Computer training for CompTIA A+ has four specialist sections – you’ll have to qualify in just two sectors to be considered A+ competent. Because of this, 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 knowledge of every section will prepare you more fully for when you’re in the workplace, where you’ll need a more comprehensive understanding. This is why you should train in all four areas.
When you embark on the A+ computer training course you will learn how to build and repair PC’s and operate in antistatic conditions. You’ll also cover fault finding and diagnostics, through both hands-on and remote access.
If your ambition is being responsible for networks of computers, you should add Network+ to the CompTIA A+ training you’re doing. This qualification will enable you to get a higher paid position. Also look at the Microsoft networking qualifications (MCP, MCSA and MCSE).
An advisor that doesn’t ask you a lot of questions – it’s likely they’re actually nothing more than a salesman. If someone pushes specific products before looking at your personality and current experience level, then it’s very likely to be the case.
Remember, if you have some relevant qualifications that are related, then it’s not unreasonable to expect to pick-up at a different starting-point to a student who’s starting from scratch.
For those students beginning IT exams and training anew, it can be helpful to avoid jumping in at the deep-end, kicking off with user-skills and software training first. This can be built into most training packages.
Many 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.
Never accept certification programs which can only support students through an out-sourced call-centre message system after office-staff have gone home. Companies will try to talk you round from this line of reasoning. But, no matter how they put it – support is needed when it’s needed – not when it suits them.
The best trainers incorporate three or four individual support centres from around the world. An online system provides an interactive interface to seamlessly link them all together, irrespective of the time you login, help is just seconds away, without any contact issues or hassle.
If you accept anything less than online 24×7 support, you’ll regret it. It may be that you don’t use it during late nights, but what about weekends, late evenings or early mornings.
Many people question why traditional degrees are being replaced by more commercially accredited qualifications?
With fees and living expenses for university students climbing ever higher, together with the industry’s general opinion that vendor-based training often has more relevance in the commercial field, we have seen a large rise in Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA accredited training programmes that educate students for considerably less.
They do this through concentrating on the particular skills that are needed (alongside an appropriate level of background knowledge,) rather than spending months and years on the background ‘extras’ that degrees in computing are prone to get tied up in – to fill a three or four year course.
What if you were an employer – and you required somebody who had very specific skills. What’s the simplest way to find the right person: Go through reams of different degrees and college qualifications from hopeful applicants, struggling to grasp what they’ve learned and which vocational skills they have, or pick out specific commercial accreditations that perfectly fit your needs, and then choose your interviewees based around that. The interview is then more about the person and how they’ll fit in – rather than on the depth of their technical knowledge.
How long has it been since you considered the security of your job? For most people, this only rears its head when we get some bad news. However, the reality is that job security simply doesn’t exist anymore, for all but the most lucky of us.
Security can now only exist via a rapidly increasing market, driven by a shortfall of trained staff. It’s this alone that creates the correct setting for a secure marketplace – a far better situation.
The Information Technology (IT) skills deficit throughout the country falls in at just over 26 percent, as noted by a recent e-Skills investigation. Quite simply, we only have the national capacity to fill just three out of each four job positions in Information Technology (IT).
Properly skilled and commercially accredited new employees are therefore at a complete premium, and it looks like they will be for many years longer.
For sure, it really is such a perfect time to train for IT.
Typically, a new trainee will not know to ask about something that can make a profound difference to their results – how their company segments the courseware elements, and into how many bits.
Normally, you’ll join a programme staged over 2 or 3 years and receive a module at a time. While this may sound logical on one level, consider this:
It’s not unusual for trainees to realise that their providers usual training route isn’t the easiest way for them. You may find that a different order of study is more expedient. Perhaps you don’t make it in the allotted time?
For future safety and flexibility, many trainees now want to have all their training materials (which they’ve now paid for) delivered immediately, and not in stages. You can then decide in what order and how fast or slow you want to finish things.
(C) Jason Kendall. Pop over to LearningLolly.com for quality career tips on Comptia A+ and A+ Training.
Related Blogs
