Four specialist training areas feature in the complete CompTIA A+ course, of which you’ll need certification in two subjects to be considered A+ qualified. We would advise however that only studying two of the four specialities might well not equip you for a job. At least learn about all four – employers will notice the difference.
Qualifying in CompTIA A+ on its own will allow you to fix and repair stand-alone PC’s and MAC’s; ones which are usually not part of a network – which is for the most part the home market.
Should you decide to add Network+ training, you’ll additionally be equipped to assist with or manage networks of computers, giving you the facility to apply for more senior positions.
You’ll come across courses which guarantee examination passes – this always means you have to pay for the exams at the very beginning of your studies. However, prior to embracing this so-called guarantee, consider this:
It’s very clear we’re still paying for it – obviously it has already been included in the overall figure from the training company. It’s certainly not free (although some people will believe anything the marketing companies think up these days!)
Qualifying on the first ‘go’ is what everyone wants to do. Entering examinations when it’s appropriate and funding them one at a time makes it far more likely you’ll pass first time – you revise thoroughly and are mindful of the investment you’ve made.
Doesn’t it make more sense to find the best exam deal or offer at the time, rather than coughing up months or even a year or two in advance to a training college, and to do it locally – instead of the remote centre that’s convenient only to the trainer?
A great deal of money is netted by a significant number of organisations that get money upfront for exam fees. For quite legitimate reasons, a number of students don’t get to do their exams and so they pocket the rest. Surprising as it sounds, providers exist that actually bank on it – as that’s how they make a lot of their profit.
Most companies will require you to sit pre-tests and with-hold subsequent exam entries from you until you’ve demonstrated an excellent ability to pass – which actually leaves you with no guarantee at all.
Exam fees averaged 112 pounds or thereabouts last year through local VUE or Pro-metric centres throughout the country. Therefore, why splash out often many hundreds of pounds extra to have ‘an Exam Guarantee’, when it’s no secret that the best guarantee is a commitment to studying and the use of authorised exam preparation tools.
Lately, do you find yourself questioning the security of your job? For most people, this isn’t an issue until we get some bad news. But in today’s marketplace, The cold truth is that true job security has gone the way of the dodo, for nearly everyone now.
But a sector experiencing fast growth, where staff are in constant demand (due to a massive shortfall of fully trained people), provides a market for true job security.
The Information Technology (IT) skills-gap around the United Kingdom currently stands at roughly 26 percent, as shown by the latest e-Skills study. Accordingly, for each four job positions available throughout IT, employers are only able to locate certified professionals for 3 of the 4.
This glaring notion underpins the requirement for more commercially qualified IT professionals around Great Britain.
As the Information Technology market is expanding at such a rate, there really isn’t any other market worth considering for retraining.
A number of men and women think that the traditional school, college or university path is the right way even now. So why are qualifications from the commercial sector slowly and steadily replacing it?
With university education costs becoming a tall order for many, and the industry’s growing opinion that vendor-based training most often has much more commercial relevance, there’s been a big surge in CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA accredited training paths that create knowledgeable employees for much less time and money.
In essence, only that which is required is learned. It’s not quite as straightforward as that, but the principle objective is to concentrate on the fundamentally important skill-sets (with some necessary background) – without trying to cram in every other area (as degree courses are known to do).
When an employer knows what work they need doing, then they just need to look for the exact skill-set required to meet that need. Vendor-based syllabuses are set to exacting standards and aren’t allowed to deviate (as academic syllabuses often do).
Of course: a training itself or a qualification isn’t the end-goal; the particular job that you want to end up in is. Too many training companies place too much importance on the qualification itself.
Imagine training for just one year and then end up doing a job for a lifetime. Don’t make the error of taking what may be a very ‘interesting’ program only to waste your life away with something you don’t even enjoy!
Take time to understand how you feel about career progression and earning potential, and whether you intend to be quite ambitious. It makes sense to understand what industry expects from you, what particular accreditations they want you to have and how you’ll gain real-world experience.
Seek guidance and advice from an experienced professional, even if there’s a fee involved – it’s usually much cheaper and safer to discover early on whether something is going to suit and interest you, instead of discovering following two years of study that you aren’t going to enjoy the job you’ve chosen and have to return to the start of another program.
