Well done! Hitting upon this feature suggests you’re thinking about your future, and if it’s re-training you’re considering you’ve already done more than almost everybody else. Did you know that hardly any of us describe ourselves as contented at work – but most will just put up with it. We encourage you to be different and move forward – you have the rest of your life to enjoy it.

When considering retraining, it’s vital to first define your requirements from the position you’d like to train for. You need to know that things would be a lot better before much time and effort is spent re-directing your life. It’s good sense to regard the big picture first, to make an informed decision:

* Is having company at work important to you? Are you better with new people or those you know well? Or you may prefer task-orientated work that you can complete alone?

* What do you require from the market sector you work in? (Things do change – look at the building trade, or banks for example.)

* Is this the last time you imagine you’ll re-train, and if so, do you suppose your new career will allow you to do that?

* Would you like your study to be in an industry where you believe your chances of gainful employment are high until retirement?

We would advise that you consider Information Technology – it’s well known that it is one of the few growth sectors. It’s not all nerdy people looking at computer screens constantly – naturally some IT jobs demand that, but the majority of roles are carried out by people like you and me who get on very well.

Finding your first job in the industry is often made easier with a Job Placement Assistance program. At the end of the day it isn’t so complicated as you might think to land a job – as long as you’re correctly trained and certified; 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; also we would encourage any student to get their CV updated right at the beginning of their training – don’t put it off till you’ve finished your exams.

Getting your CV considered is more than not being known. A surprising amount of junior positions are bagged by trainees (sometimes when they’ve only just got going.)

Most often, a specialist locally based recruitment consultancy (who will, of course, be keen to place you to receive their commission) is going to give you a better service than a centralised training company’s service. They should, of course, also be familiar with the local area and commercial needs.

A big frustration for a number of training providers is how much people are focused on studying to get top marks in their exams, but how un-prepared they are to work on getting the role they’ve acquired skills for. Get out there and hustle – you might find it’s fun.

A ridiculously large number of organisations only concern themselves with gaining a certificate, and forget what it’s all actually about – which is a commercial career or job. You should always begin with the final destination in mind – don’t get hung-up on the training vehicle.

Students often train for a single year but end up performing the job-role for decades. Don’t make the mistake of choosing what sounds like an ‘interesting’ training program only to spend 20 years doing a job you hate!

Spend some time thinking about earning potential and what level of ambition fits you. This will influence what precise certifications will be expected and how much effort you’ll have to give in return.

Take guidance from an experienced professional, even if you have to pay – it’s usually much cheaper and safer to find out at the start if you’ve chosen correctly, instead of discovering following two years of study that you aren’t going to enjoy the job you’ve chosen and now need to go back to square one.

In most cases, your normal person has no idea in what direction to head in a computing career, let alone which market they should be considering getting trained in.

How can we possibly grasp the tasks faced daily in an IT career if we’ve never been there? Often we have never met anyone who performs the role either.

Consideration of the following issues is most definitely required when you want to reveal the right answers:

* What hobbies you have and enjoy – these can point towards what areas will give you the most reward.

* Are you aiming to achieve a closely held dream – like working for yourself someday?

* What salary and timescale requirements you may have?

* Learning what the main work types and markets are – plus how they’re different to each other.

* The time and energy you’ll commit your training.

The best way to avoid the industry jargon, and discover what’ll really work for you, have an informal meeting with an advisor with years of experience; someone who understands the commercial reality whilst covering all the qualifications.

Watch out that all accreditations you’re considering doing will be commercially viable and are up-to-date. The ‘in-house’ certifications provided by many companies are not normally useful in gaining employment.

From a commercial standpoint, only top businesses such as Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA (as an example) really carry any commercial clout. Nothing else makes the grade.

(C) 2009. Pop to LearningLolly.com for in-depth advice on IT Jobs Growth and Comptia Training News.

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