by Jason Kendall
Only one in ten people in the UK today are claiming to be happy in their job. Of course, most will do nothing about it. The fact that you’ve got this far at least indicates that you’re considering or may be ready for a change.
It’s in your interests that before you start a training course, you discuss your plans with a person who knows the industry and can point you in the right direction. The right person will be able to assess your personal likes and dislikes and give you guidance on the right role for you:
* Are you hoping to be involved with others in the workplace? Is that as part of a team or with many new people? Maybe working on your own on specific tasks would give you pleasure?
* What thoughts are fundamentally important with regard to the industry you’ll work in?
* Do you want this to be the only time you will need more qualifications?
* Are you worried about the chance of finding new employment, and being gainfully employed to the end of your working life?
The largest sector in the UK to meet the above criteria is the IT sector. There’s a need for more knowledgeable staff in IT, just check out any jobs website and you’ll discover what we mean. Don’t misunderstand and think it’s full of techie geeks looking at their computerscreens every day – there are many more roles than that. The majority of workers in IT are ordinary people, and they have very interesting and well paid jobs.
Huge changes are flooding technology over the next few decades – and it only gets more exciting every day. We’re in the very early stages of beginning to see just how technology will define our world. Technology and the web will profoundly change the way we view and interrelate with the world as a whole over the coming decades.
The typical IT employee over this country as a whole is likely to get significantly more money than fellow workers in much of the rest of the economy. Average wages are around the top of national league tables. Apparently there is not a hint of a downturn for IT jobs increases across Britain. The market is continuing to expand rapidly, and as we have a significant shortage of skilled professionals, it’s not likely that it will even slow down for the significant future.
Often, students don’t think to check on a vitally important element – how their company segments the training materials, and into how many bits. Usually, you’ll join a programme that takes between and 1 and 3 years and receive a module at a time. It seems to make sense on one level, but consider these issues: What would their reaction be if you find it difficult to do each and every module at the speed they required? Sometimes their preference of study order doesn’t work as well as an alternative path could be.
Ideally, you’d get ALL the training materials right at the beginning – so you’ll have them all to come back to at any time in the future – irrespective of any schedule. Variations can then be made to the order that you attack each section if you find another route more intuitive.
Workshops can be portrayed as a strong aspect by a lot of trainers. When you talk to many IT students who have used them, you’ll likely realise that they’ve now become a major negative as they hadn’t properly considered the following:
* All the travelling required – multiple journeys and quite often 100′s of miles each time.
* Weekday only accessibility with classes can be usual, and with two or three days required at a time, this is usually problematic for a lot of trainees who are working.
* Most of us find 4 weeks annual leave doesn’t go very far. Sacrifice a big chunk of this for study events and see how much more difficult it makes things.
* Taking into account the costs associated with delivering a workshop, a lot of training providers fill the classes up to the brim – not really ideal (and with less one-on-one time).
* Maybe you like to work at a different pace to others in the class. Sometimes this causes a classic case of ‘classroom tension’.
* The cost of travel – driving or taking public transport backwards and forwards to the training premises plus bed and breakfast can really add up each time you attend. If we just assume a basic 5-10 workshops at about thirty-five pounds for an over-night room, plus 40 pounds for petrol and 15.00 for food, we find an extra four to nine hundred pounds of costs that we weren’t expecting.
* Is it worth any chance of getting ignored for a lift up the ladder or wage increases because you’re getting trained in a different area.
* Don’t think it’s unusual for trainees not to put a question forward that they would like answered – purely because they’re surrounded by fellow attendees.
* You should remember, events become pretty much undoable, in cases where you live away for some of the month.
Doesn’t it make more sense to be taught when it suits you — not the training company – and exploit instructor-led videos with interactive lab’s. You can train wherever you want. Got a laptop?… Then take in a little sunshine in your garden at the same time. If you have any difficulties then get onto the live 24×7 support. Classes and lessons can be repeated as often as you want – the more times you cover something – the more you’ll remember. And there’s no need to take notes – it’s all ready to go. Put directly: You save money, avoid hassle, don’t waste time and altogether avoid polluting the skies.
