Anybody thinking about training for the IT sector will quickly become aware of the diverse range of courses there are. Prior to getting started, find a training company that has advisors, so you can be fully informed on the jobs your course will lead you to. It's possible you'll learn about jobs you hadn't considered before. Whether it's office skills you're looking to polish up on, or want to advance your career and attain IT qualifications at a professional level, there are user-friendly courses and mentoring to turn your goals into reality.

Due to the vast number of sensibly priced, simple to follow courses and assistance, it's easy to get to something that will take you into industry.

Far too many companies only look at the plaque to hang on your wall, and completely avoid what it's all actually about - which is a commercial career or job. Always start with the end goal - don't make the journey more important than where you want to get to. It's quite usual, in many cases, to obtain tremendous satisfaction from a year of studying and then spend 20 miserable years in a career that does nothing for you, entirely because you stumbled into it without some quality research when you should've - at the outset.

Take time to understand your feelings on career progression and earning potential, plus your level of ambition. It makes sense to understand what (if any) sacrifices you'll need to make for a particular role, what accreditations will be required and where you'll pick-up experience from. Obtain help from an experienced industry professional who appreciates the market you're interested in, and is able to give you 'A typical day in the life of' outline of what you'll actually be doing on a day-to-day basis. It makes good sense to understand whether or not this is right for you before you start on any retraining programme. There's little point in kicking off your training only to realise you've made a huge mistake.

If your advisor doesn't ask you a lot of questions - it's likely they're really a salesperson. If they push a particular product before getting to know your background and experience, then you know you're being sold to. If you've got any live experience or base qualifications, it may be that your starting point of study is very different to someone completely new. For students commencing IT study anew, it's often a good idea to break yourself in gently, starting with some basic user skills first. This can be built into any educational course.

Commercial qualifications are now, without a doubt, beginning to replace the more academic tracks into IT - but why is this the case? With fees and living expenses for university students increasing year on year, and the industry's general opinion that accreditation-based training most often has much more commercial relevance, there's been a great increase in Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA based training routes that create knowledgeable employees at a fraction of the cost and time involved. Vendor training works by focusing on the particular skills that are needed (together with a relevant amount of associated knowledge,) as opposed to trawling through all the background detail and 'fluff' that degree courses often do (to fill up a syllabus or course).

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty: Recognised IT certifications let employers know exactly what you're capable of - the title is a complete giveaway: for example, I am a 'Microsoft Certified Professional' in 'Planning and Maintaining a Windows 2003 Infrastructure'. Therefore employers can identify exactly what they need and what certifications will be suitable to deal with those needs.

An important area that is sometimes not even considered by potential students thinking about a course is the issue of 'training segmentation'. This is essentially how the program is broken down into parts for delivery to you, which vastly changes what you end up with. Usually, you will join a program staged over 2 or 3 years and receive a module at a time. While this may sound logical on one level, consider this: What could you expect if you didn't actually complete each and every module at the proposed pace? Often the prescribed exam order won't be as easy as some other structure would for you.

The ideal circumstances are to get all your study materials posted to you right at the start; the entire thing! This way, nothing can happen down the line which could affect your progress.