Usually, trainers will provide a big box of books. Obviously, this isn't much fun and not really conducive to taking things in. Where possible, if we can get all of our senses involved in our learning, then we often see hugely increased memory retention as a result.

The latest audio-visual interactive programs with demonstrations and practice sessions will turn you off book-based study for ever more. And you'll actually enjoy doing them. It would be silly not to view examples of the courseware provided before you purchase a course. What you want are video tutorials, instructor demo's and a variety of audio-visual and interactive sections.

It's folly to opt for on-line only training. Connection quality and reliability varies hugely across the ISP (internet service provider) market, ensure that you have access to actual CD or DVD ROM's.

If you plan to aim for the first stages of Professional I.T. certification, then User And Systems-support would be a reasonable move. The 'Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician' (MCDST) is certainly a good certification if you're planning to provide software help for commercial users. You'll normally be looking at around 100 hrs of studying at this grade.

Advanced I.T. accreditations will take you to full Professional rank. A common starting point for hardware-support, networking and security roles would be the CompTIA 'A+' and Network+ certifications. These exams will take care of the basic principles of hardware & network installation, security, administration, trouble shooting and support. A training course covering both of them should take around 200 - 250 hours to get through. This suggests that an individual learning part-time around a full-time job could be at the examination stage in 6 month's time.

When you browse around the pages on this web-site you'll find specific web-pages covering all these areas - plus the qualification paths that are involved - to help you investigate a little more. On the other hand, you can actually request our free Lollypedia e-book and then ring to talk to one of our professional advisors.

Incorporating exam fees upfront and offering an 'Exam Guarantee' is a common method with a number of training colleges. But let's examine why they really do it:

You'll be charged for it by some means. It certainly isn't free - it's simply been shoe-horned into the price as a whole. Should you seriously need to pass first time, then you should fund each exam as you take it, prioritise it appropriately and give the task sufficient application.

Shouldn't you be looking to find the best exam deal or offer when you're ready, not to pay the fees marked up by the training company, and to do it locally - instead of miles away at the college's beck and call? Buying a course that includes payments for examination fees (which also includes interest if you've taken out a loan) is a false economy. It's not your job to boost the training company's account with your hard-earned cash only to please their Bank Manager! Many will hope you won't get to do them all - so they don't need to pay for them. The majority of companies will insist on pre-tests and prohibit you from re-taking an exam until you have proved to them you have a good chance of passing - which actually leaves you with no guarantee at all.

With average Prometric and VUE tests costing in the region of 112 pounds in this country, by far the best option is to pay for them as you take them. Not to fork out thousands extra in up-front costs. Study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will really guarantee success.

All programs you're considering must provide a properly recognised exam at the finale - and not some unimportant 'in-house' piece of paper. From a commercial standpoint, only top businesses like Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe (for example) will open the right doors. Anything less just doesn't cut the mustard.

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