UK CompTIA A Plus Training – Thoughts

There are four specialist areas of training in a full CompTIA A+ program; you’re qualified as an achiever in A+ when you’ve passed the test for just two specialist areas. Because of this, it’s usual for colleges to limit themselves to 2 study areas. The truth is it’s necessary to have the information on each subject as industry will ask for an understanding of all four areas. You don’t have to complete all 4 certifications, but it seems common sense that you at least have a working knowledge of every area.

A+ certification without additional courses will set you up to mend and maintain stand-alone PC’s and MAC’s; ones which are usually not part of a network – which means the home or small business market.

If you would like to be a man or woman who works for a larger company – fixing and supporting networks, build on A+ with Network+, or consider an MCSA or MCSE with Microsoft to give you a wider knowledge of how networks work.

It’s usual for students to get confused with one area of their training which doesn’t even occur to them: The way the training is divided into chunks and physically delivered to you.

Often, you will join a program staged over 2 or 3 years and get posted one section at a time – from one exam to the next. This sounds logical on one level, until you consider this:

It’s not unusual for trainees to realise that their training company’s standard order of study isn’t ideal for them. You may find that a slightly different order suits them better. And what if you don’t get to the end inside of the expected timescales?

Truth be told, the best option is to obtain their recommendation on the best possible order of study, but to receive all the materials up-front. You then have everything in the event you don’t complete everything as fast as they’d like.

Many men and women are under the impression that the traditional school, college or university path is still the most effective. Why then is commercial certification becoming more in demand?

As demand increases for knowledge about more and more complex technology, the IT sector has been required to move to specific, honed-in training only available through the vendors themselves – in other words companies like Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA. Frequently this is at a far reduced cost both money and time wise.

Vendor training works through concentrating on the particular skills that are needed (alongside a relevant amount of related knowledge,) instead of trawling through all the background ‘padding’ that degree courses often do – to pad out the syllabus.

When an employer is aware what areas they need covered, then they simply need to advertise for the exact skill-set required to meet that need. The syllabuses are all based on the same criteria and can’t change from one establishment to the next (in the way that degree courses can).

A service offered by some training providers is a Job Placement Assistance program. It’s intention is to help you find your first job in the industry. However sometimes there is more emphasis than is necessary on this service, for it is genuinely quite straightforward for any focused and well taught person to get a job in the IT industry – because there’s a great need for qualified personnel.

Bring your CV up to date as soon as possible however – you should get plenty of help from your training provider on this. Don’t wait until you’ve qualified.

Quite often, you’ll secure your first role while still studying (even when you’ve just left first base). If your course details aren’t on your CV (and it hasn’t been posted on jobsites) then you’re not even going to be known about!

If you’d like to get employment in your home town, then you may well find that a local (but specialised) recruitment consultancy can generally serve you better than the trainer’s recruitment division, due to the fact that they’re far more likely to know the jobs that are going locally.

A common grievance for various course providers is how hard people are prepared to work to become certified, but how little effort that student will then put into getting the job they’ve trained for. Don’t give up when the best is yet to come.

Trainees looking at this market can be very practical by nature, and don’t really enjoy classrooms, and poring through books and manuals. If you’re thinking this sounds like you, use multimedia, interactive learning, where everything is presented via full motion video.

Learning psychology studies show that much more of what we learn in remembered when we involve as many senses as possible, and we get physically involved with the study process.

Modern training can now be done at home via easy-to-use DVD or CD ROM’s. Instructor-led tutorials will mean you’ll learn your subject via the expert demonstrations. Then you test your knowledge by interacting with the software and practicing yourself.

Every company that you look at should be able to show you a few examples of the materials provided for study. You should hope for instructor-led videos and a wide selection of interactive elements.

It doesn’t make sense to opt for on-line only training. Because of the variable quality and reliability of most broadband providers, you should always obtain CD or DVD ROM based materials.

(C) Jason Kendall. Look at LearningLolly.com for logical career advice. Click Here or Comptia Courses.