CompTIA A+ computer training covers four specialised areas - you need to pass exams in 2 different areas to be considered competent in A+. This is why, most training providers only offer two of the four in the syllabus. To us, this is selling you short - of course you can gain accreditation, but knowing about the others will give you greater confidence in your working life, where you’ll need a more comprehensive understanding. That’s the reason why you should train in all 4 specialities.
Passing the A+ exam by itself will give you the ability to fix and maintain stand alone Macs, computers and laptops; ones that are most often not part of a network - this generally applies to home use and small companies.
In addition, you could look to think about doing Network+ as it will enable you to look after networks of computers, which is where the bigger salaries are.
At the top of your shopping list for a training program should be full 24×7 support with trained professional instructors and mentors. Too many companies only provide support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later (but not weekends usually).
Beware of institutions that use messaging services ‘out-of-hours’ - where you’ll get called back during standard office hours. It’s not a lot of help when you’ve got study issues and need help now.
The best training colleges opt for an online round-the-clock package pulling in several support offices over many time-zones. You get a single, easy-to-use environment that seamlessly selects the best facility available irrespective of the time of day: Support when it’s needed.
Seek out a company that is worth purchasing from. As only round-the-clock 24×7 support delivers what is required.
Ask a skilled advisor and they can normally tell you many horror stories of students who’ve been sold completely the wrong course for them. Only deal with a skilled advisor that asks some in-depth questions to find out what’s appropriate to you - not for their wallet! Dig until you find the very best place to start for you.
With some commercial experience or base qualifications, it may be that your starting point of study is now at a different level to a new student.
If this is going to be your initial attempt at IT study then you may want to begin with user-skills and software training first.
There are a glut of professional positions up for grabs in IT. Deciding which one could be right out of this complexity is generally problematic.
Flicking through a list of IT job-titles is next to useless. The majority of us don’t really appreciate what the neighbours do for a living - so what chance do we have in understanding the subtleties of a particular IT career.
To work through this, there should be a discussion of several definitive areas:
* Personalities play an important role - what gets you ‘up and running’, and what are the activities that put a frown on your face.
* Are you looking to accomplish a key dream - like working from home someday?
* Is your income higher on your list of priorities than other factors.
* Always think in-depth about the level of commitment expected to attain their desired level.
* You’ll also need to think hard about the amount of time and effort you’ll put into your training.
For most people, getting to the bottom of so much data needs a long talk with someone who has direct industry experience. And we don’t just mean the qualifications - but also the commercial requirements also.
Be careful that the certifications that you’re considering are recognised by industry and are bang up to date. Training companies own certificates are often meaningless.
From the viewpoint of an employer, only the major heavyweights such as Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco or Adobe (for instance) will open the right doors. Nothing else makes the grade.
Author: Scott Edwards. Navigate to Mature Student Training or Career Qualifications.
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