When thinking of a computer course or training it's essential that the qualification it leads to is one that is current with the working world. In addition, ensure that the subject suits you, your abilities and your personality. Whether you want to improve your computer user skills, or dream of getting professional IT certifications, there are user-friendly courses and support to turn your goals into reality.

By concentrating on service and delivery, there are now companies offering contemporary courses with excellent training and guidance for considerably less money than is expected from the old-style trainers.

Make sure that all your qualifications are current and commercially required - forget courses which provide certificates that are worthless because they're 'in-house'. From a commercial standpoint, only the big-boys like Microsoft, Adobe, CompTIA or Cisco (for instance) give enough bang for your buck. Anything less won't make the grade.

Quite often, students have issues with one aspect of their training usually not even thought about: The breakdown of the course materials before being couriered to your address. Many companies enrol you into a program spread over 1-3 years, and drop-ship the materials to you piecemeal as you complete each exam. On the surface this seems reasonable - until you consider the following: It's not unusual for trainees to realise that their training company's usual training route doesn't suit. You may find that varying the order of study will be far more suitable. And what if you don't get to the end in the allotted time?

Truth be told, the perfect answer is to get an idea of what they recommend as an ideal study order, but get everything up-front. You're then in possession of everything if you don't manage to finish inside of their required time-scales.

The perhaps intimidating chore of landing your first computer related job is often relieved by training colleges, through a Job Placement Assistance service. Ultimately it isn't a complex operation to secure the right work - assuming you're well trained and qualified; the shortage of IT personnel in Britain looks after that.

Having said that, it's important to have help and assistance with preparing a CV and getting interviews though; and we'd encourage everybody to update their CV as soon as training commences - don't procrastinate and leave it until you've qualified. You may not have got to the stage where you've got to the exam time when you will be offered your first junior support position; however this won't be the case unless you've posted your CV on job sites. Normally you'll get quicker results from a specialist locally based employment agency than you'll get from a course provider's centralised service, as they'll know local industry and the area better.

A slight grievance of a number of training companies is how hard trainees are prepared to work to become certified, but how un-prepared they are to work on getting the job they have studied for. Get out there and hustle - you might find it's fun.

Exam 'guarantees' are sometimes offered as part of a training package - this always means exams have to be paid for upfront, when you pay for the rest of your course. But before you get taken in by guaranteed exams, be aware of the facts:

It's very clear we're still footing the bill for it - it's quite obvious to see that it's been added into the overall figure from the training company. It's certainly not free - and it's insulting that we're supposed to think it is! If it's important to you to pass first time, then you should pay for one exam at a time, focus on it intently and apply yourself as required.

Doesn't it make more sense to find the best exam deal or offer at the time, not to pay any mark-up to the training company, and to do it in a local testing office - instead of miles away at the college's beck and call? Considerable numbers of current training colleges make big margins because they're getting paid for exams at the start of the course and hoping you won't see them all through. Re-takes of any failed exams through training course providers who offer an 'Exam Guarantee' are tightly controlled. You'll be required to sit pre-tests to make sure they think you're going to pass.

With average Prometric and VUE examinations coming in at approximately 112 pounds in Great Britain, by far the best option is to pay for them as you take them. It's not in the student's interests to fork out hundreds or thousands of pounds for exams when enrolling on a course. Study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will really guarantee success.

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