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Well done! Discovering this piece proves you must be pondering over your options, and if it’s re-training you’re considering that means you’ve taken it further than most. Can you believe that just one in ten of us consider ourselves fulfilled in our working life – but the majority will take no corrective action. We implore you to liberate yourself and do something – those who do hardly ever regret it.

We recommend you seek advice first – find someone who knows the industry; an advisor who can discover your ideal job, and analyse the courses you may be suited to:

* Are you happier left to your own devices at work or is being part of a team more important to you?

* Banking and building are struggling today, so which industry would suit you best?

* How long a career do you hope to have once retrained, and can your chosen industry give you the confidence that will happen?

* Are you worried with regard to the possibility of getting new work, and being gainfully employed right up to retirement?

We would advise that one of your key sectors is the IT industry – it’s common knowledge that it’s getting bigger. It’s not full of geeky individuals lost in their computer screens every day – naturally those roles do exist, but most jobs are filled with people like you and me who are earning rather well.

If you’re like many of the students we talk to then you probably enjoy fairly practical work – a ‘hands-on’ type. If you’re anything like us, the painful task of reading endless manuals would be considered as a last resort, but you’d hate it. Consider interactive, multimedia study if book-based learning really isn’t your style. Studies in learning psychology have shown that much more of what we learn in remembered when we involve as many senses as possible, and we take action to use what we’ve learned.

The latest home-based training features interactive discs. Real-world classes from the instructors will mean you’ll learn your subject by way of the expert demonstrations. Then it’s time to test your knowledge by interacting with the software and practicing yourself. Each company you’re contemplating should be able to show you a few samples of the materials provided for study. Make sure you encounter videos of instructor-led classes and interactive areas to practice in.

Opt for CD and DVD ROM based physical training media where possible. You’re then protected from internet connection failure and issues with signal quality.

It’s usual for students to get confused with a single training area which doesn’t even occur to them: How the training is broken down and delivered to your home. Trainees may consider it sensible (when study may take one to three years for a full commercial certification,) for your typical trainer to courier the training stage by stage, as you complete each part. However: What if for some reason you don’t get to the end of each and every exam? And what if you find the order of the modules counter-intuitive? Through no fault of your own, you mightn’t complete everything fast enough and therefore not end up with all the modules.

An ideal situation would be to have all the training materials packed off to you immediately; the complete package! Then, nothing can hinder your capacity to get everything done.

It’s important to understand: a training itself or a qualification is not what you’re looking for; the job or career that you’re getting the training for is. Too many training companies over-emphasise the actual accreditation. Never let yourself become one of the unfortunate masses that choose a course that sounds really ‘interesting’ and ‘fun’ – only to end up with a qualification for a career they’ll never really get any satisfaction from.

It’s well worth a long chat to see the exact expectations industry will have. What accreditations they will want you to have and in what way you can gain some industry experience. It’s definitely worth spending time setting guidelines as to how far you wish to go as it will often force you to choose a particular set of exams. Before you embark on a particular training programme, you’d be well advised to chat over individual job requirements with an experienced industry professional, in order to be sure the training course covers all that is required.

IT has become amongst the most stimulating and innovative industries that you could be a part of. To be dealing with leading-edge technology means you’re a part of the huge progress shaping life over the next few decades. We’re barely starting to get a handle on how all this will mould and change our lives. How we interrelate with the rest of the world will be profoundly affected by computers and the web.

The standard IT technician throughout Britain can demonstrate that they earn much more than equivalent professionals in other market sectors. Mean average incomes are amongst the highest in the country. Demand for properly certified IT professionals is guaranteed for the significant future, because of the substantial growth in this sector and the massive deficiency still in existence.

Several companies will provide a useful Job Placement Assistance facility, designed to steer you into your first job. It can happen though that people are too impressed with this facility, for it’s really not that difficult for any focused and well taught person to secure work in the IT environment – because there’s a great need for trained staff.

One important thing though, avoid waiting until you have completed your exams before polishing up your CV. Right at the beginning of your training, list what you’re working on and place it on jobsites! It can happen that you haven’t even got to the exam time when you will get your initial junior support role; although this isn’t going to happen if interviewers don’t get sight of your CV. Generally, a local IT focused recruitment consultant or service (who will get paid by the employer when they’ve placed you) will perform better than any recruitment division from a training organisation. They should, of course, also know local industry and the area better.

Not inconsiderable numbers of trainees, it seems, invest a great deal of time on their training course (sometimes for years), and just give up when it comes to looking for a job. Introduce yourself… Do everything you can to put yourself out there. A job isn’t just going to bump into you.