It's vital that you know what objectives you are hoping to accomplish if you are going to embark on an IT training course. Have you got employment in your mind that requires specific I.T. user skill-sets, or do you simply would like to know how to use the web more thoroughly? And then again, you may be planning to re-define your career entirely and get in to the I.T. industry itself.

Deciding on the thing you want to achieve out of your training program is always your very first priority. As soon as you've worked out your desired goals, it's much simpler to determine the training route that will meet your necessary aims. Starting with the conclusion in your mind may also prevent you from incurring costly errors.

Going one step farther again, you could research the first level of professional certification: User and Systems Support. To support staff using computers in the office, you're going to need a technical qualification like the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician. A program of this nature generally takes about 100 hours of learning time.

Next, we get into the realms of full professional IT certification. The most popular starting point for hardware support, networking and security jobs would be the CompTIA 'A+' & Network+ certifications. These exams will give you the basic principles of hard-ware & network installation, trouble-shooting, administration, security & support. Training time is normally estimated at around 200 to 250 hrs for both courses, which can be realistically done within six months on a part time basis.

Basically, the starting place for a total novice, who just wants to obtain a simple idea of how to get the most out of their PC, is the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). This will deal with how to operate the basic components of 'Windows' (which is the system which 'runs' the majority of personal PCs.) You can also get ti know about web browsers (so you're able to search on the net,) and e-mail software (to help you to keep in touch with your colleagues and friends.) You'll also learn the fundamentals of word-processing plus a bit about what databases & spreadsheets are generally useful for.

Taking things on a stage further, you may possibly be looking for more professional coaching to enhance your job prospects. Probably the most common of these is further instruction in Microsoft 'Office'. By far the most practical professional certifications teaching 'Office' are 'Microsoft Office Specialist' and Microsoft 'Certified Application Specialist' (recognised recognised in industry as 'MOS' and MCAS). Whilst the former features the MS Office 2003 environment under Windows 'XP', the latter works with Windows Vista & 'Office' 2007. XP continues to be most commonly used within industry, but Vista might be more useful in the future. There are individual examinations for both that test on 'Excel' for spreadsheets, Access for 'databases', 'Powerpoint' for 'presentations' and 'Word' for word-processing. Both equally are well-respected examinations and help make things easy for recruiters to understand your advanced expertise with the packages.

If you are investigating a change of career into IT, then it's likely that you will want to start somewhere amidst these programs, subject to your current level of IT literacy. For much more advanced programs its advisable to talk your ideas through with an industry expert who has IT knowledge. Although anybody considering training to lead to a new career change should be prepared to take proper guidance before starting out. Inadequate preparation can lead to much frustration down the road, & cost a good deal more than it should have!

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