Of Worlds

In these days of super efficiency, support workers who have the ability to mend PC’s and networks, plus give ongoing help to users, are vital in all sections of industry. Our requirement for more technically qualified people multiplies, as society becomes significantly more beholden to computers in today’s environment.

A lot of training providers will only provide basic 9am till 6pm support (maybe a little earlier or later on certain days); not many go late into the evening (after 8-9pm) or cover weekends properly.

You’ll be waiting ages for an answer with email based support, and phone support is often to a call-centre which will just take down the issue and email it over to their technical team - who’ll call back sometime over the next 1-3 days, when it suits them. This is not a lot of use if you’re stuck with a particular problem and have a one hour time-slot in which to study.

The most successful trainers utilise several support facilities around the globe in several time-zones. They use an online interactive interface to join them all seamlessly, any time of the day or night, help is just seconds away, without any contact issues or hassle.

If you accept anything less than support round-the-clock, you’ll end up kicking yourself. It may be that you don’t use it late at night, but you’re bound to use weekends, late evenings or early mornings.

An all too common mistake that we encounter all too often is to focus entirely on getting a qualification, and take their eye off where they want to get to. Colleges are brimming over with unaware students who took a course because it seemed fun - rather than what would get them an enjoyable career or job.

Avoid becoming part of the group who choose a training program that sounds really ‘interesting’ and ‘fun’ - and end up with a certification for a career they’ll never really get any satisfaction from.

Be honest with yourself about how much you want to earn and how ambitious you are. Often, this changes what exams will be expected and what you can expect to give industry in return.

We’d recommend you seek advice from a professional advisor before making your final decision on some particular study program, so there’s little doubt that the specific package will give the skill-set required for your career choice.

Locating job security these days is very unusual. Businesses can drop us from the workforce at a moment’s notice - whenever it suits.

In times of increasing skills shortages coupled with high demand areas however, we often discover a newer brand of market-security; as fuelled by the constant growth conditions, companies just can’t get the staff required.

The 2006 national e-Skills analysis showed that more than 26 percent of all IT positions available haven’t been filled because of a lack of trained staff. To put it another way, this highlights that the United Kingdom is only able to source 3 certified professionals for each four job positions existing currently.

This disquieting fact shows the requirement for more appropriately accredited computing professionals in the United Kingdom.

It’s unlikely if a better time or market state of affairs will exist for obtaining certification in this rapidly growing and blossoming industry.

We’re regularly asked to explain why academic qualifications are less in demand than the more commercial qualifications?

With a growing demand for specific technological expertise, industry has moved to the specialised core-skills learning only available through the vendors themselves - in other words companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA. This usually turns out to involve less time and financial outlay.

Vendor training works by honing in on the skills that are really needed (along with a relevant amount of background knowledge,) as opposed to covering masses of the background non-specific minutiae that academic courses can get bogged down in - to pad out the syllabus.

When an employer understands what areas they need covered, then all they have to do is advertise for someone with a specific qualification. The syllabuses are all based on the same criteria and don’t change between schools (in the way that degree courses can).

(C) 2009 Scott Edwards. Navigate to Flash Training or Click HERE.

Nice One! Hitting upon this feature suggests you’re thinking about your future, and if you’re considering retraining you’ve even now progressed more than most others. Did you know that surprisingly few of us are contented at work - yet the vast majority of us won’t do a thing about it. We encourage you to liberate yourself and make a start - those who do hardly ever regret it.

We’d politely request that in advance of taking a course of training, you discuss your plans with a person who is familiar with the working environment and can give you advice. They can assess your personality and assist in finding the right role for you:

* Do you like to work collaborating with people? Would you prefer to work with a small team or with a lot of new people? Maybe working on your own in a task-based situation may be your preference?

* Have you given much thought to which sector you choose to work in? (With the economic downturn, it’s even more crucial to be selective.)

* Is this the final time you imagine you’ll re-train, and if it is, do you suppose your new career will service that need?

* Do you expect your new knowledge base to give you the chance to find the work you’re looking for, and stay employable until your retirement plans kick in?

We would strongly recommend that your number one choice is the IT sector - everyone knows that it’s on the grow. It’s not all nerdy people looking at computer screens constantly - of course some IT jobs demand that, but the majority of roles are done by ordinary people who get on very well.

Often, trainers provide mainly work-books and reference manuals. It’s not a very interesting way to learn and not really conducive to achieving retention.

Years of research and study has always demonstrated that an ‘involved’ approach to study, where we utilise all our senses, will more likely produce memories that are deeper and longer-lasting.

Locate a program where you’ll receive a selection of CD and DVD based materials - you’ll begin by watching videos of instructors demonstrating the skills, and then have the opportunity to use virtual lab’s to practice your new skills.

Always insist on a look at some courseware examples from any training college. You should ask for slide-shows, instructor-led videos and virtual practice lab’s for your new skills.

Select actual CD or DVD ROM’s where possible. This then avoids all the potential pitfalls with broadband ‘downtime’ or slow-speeds.

The way a programme is physically sent to you isn’t always given the appropriate level of importance. How many parts is the training broken down into? And in what order and what control do you have at what pace it arrives?

The majority of training companies will set up a program spread over 1-3 years, and send out each piece as you complete each section or exam. This sounds reasonable until you consider the following:

What if you don’t finish every section? And what if the order provided doesn’t meet your requirements? Due to no fault of yours, you may go a little slower and consequently not get all your materials.

