- 25
- Mar
Nice One! As you’re reading this article you’re probably toying with the idea of retraining for a new career – that puts you way ahead of the crowd. Very few of us are pleased to go to work each day, but no action is ever taken. You could be a member of the few who actually do something about it.
For those thinking of re-training, it’s important that you have in mind what you want and don’t want from the career you’d like to train for. Be sure that you would be more satisfied before much time and effort is spent changing the direction of your life. We recommend looking at the big picture first, to avoid disappointment:
* Is having company at work important to you? Perhaps you like being a team player? Or you may prefer task-orientated work that you can complete alone?
* The building trade and the banking industry are struggling today, so think carefully about the sector that will answer your needs?
* When you’ve done all your re-training, would you like your skills to take you through to retirement?
* Do you feel uncomfortable about the possibility of new employment opportunities, and being gainfully employed all the way until retirement?
The biggest industry in this country to meet the above criteria is the IT sector. There’s a demand for more skilled staff in this sector, just search any jobs website and you will find them yourself. But don’t think it’s all nerdy people staring at theirscreens all day long – it’s much more diverse than that. Most of staff in the computer industry are just like the rest of us, and they have very interesting and well paid jobs.
You have to be sure that all your exams are current and commercially required – don’t even consider programmes which lead to some in-house certificate (which is as useless as if you’d printed it yourself).
All the major commercial players like Microsoft, Adobe, CompTIA or Cisco each have nationally renowned skills programmes. Huge conglomerates such as these can make sure you stand out at interview.
How can job security truly exist anymore? In a marketplace like the UK, where business constantly changes its mind on a whim, there doesn’t seem much chance.
However, a fast growing sector, where staff are in constant demand (through a growing shortage of properly qualified staff), provides a market for proper job security.
The IT skills shortfall throughout Great Britain currently stands at around twenty six percent, according to a recent e-Skills survey. Meaning that for every four jobs in existence across the computer industry, there are only 3 trained people to fill that need.
This basic truth underpins the validity and need for more technically certified computing professionals around the United Kingdom.
Because the IT sector is increasing at such a rate, is there any other area of industry worth considering for your new career.
Starting from the viewpoint that it’s necessary to home-in on the job we want to do first and foremost, before we can even weigh up what career training meets that requirement, how can we choose the right path?
Working through a list of IT job-titles is next to useless. The majority of us don’t even know what the neighbours do for a living – so we’re in the dark as to the subtleties of a new IT role.
To get to the bottom of this, we need to discuss several different aspects:
* What hobbies you have and enjoy – often these point towards what possibilities you’ll get the most enjoyment out of.
* Are you hoping to get certified for a certain raison d’etre – e.g. are you pushing to work based from home (self-employment possibly?)?
* How highly do you rate salary – is it of prime importance, or is job satisfaction higher up on the priority-scale?
* Always think in-depth about the work expected to achieve their goals.
* Taking a good look at what commitment and time you’ll make available.
For the average person, dissecting so much data tends to require the help of a professional that can investigate each area with you. And not just the qualifications – you also need to understand the commercial needs and expectations of industry too.
OK, why might we choose commercial certification instead of more traditional academic qualifications obtained from the state educational establishments?
With university education costs climbing ever higher, plus the industry’s growing opinion that vendor-based training most often has much more commercial relevance, we’ve seen a large rise in CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA authorised training routes that supply key solutions to a student for much less time and money.
Essentially, students are simply taught the necessary specifics in depth. It isn’t quite as lean as that might sound, but the principle remains that students need to focus on the exact skills required (with some necessary background) – without attempting to cover a bit about everything else (as universities often do).
What if you were an employer – and your company needed a person with some very particular skills. What is easier: Wade your way through a mass of different academic qualifications from various applicants, having to ask what each has covered and which commercial skills they’ve acquired, or choose particular accreditations that specifically match what you’re looking for, and then choose your interviewees based around that. You’ll then be able to concentrate on getting a feel for the person at interview – rather than establishing whether they can do a specific task.
Copyright Scott Edwards 2009. Go to HERE or www.ComptiaNetworkPlus4IT.co.uk.
