In the fast-paced world we live in, support workers who can mend networks and PC's, and give constant help to users, are essential in every sector of the workplace. Our need for the above mentioned people is consistently on the grow, as commercial enterprise becomes vastly more reliant on computers.

In most cases, the typical IT hopeful doesn't know how they should get into a computing career, or even which sector they should be considering getting trained in. After all, if you don't have any background in the IT sector, what chance is there for you to know what some particular IT person fills their day with? And of course decide on what educational path is the most likely for ultimate success. Consideration of the following issues is required if you need to dig down the right solution that will work for you:

* Our personalities play an important part - what gives you a 'kick', and what are the things that put a frown on your face.

* What time-frame are you looking at for the retraining?

* What priority do you place on travelling time and locality vs salary?

* With everything that IT covers, it's obvious you'll need to be able to take in what's different.

* Our advice is to think deeply about any sacrifices you'll need to make, as well as what commitment and time you're going to invest in your training.

To be honest, your only option to gain help on these areas is via a conversation with someone that understands computing (and specifically the commercial requirements.)

So, why ought we to be looking at commercial qualifications rather than traditional academic qualifications taught at schools and Further Education colleges? The IT sector now recognises that to cover the necessary commercial skill-sets, official accreditation from companies such as CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA is closer to the mark commercially - at a far reduced cost both money and time wise. Of course, an appropriate quantity of associated detail must be taught, but precise specialisation in the areas needed gives a vendor educated person a distinct advantage.

When an employer understands what they're looking for, then all they have to do is advertise for a person with the appropriate exam numbers. The syllabuses are set to meet an exact requirement and do not vary between trainers (as academic syllabuses often do).

Throw out a salesman that offers any particular course without a decent chat to gain understanding of your current abilities and also your level of experience. They should be able to select from a large product range so they can solve your training issues. If you have a strong background, or perhaps a bit of real-world experience (some industry qualifications maybe?) then it's likely your starting level will vary from a trainee who has no experience. If this is your opening crack at studying for an IT examination then you may want to start out with user-skills and software training first.

Those that are drawn to this type of work are often very practical, and won't enjoy sitting at a desk in class, and slogging through piles of books. If you're thinking this sounds like you, opt for more involving, interactive learning materials, with on-screen demonstrations and labs. We see a huge improvement in memory retention when we use multiple senses - learning experts have been saying this for many years.

You can now study via interactive discs. By watching and listening to instructors on video tutorials you'll take everything in via the expert demonstrations. Then it's time to test your knowledge by practicing and interacting with the software. Make sure to obtain a study material demo' from the training company. The materials should incorporate slide-shows, instructor-led videos and fully interactive skills-lab's.

Seek out actual CD or DVD ROM's where possible. You can then avoid all the difficulties of the variability of broadband quality and service.

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