by Jason Kendall
As you’re looking to study a course to qualify for an MCSE, you’ll fall into one of two camps. You’re either just starting to enter the world of IT, and you’ve found the industry has a huge demand for men and women who are commercially qualified. Or you possibly are someone with a certain amount of knowledge looking to formalise your skill set with the MCSE qualification.
As you find out about training providers, make sure you steer clear of those that short-change you by not providing the latest Microsoft version. This is a false economy for the trainee due to the fact that they’ll have learned outdated MCSE course material which doesn’t fall in with the existing exam programme, so they’ll probably fail.
Training colleges should be completely focused on finding the right path for their students. Mentoring education is equally about helping people to work out which direction to go in, as much as giving them help to get there.
Some commercial training providers will only provide support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later; It’s rare to find someone who offers late evening or full weekend cover.
Look for training with proper support available at any time of the day or night (even if it’s early hours on Sunday morning!) Ensure you get 24×7 direct access to mentors and instructors, and not a call-centre that will take messages so you’re constantly waiting for a call-back at a convenient time for them.
The best training colleges provide a web-based round-the-clock system pulling in several support offices across the globe. You will have a single, easy-to-use interface that seamlessly selects the best facility available at any time of day or night: Support when you need it.
Never make do with less than this. Direct-access round-the-clock support is the only way to go when it comes to IT training. Maybe burning the midnight-oil is not your thing; often though, we’re working at the time when most support is available.
Many training companies will provide a useful Job Placement Assistance program, to help you get your first job. In reality it isn’t a complex operation to get a job – as long as you’re correctly trained and certified; the growing UK skills shortage sees to that.
Nevertheless, avoid waiting until you’ve qualified before bringing your CV up to date. As soon as your training commences, list what you’re working on and tell people about it!
Many junior support jobs have been bagged by trainees who are still learning and have yet to take their exams. At least this will get your CV into the ‘possible’ pile and not the ‘no’ pile.
The best services to help get you placed are normally local IT focused employment agencies. Because they make their money when they’ve found you a job, they have the necessary incentive to try that bit harder.
A common grievance of many course providers is how much trainees are focused on studying to get qualified, but how un-prepared that student is to get the role they have acquired skills for. Don’t give up when the best is yet to come.
The age-old way of teaching, involving piles of reference textbooks, is usually pretty hard going. If this sounds like you, check out study materials that are on-screen and interactive.
Many years of research has time and time again confirmed that connecting physically with our study, is far more likely to produce long-lasting memories.
The latest home-based training features self-contained CD or DVD materials. Instructor-led tutorials will mean you’ll learn your subject through the expert demonstrations. You can then test yourself by practicing and interacting with the software.
Every company that you look at must be able to demonstrate some examples of their training materials. You should hope for instructor-led videos and many interactive sections.
Opt for CD and DVD ROM based physical training media whenever you can. You’re then protected from the variability of broadband quality and service.
Validated exam simulation and preparation packages are vital – and absolutely ought to be obtained from your training supplier.
Don’t go for training programs depending on unofficial exam preparation systems. The way they’re phrased is sometimes startlingly different – and sometimes this can be a real headache once in the actual exam.
Mock exams are enormously valuable as a tool for logging knowledge into your brain – so when it comes to taking the real thing, you don’t get phased.