With hundreds of IT courses to choose from, it's sometimes daunting to find the right one. Pick out one that's on a par with your abilities and personality, and that's in demand in the working environment. There are courses covering Microsoft User Skills to career courses in Databases, Programming, Networking and Web Design. There is a huge amount of choice and so it's probably best to talk through your options with an experienced advisor prior to making your choice: don't make a guess and learn about a subject for a career that you can't relate to!

By keeping costs to a minimum, training companies now exist with contemporary courses that blend the finest training and guidance for a fraction of the prices charged by old-style trainers.

A lot of training companies 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. Avoid those companies which use 'out-of-hours' call-centres - with your call-back scheduled for standard office hours. This is no use if you're stuck and need help now.

If you look properly, you'll find professional training packages who give students direct-access support 24x7 - at any time of day or night. Never compromise where support is concerned. The vast majority of trainees who throw in the towel, just need the right support system.

Often, trainers provide a shelf full of reference manuals. Learning like this is dull and repetitive and not a very good way of taking things in. Research over recent years has time and time again demonstrated that connecting physically with our study, is much more conducive to long-term memory.

Interactive full motion video with demonstrations and practice sessions will beat books every time. And they're far more fun. You really need to look at some example materials from the company you're considering. It's essential they incorporate instructor-led video demonstrations with virtual practice-lab's.

Pick actual CD or DVD ROM's where possible. You can then avoid all the difficulties of broadband outages, failure and signal quality issues etc.

So, why might we choose commercial qualifications rather than traditional academic qualifications obtained from schools and Further Education colleges? With a growing demand for specific technological expertise, the IT sector has been required to move to the specialised training that the vendors themselves supply - that is companies such as Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA. Frequently this is at a far reduced cost both money and time wise. University courses, for example, can often get caught up in a great deal of loosely associated study - with much too broad a syllabus. This prevents a student from getting enough core and in-depth understanding on a specific area.

If an employer understands what areas they need covered, then they simply need to advertise for a person with the appropriate exam numbers. Syllabuses are all based on the same criteria and aren't allowed to deviate (in the way that degree courses can).

Don't forget: the actual training or an accreditation isn't what this is about; a job you're training for is. Many trainers unfortunately put too much weight in the qualification itself. It's a sad testimony to the sales skills of many companies, but a large percentage of students commence training that sounds amazing from the sales literature, but which delivers a career that is of no interest. Try talking to typical college students to see what we mean.

You'll want to understand the expectations of your industry. What certifications you'll be required to have and how to gain experience. Spend some time considering how far you reckon you're going to want to go as it may control your selection of certifications. Our recommendation would be to look for advice and guidance from an experienced industry advisor before settling on some particular training programme, so you're sure from the outset that the chosen route will give you the skills for the job being sought.

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