Training for your CompTIA A+ covers four specialised areas – you need to pass exams in two of these areas to be seen as competent in A+. This is why, the majority of colleges limit their course to 2 of the 4 sectors. Our opinion is this is selling you short – yes you’ll have qualified, but knowing about the others will give you a distinct advantage in your working life, where knowledge of all four will be necessary. This is why you need education in all four areas.
As well as being taught how to build PC’s and fix them, students on A+ courses will have instruction on how to work in antistatic conditions, along with remote access, fault finding and diagnostics.
It could be a good idea to consider supplementing the A+ with Network + as it will enable you to look after networks of computers, which is where the bigger salaries are.
Always expect an authorised exam preparation system as part of your training package.
Avoid depending on non-official exam papers and questions. The type of questions asked can be completely unlike authorised versions – and this leads to huge confusion once in the actual exam.
Ensure that you request some practice exams so you’ll be able to check your comprehension at all times. Simulations of exams help to build your confidence – so the actual exam is much easier.
Speak with a skilled advisor and they’ll entertain you with many awful tales of students who’ve been conned by dodgy salespeople. Only deal with a skilled professional that digs deep to find out what’s appropriate to you – not for their bank-account! You must establish the right starting point of study for you.
Sometimes, the training inception point for a trainee with experience is massively dissimilar to the student with no experience.
Where this will be your opening attempt at studying for an IT examination then you should consider whether to begin with some basic PC skills training first.
A service that several companies offer is job placement assistance. This is to help you get your first commercial position. However sometimes too much is made of this feature, because it is actually not that hard for any focused and well taught person to land work in the IT environment – as employers are keen to find appropriately skilled employees.
However, don’t procrastinate and wait until you have completed your exams before polishing up your CV. As soon as you start a course, list what you’re working on and get promoting!
You may not have got to the stage where you’ve qualified when you land your first junior support role; yet this isn’t going to happen if interviewers don’t get sight of your CV.
Actually, a local IT focused employment agency (who will, of course, be keen to place you to receive their commission) will perform better than any sector of a centralised training facility. It also stands to reason that they’ll be familiar with the area and local employers better.
Please be sure that you don’t conscientiously work through your course materials, only to stop and leave it up to everyone else to secure your first position. Stand up for yourself and start looking for yourself. Put as much time and energy into landing a good job as you did to get trained.
Wouldn’t it be great to know for sure that our jobs will always be safe and our work futures are protected, but the growing reality for most sectors in the UK right now seems to be that there is no security anymore.
It’s possible though to discover market-level security, by searching for high demand areas, tied with a lack of qualified workers.
Using the IT business for instance, a recent e-Skills investigation brought to light major skills shortages in the UK around the 26 percent mark. Accordingly, for every four jobs that are available around computing, businesses are only able to locate certified professionals for 3 of the 4.
This one concept on its own reveals why the UK needs so many more people to get into the industry.
It’s unlikely if a better time or market circumstances could exist for acquiring training in this hugely expanding and budding industry.
Copyright 2010 S. Edwards. Go to Networking Courses or www.sqlcourse.co.uk.
