely that a specialist locally based employment agency might be more appropriate than some national concern, as they’re far more likely to know what’s available near you.

A slight aggravation of many training course providers is how hard people are focused on studying to become certified, but how un-prepared they are to work on getting the position they’re qualified for. Don’t give up when the best is yet to come.