You should feel pleased that you’re on the right track! Only one in ten folks claim contentment with their job, but vast numbers just bitch about it and nothing happens. Because you’ve done research we can guess that you’re at least considering retraining, so even now you’re ahead of the game. The next step is to get busy to find your direction.
We’d strongly advise that before you start any individual training program, you run through some things with a mentor who is familiar with the working environment and can point you in the right direction. Such a person will go through personality profiling with you and give you guidance on the right role for you:
* Do you want to interact with other people? If so, do you like working with the same people or are you hoping to meet new people? Or are you better working in isolation?
* The building trade and the banking industry are none too stable right now, so which industry will answer your needs?
* How long a career do you hope to have once retrained, and can the industry you choose provide you with that possibility?
* Do you think being qualified will give you the chance to find the work you’re looking for, and remain in employment until your retirement plans kick in?
Think about the IT sector, that will be time well spent – it’s one of the few market sectors still on the grow in this country and overseas. Salaries are also more generous than most.
A major candidate for the top potential problem in IT training is often the ‘in-centre’ workshop requirement. Most training schools extol the virtues of the ‘benefits’ of going in to their classes, however, they quickly become a major problem because of:
* Many round journeys – quite often hundreds of miles each and every time.
* If, like many of us, you work, then weekday only events represent a difficulty in getting time off. You’re usually looking at at least 2, if not 3 days in a row.
* Lost holiday days – most working people get just four weeks holiday each year. If you give up at least half to your educational days, that doesn’t leave much holiday time left for the family as a whole.
* Classes usually get fully subscribed quite quickly, meaning we have to accept a slot that doesn’t really suit.
* The pace of the class – centre-days usually have trainees of varied aptitude, so tension can be created between those that want to go quickly as opposed to those who prefer a more relaxed pace.
* The growing costs associated with travel – driving or taking public transport to the training facility plus several days bed and breakfast can mount up each time you attend. With only 5-10 centre-days costing 35 pounds for a single over-night room, plus 40 pounds petrol and 15.00 for food, that equates to four to nine hundred pounds of costs that we weren’t expecting.
* It’s important to maintain privacy. We don’t want to risk losing any advancement that we’re owed while we retrain.
* Surely, all of us at some time have avoided putting our hand’s up, because we didn’t want to look stupid?
* For those who have work away from home, you now have to deal with the fact that days in-centre now become impossible to get to – unfortunately however, they’ve already been paid for.
The best possible solution is watching a filmed workshop – providing direct instruction whenever it’s convenient for you.
Do them at home on your desktop computer or out in the garden on your laptop. Any questions that pop up, just make use of the 24×7 support (that we hope you’ll insist on with any technical courses.)
There’s no need to take notes – every lesson is laid out for you already. Anything you want to do over, just go for it.
Could it be more straightforward: No travelling, wasted time or money; and you get a much more peaceful study setting.
Don’t listen to a salesman that just tells you what course you should do without an in-depth conversation to assess your abilities and also your level of experience. Ensure that they have a generous range of products so they’re actually equipped to solve your training issues.
If you have a strong background, or sometimes a little work-based experience (some certifications gained previously perhaps?) then it could be that your starting level will be quite dissimilar from someone with no background whatsoever.
If this is going to be your opening crack at an IT exam then you may want to begin with user-skills and software training first.
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