New students to the IT market can turn to 'CompTIA' for many of their preliminary training courses. Wherever a student chooses to work in I.T., there are CompTIA certifications that will augment their skills. Those who are particularly considering Networks, Systems, Support, Security, Servers and Communications are especially well served. 'CompTIA' are now also producing STRATA qualifications : they're not especially for men and women working in the IT market, but for people whose jobs require a fundamental knowledge of computers.

A competent and specialised advisor (in direct contrast to a salesman) will ask questions and seek to comprehend your current level of ability and experience. This is paramount to calculating the starting point for your education. With a little commercial experience or certification, your starting-point of learning is now at a different level to a new student. If this is your initial attempt at an IT exam then you should consider whether to begin with user-skills and software training first.

A subtle way that training providers make a lot more is by adding exam fees upfront to the cost of a course then giving it 'Exam Guarantee' status. It looks impressive, but is it really:

We all know that we're still being charged for it - obviously it has already in the full cost of the package supplied by the training provider. Certainly, it's not a freebie (it's just marketing companies think we'll fall for anything they say!) If you want to qualify first 'go', then you should fund each exam as you take it, give it the necessary attention and be ready for the task.

Do your exams somewhere local and don't pay up-front, but seek out the best deal for you when you're ready. Including money in your training package 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 extra money of yours just to give them a good cash-flow! Many will hope you don't even take them all - so they don't need to pay for them. Most companies will insist that you take mock exams first and hold you back from re-takes until you've proven conclusively that you can pass - so an 'Exam Guarantee' comes with many clauses in reality.

Shelling out hundreds or thousands of pounds on an 'Exam Guarantee' is foolish - when study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will get you through.

One thing you must always insist on is 24x7 round-the-clock support with professional mentors and instructors. Too many companies only provide office hours (or extended office hours) support. Be wary of any training providers which use call-centres 'out-of-hours' - with your call-back scheduled for typical office hours. This is no use if you're stuck and could do with an answer during your scheduled study period.

Keep your eyes open for training schools that utilise many support facilities around the globe in several time-zones. These should be integrated to offer a simple interface and round-the-clock access, when you want it, with no fuss. Don't compromise with the quality of your support. Many students who give up, just need the right support system.

Now, why ought we to be looking at commercially accredited qualifications as opposed to the usual academic qualifications taught at the state educational establishments? With an ever-increasing technical demand on resources, the IT sector has moved to the specialised core-skills learning that the vendors themselves supply - namely companies like Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA. This usually turns out to involve less time and financial outlay. They do this by honing in on the actual skills required (together with an appropriate level of associated knowledge,) instead of trawling through all the background 'extras' that degree courses often do - to pad out the syllabus.

What if you were an employer - and you needed to take on someone with a very particular skill-set. What is easier: Pore through loads of academic qualifications from graduate applicants, struggling to grasp what they've learned and what trade skills have been attained, or select a specialised number of commercial certifications that precisely match your needs, and make your short-list from that. You can then focus on how someone will fit into the team at interview - rather than establishing whether they can do a specific task.

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