In these days of super efficiency, support workers who have the ability to solve problems with PC's and networks, along with giving daily assistance to users, are indispensable in every part of the business environment. Our country's need for more qualified personnel is growing, as human beings become significantly more beholden to PC's in today's environment.

Commercial certification is now, undoubtedly, taking over from the more academic tracks into the IT industry - but why has this come about? Corporate based study (to use industry-speak) is far more specialised and product-specific. Industry has acknowledged that a specialist skill-set is vital to handle an increasingly more technical marketplace. Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA are the big boys in this field. Higher education courses, for example, often get bogged down in a lot of background study - and a syllabus that's too generalised. This prevents a student from getting enough specific knowledge about the core essentials.

What if you were an employer - and your company needed a person with some very particular skills. What's the simplest way to find the right person: Pore through loads of academic qualifications from various applicants, asking for course details and what vocational skills have been attained, or choose a specific set of accreditations that exactly fulfil your criteria, and then choose your interviewees based around that. You'll then be able to concentrate on getting a feel for the person at interview - rather than on the depth of their technical knowledge.

If an advisor doesn't dig around with lots of question - it's more than likely they're just a salesperson. If they're pushing towards a particular product before looking at your personality and experience, then it's definitely the case. Often, the level to start at for a student experienced in some areas will be vastly dissimilar to the student with none. Opening with a user skills program first may be the ideal way to commence your IT program, depending on your current skill level.

An important area that is sometimes not even considered by those weighing up a particular programme is 'training segmentation'. This is essentially the way the course is divided up for drop-shipping to you, which completely controls where you end up. Normally, you will purchase a course staged over 2 or 3 years and receive one element at a time until graduation. It seems to make sense on one level, but consider these issues: What if for some reason you don't get to the end of every single exam? And what if the order provided doesn't meet your requirements? Without any fault on your part, you may go a little slower and not get all the study materials as a result.

In a perfect world, you want everything at the start - enabling you to have them all to come back to at any time in the future - as and when you want. This also allows you to vary the order in which you move through the program if you find another route more intuitive.

Getting into your first IT role sometimes feels easier to handle with a Job Placement Assistance facility. Ultimately it's not as hard as some people make out to land a job - as long as you've got the necessary skills and qualifications; the shortage of IT personnel in Britain looks after that.

Advice and support about getting interviews and your CV may be available (alternatively, check out one of our sites for help). Make sure you bring your CV right up to date right away - not when you're ready to start work! Various junior support roles have been offered to students who're still on their course and haven't even passed a single exam yet. This will at least get you into the 'maybe' pile of CV's - rather than the 'No' pile. If you don't want to travel too far to work, then you may well find that a specialist locally based employment agency may be more appropriate than some national concern, as they're going to have insider knowledge of the jobs that are going locally.

Various men and women, it would appear, are prepared to study their hearts out (sometimes for years), only to give up at the first hurdle when finding their first job. Introduce yourself... Make an effort to let employers know about you. Don't think a job's just going to jump out in front of you.

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