by Jason Kendall
CompTIA A + has a total of four exams and sections to study, but you only have to achieve certification in two to qualify for your A+. For this reason, most training colleges simply offer two. But allowing you to learn about all 4 options will give you a far deeper level of understanding of it all, something you’ll appreciate as a Godsend in professional employment.
Once on the A+ training program you’ll be taught how to work in antistatic conditions and build and fix computers. You’ll also cover fault finding and diagnostics, through both hands-on and remote access. In addition, you could look to think about adding Network+ training to your A+ as you’ll then be in a position to work with networks, which means greater employment benefits.
Talk to any skilled consultant and we’d be amazed if they couldn’t provide you with many worrying experiences of students who’ve been sold completely the wrong course for them. Make sure you deal with an experienced industry advisor who asks some in-depth questions to uncover the best thing for you – not for their retirement-fund! It’s very important to locate the very best place to start for you. Quite often, the training inception point for a student experienced in some areas is largely dissimilar to the student with none. If you’re a new trainee starting IT studies and exams for the first time, it’s often a good idea to avoid jumping in at the deep-end, beginning with user-skills and software training first. This is often offered with most training packages.
A lot of training companies only provide office hours or extended office hours support; very few go late in the evening or at weekends. Always avoid study programmes that only provide support to you via a call-centre messaging service when it’s outside of usual working hours. Training organisations will give you every excuse in the book why you don’t need this. The bottom line is – support is required when it’s required – not at times when they find it cheaper to provide it.
If you look properly, you’ll find the top providers that recommend and use direct-access online support all the time – even in the middle of the night. Seek out an educator that offers this level of study support. Because only live 24×7 round-the-clock support truly delivers for technical programs.
So many training providers are all about the certification, and completely avoid why you’re doing this – which will always be getting the job or career you want. Your focus should start with the end goal – too many people focus on the journey. It’s possible, in many cases, to thoroughly enjoy one year of training only to end up putting 20 long years into a job you hate, entirely because you stumbled into it without some decent due-diligence when you should’ve – at the outset.
Be honest with yourself about the income level you aspire to and what level of ambition fits you. Often, this changes which qualifications you will need and what’ll be expected of you in your new role. All students are advised to talk with an industry professional before following a particular retraining course. This helps to ensure it contains the relevant skills for the chosen career path.
Commencing from the idea that we need to choose the employment that excites us first, before we can even ponder which method of training ticks the right boxes, how do we decide on the right path? What chances do most of us have of understanding the tasks faced daily in an IT career when we haven’t done that before? Often we haven’t met someone who works in that sector anyway. Reflection on the following areas is most definitely required when you want to dig down the right solution that will work for you:
* Personality factors plus what interests you – which working tasks you love or hate.
* For what reasons you’re starting in Information Technology – it could be you’re looking to conquer some personal goal such as being your own boss maybe.
* Any personal or home needs that are important to you?
* Because there are so many areas to train for in Information Technology – there’s a need to gain a solid grounding on what differentiates them.
* Taking a cold, hard look at how much time and effort you can give.
In actuality, the only way to investigate these matters will be via a meeting with someone who understands Information Technology (and chiefly it’s commercial requirements.)
Think about the following points in detail if you believe that over-used sales technique about a guarantee for your exam looks like a reason to buy:
It’s very clear we’re still footing the bill for it – it’s not so hard to see that it’s been inserted into the full cost of the package supplied by the training company. It’s absolutely not free (although some people will believe anything the marketing companies think up these days!) We all want to pass first time. Entering examinations when it’s appropriate and funding them as you go makes it far more likely you’ll pass first time – you take it seriously and are aware of the costs involved.
Why pay a training college up-front for exam fees? Find the best exam deal or offer when you’re ready, rather than pay marked up fees – and take it closer to home – instead of miles away at the college’s beck and call. Including money in your training package for examination fees (plus interest – if you’re financing your study) is madness. It’s not your job to boost the training company’s account with your hard-earned cash simply to help their cash-flow! A lot bank on the fact that you don’t even take them all – so they don’t need to pay for them. Pay heed to the fact that, in the majority of cases of ‘exam guarantees’ – the company decides when you are allowed to do a re-take. You’ll have to prove conclusively that you can pass before they’ll pay for another exam.
Average exam fees were 112 pounds or thereabouts last year through VUE or Pro-metric centres in the UK. So why pay hundreds or thousands of pounds extra for ‘an Exam Guarantee’, when common sense dictates that the responsible approach is a commitment to studying and the use of authorised exam preparation tools.
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