Training for your CompTIA A+ covers four specialised areas – you’ll need exam certification in just two sectors to reach the level of A+ competent. For this reason, most training providers simply provide 2 of the training options. Our opinion is this is selling you short – of course you can gain accreditation, but knowing about the others will set you apart in the workplace, where you’ll need to know about all of them. So that’s why you require information in all four areas.
As well as learning about the ins and outs of building and maintaining computers, trainees on an A+ training course will be taught how to work in antistatic conditions, as well as diagnostics, fault-finding and remote access.
Perhaps you see yourself as the kind of individual who is involved with a big team – supporting, fixing and maintaining networks, you’ll need to add CompTIA Network+, or consider an MCSA or MCSE with Microsoft to give you a wider knowledge of how networks work.
You’ll come across courses which guarantee examination passes – this always means exams have to be paid for upfront, at the start of your training. However, prior to embracing this so-called guarantee, look at the following:
Patently it’s not free – you’re still paying for it – the cost has just been rolled into the whole training package.
Should you seriously need to qualify first ‘go’, you must pay for each exam as you go, prioritise it appropriately and be ready for the task.
Shouldn’t you be looking to find the best exam deal or offer when you’re ready, not to pay the fees marked up by a training company, and to do it in a local testing office – rather than in some remote centre?
Paying in advance for examination fees (plus interest – if you’re financing your study) is a false economy. Resist being talked into filling the training company’s account with your money simply to help their cash-flow! Many will hope you won’t get to do them all – so they don’t need to pay for them.
Most companies will require you to do mock exams and not allow you to re-take an exam until you’ve demonstrated an excellent ability to pass – which makes an ‘Exam Guarantee’ frankly useless.
Exams taken at VUE and Prometric centres are approximately 112 pounds in Britain at the time of writing. Why spend so much more on ‘Exam Guarantee’ costs (usually wrapped up in the course package price) – when good quality study materials, the proper support and commitment, effort and practice with quality exam preparation systems are the factors that really get you through.
We’re often asked why qualifications from colleges and universities are less in demand than the more qualifications from the commercial sector?
Corporate based study (as it’s known in the industry) is far more specialised and product-specific. The IT sector has become aware that specialisation is necessary to handle an increasingly more technical world. Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA are the key players in this arena.
Patently, a necessary degree of associated knowledge needs to be learned, but essential specialised knowledge in the exact job role gives a commercially trained student a distinct advantage.
Just as the old advertisement said: ‘It does what it says on the tin’. All an employer has to do is know what areas need to be serviced, and then match up the appropriate exam numbers as a requirement. That way they can be sure they’re interviewing applicants who can do the job.
Some training providers offer a Job Placement Assistance program, designed to steer you into your first job. Often, this feature is bigged up too much, as it’s really not that difficult for a well trained and motivated person to secure a job in the IT industry – as employers are keen to find appropriately qualified personnel.
Bring your CV up to date as soon as possible however (advice and support for this should come from your course provider). Don’t put it off until you’ve graduated or passed any exams.
A good number of junior support jobs have been bagged by people who’re still on their course and haven’t even passed a single exam yet. This will at least get your CV into the ‘possible’ pile and not the ‘no’ pile.
The top companies to help you find a job are normally local IT focused employment agencies. As they’re keen to place you to receive their commission, they’ll work that much harder to get a result.
Just be sure that you don’t spend hundreds of hours on your training and studies, only to stop and expect somebody else to secure your first position. Get off your backside and get out there. Invest as much resource into securing your first job as it took to pass the exams.
Doing your bit in revolutionary new technology is as thrilling as it comes. You become one of a team of people creating a future for us all.
We’re barely beginning to comprehend what this change will mean to us. How we communicate and interact with everyone around us will be inordinately affected by technology and the web.
Should receiving a good salary be high on your goal sheet, then you’ll welcome the news that the regular income for IT employees in general is noticeably more than salaries in the rest of the economy.
The requirement for appropriately qualified IT professionals is a fact of life for many years to come, due to the continuous development in IT dependency in commerce and the massive skills gap that remains.
Copyright 2009 Scott Edwards. Look at CLICK HERE or www.learninglolly.com/A_Training_Courses.html.