For maximum flexibility and safety, it’s not unusual for students to insist that all study materials are sent immediately, and not in a piecemeal fashion. It’s then up to you how fast or slow and in what order you want to go.

Looking at the myriad of choice out there, it’s not really surprising that the majority of trainees get stuck choosing the job they will follow.

Flicking through a list of IT job-titles is a complete waste of time. The majority of us don’t really appreciate what the neighbours do for a living - so we’re in the dark as to the intricacies of a particular IT career.

Reflection on these different areas is vital if you want to discover the right answers:

* The sort of individual you reckon you are - the tasks that you enjoy doing, and on the other side of the coin - what you definitely don’t enjoy.

* Do you hope to accomplish a specific objective - like becoming self-employed in the near future?

* Any personal or home requirements that guide you?

* With everything that the IT industry encapsulates, it’s important to be able to understand what is different.

* It’s wise to spend some time thinking about what kind of effort and commitment you’re going to invest in gaining your certifications.

To be honest, it’s obvious that the only real way to gain help on these areas will be via a meeting with an experienced advisor that has a background in IT (as well as the commercial needs.)

Beware of putting too much emphasis, as many people do, on the accreditation program. Your training isn’t about getting a plaque on your wall; you should be geared towards the actual job at the end of it. You need to remain focused on where you want to go.

It’s quite usual, in many cases, to find immense satisfaction in a year of study only to end up putting 20 long years into something completely unrewarding, as a consequence of not performing the correct level of soul-searching at the beginning.

Make sure you investigate how you feel about earning potential, career development, and how ambitious you are. It’s vital to know what industry expects from you, what particular qualifications they want you to have and where you’ll pick-up experience from.

It’s worth seeking help from a professional that can best explain the industry you think may suit you, and is able to give you ‘A day in the life of’ type of explanation for that career-path. These things are incredibly important because you need to know whether or not you’ve chosen correctly.

Copyright 2009 S. Edwards. Browse around CLICK HERE or Graphic Design Courses.

It’s notable that a career within the electrical industry, with its attractive options, remains a choice for lots of people. For simplicity’s sake we will use the phrase Electrical Industry to cover off the more accurate term of “Electro-Mechanical Engineering”. In addition, we will stay with the UK market and especially items relating to the domestic and commercial sectors rather than global issues. By starting on the main subjects and checking the ‘add-ons’ later on we can review the centre of the electrical industry.

Really there are two main ways to enter the electrical market. The first is for those wishing to train via a more traditional apprenticeship route, and the second is for people who are entering the field at a later stage in life. Throughout this document we will simply refer to two types of people the ‘Junior’ and the ‘Mature’ entrants.

Mature students, or entrants, often train so that they can become self-employed and work on their own projects without having to pay wages to external electricians. On the other hand, to gain further credentials and experience ‘Junior Entrants’ tend to work for a recognised electrical firm. Often a young apprentice will be in their first job since leaving school, and will therefore have a host of ancillary skills to learn during their first few years as a working adult.

The distinct types of entry have differing styles of training - It is the involvement with NVQ’s (or SVQ’s for Scotland), that differentiate the Junior Entrants. As part of the training program an NVQ would be a requirement to attain. ‘Junior Entrants’ will have to be in an apprenticeship of some sort in order to achieve the testing and course work required.

Mature Entrants do not appear to seek the NVQ element but instead they go after the most commercially suitable qualifications. In the main the person will aim to gain the best from their investment costs against the return for that training. This system, although appearing to reduce the attributes laid out, does allow for a faster and more solid entry into the domestic market.

So we have two defined routes laid out - one being for general employment and the other centred on self-employment. For the sake of this document we will assume that everyone involved in electrical employment is working full-time. The aptitude and talent for getting things done can affect the levels of salary as well as any experience or knowledge gained.

Although starting wages for ‘Junior Entrants’ are around 13k p.a. they can rise above 30k p.a. but this does depend on their level of experience. That said, due to the UK press telling people that electricians can get salaries in excess of 70k p.a., it is more difficult to gauge incomes for ‘Mature Entrants’. Irrespective of this salary level many self-employed people also need to manage extra business costs such as tools, clothes and vans. Furthermore, professional items such as accountancy, tax and insurance need to be considered to make the business work properly. However, the driving force remains the UK skills shortage and this means that there’s a load of work available. Without a doubt, the market would allow for some people to work a full seven days a week. Whilst figures of seventy to a hundred thousand are often bandied around in the press, they do not often inform you of the long hours you would need to work to achieve this.

In light of the above, it is often understood that there is wild variance between the working expectations of Junior and Mature Entrants. Most ‘Junior Entrants’ do not work at the weekends. While on the other hand, the opportunities in the domestic market (where mature entrants often work) can be heavily dependent upon when the clients get home. Although by testing and installing various business systems, many self-employed electricians manage to work during a normal working week.

To be fair it’s often the boss of a company who states the type of specialist knowledge that Junior Entrants gain whilst in their employ. Whereas the mature entrant can gain knowledge from any trade source - even one outside of the core of electrical work. Certainly if they are employed within the domestic sector this makes it easier to take on work without having to rely upon other people.

One fresh approach is that of the ‘Green Engineer’. Looking together to the UK and the EEC this activity could be of benefit to both Junior and Mature Entrants, providing new growth and opportunities to both disciplines.

Copyright 2009 Scott Edwards. Visit CLICK HERE or Electrical Training Courses.