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Congratulate yourself that you’ve already got this far! A small number of workers enjoy their work and find it stimulating, but vast numbers complain to each other and take no action. The fact that you’re here means it’s probable that you’ve a personal interest in re-training, so even now you’re ahead of the game. What comes next is find out more and then take action.

We’d strongly advise that in advance of taking a training course, you run through some things with a mentor who can see the bigger picture and can make recommendations. They can assess your personality and help you find your ideal job to train for:

* Do you see yourself dealing with people? Would that be with the same people or with many new people? Maybe working on your own in a task-based situation would give you pleasure?

* Are you thinking carefully about which market sector you maybe could work in? (Post credit crunch, it’s more important than ever to choose carefully.)

* After re-training, how long a career do you hope for, and will the market sector give you the confidence that will happen?

* Do you have the assurance that your industry training course will make you employable, and offer the chance to allow you to work until your pension kicks in?

A predominant industry in this country that fulfils the above criteria is the IT industry. There’s a need for more knowledgeable workers in this market, just search any job site and you’ll discover what we mean. But don’t think it’s full of techie geeks sitting in front ofscreens the whole time – there are many more roles than that. The majority of workers in the industry are ordinary people, but they enjoy their work and get well paid.

How are we supposed to make an educated choice then? With such prospects, it’s important to know where to search – and what we should be looking for.

Talk to a practiced advisor and they can normally tell you many horror stories of students who’ve been conned by dodgy salespeople. Make sure you deal with a skilled advisor who asks some in-depth questions to find out what’s right for you – not for their pay-packet! You must establish a starting-point that will suit you. An important point to note is that, if you’ve got any qualifications that are related, then it’s not unreasonable to expect to start at a different point than someone who is new to the field. Opening with a foundation program first can be the best way to commence your IT training, depending on your current skill level.

The age-old way of teaching, using textbooks and whiteboards, is an up-hill struggle for the majority of us. If this sounds like you, look for learning programmes which have a majority of interactive, multimedia parts. Studies in learning psychology have shown that long term memory is improved when we receive multi-sensorial input, and we get physically involved with the study process.

Fully interactive motion videos involving demonstration and virtual lab’s will turn you off book-based study for ever more. And they’re a lot more fun to do. You’ll definitely want a demonstration of the study materials from any training college. The package should contain expert-led demonstrations, slideshows and interactive labs where you get to practice.

Avoid training that is purely online. Always choose CD or DVD based study materials where possible, as you need to be able to use them whenever it’s convenient for you – it’s not wise to be held hostage to your internet connection always being ‘up’ and available.

Proper support is incredibly important – locate a good company that includes 24×7 access, as not opting for this kind of support could hold up your pace and restrict your intake. Many only provide email support (too slow), and phone support is usually just a call-centre who will take the information and email an instructor – who will call back over the next day or so (assuming you’re there), at a suitable time to them. This isn’t a lot of good if you’re lost and confused and only have a specific time you can study.

Top training providers opt for an online round-the-clock service pulling in several support offices from around the world. You’ll have a single, easy-to-use interface which switches seamlessly to the best choice of centres any time of the day or night: Support on demand. Find a company that gives this level of learning support. As only true live 24×7 support provides the necessary backup.

Workshops can be portrayed as a big positive benefit by some trainers. After talking to most IT hopefuls who have used them, you’ll likely realise that they’ve now become a mistake mainly due to the following:

* Masses of travelling to and from the training centre – normally 100′s of miles.

* Requesting time out of work – most schools can only give Mon-Fri class availability and typically group 2-3 days together. This is generally difficult for those of us who work for a living, even more so if you include the travel time on top.

* And let’s not ignore lost vacation time. Usually we’re lucky to have 20 days holiday per year. If at least half is sacrificed to learning, then we aren’t going to be doing much vacationing.

* Workshop days normally are over-subscribed, so we end up having to take a slot that doesn’t really suit.

* Some trainees are trying to maintain a quick pace, but some need a more gentle learning curve and be allowed to set their own speed. This causes tension in most cases.

* The growing costs associated with travel – travelling to the training college and of course over-night bed and breakfast can mount up over several visits. If you only assumed 5-10 centre-days at a cost of 35 pounds for one night’s accommodation, plus forty pounds for petrol and 15.00 for food, that becomes a minimum of four to nine hundred pounds of hidden costs that we now have to fund.

* You should never risk even a small chance of getting side-stepped for potential advancement or pay-rises because of your studies.

* Asking questions in a class full of students sometimes makes us feel awkward. Ever avoided asking a question just because you were worried it might make you look silly?

* More often than not, workshops are virtually unreachable, when you work elsewhere in the country for part of your week or month.

Surely it makes so much more sense to study when it’s convenient for you – not the company – and exploit videos of instructors with interactive virtual-lab’s. Study from home on your PC or out in the garden on your laptop. If you’ve got questions, then use the provided 24×7 live support (that you should have insisted on for any technical study.) Irrespective of how often you would like to re-take a quiz or test, filmed teachers are never going to run out of patience! Also, with this method, you don’t have to worry about any note-taking. Everything’s laid out there for you to use. The final upshot: Reduced hassle, money saved, and no travelling or long journeys.

Huge changes are washing over technology in the near future – and it becomes more and more thrilling each day. Many people are of the opinion that the increase in technology we’ve had over recent years is cooling down. All indicators point in the opposite direction. Massive changes are on the horizon, and the internet in particular will be the biggest thing to affect the way we live.

The money in IT isn’t to be sniffed at either – the income on average in the UK for the usual IT professional is noticeably better than average salaries nationally. Chances are that you’ll receive quite a bit more than you’d expect to earn doing other work. Because the IT market sector is still increasing at an unprecedented rate, it’s looking good that the need for professionally qualified and skilled IT workers will continue actively for years to come.