It only makes sense to consider training programs that'll move onto industry accepted exams. There are far too many trainers pushing minor 'in-house' certificates that are essentially useless in the real world. The top IT companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe have globally recognised skills courses. These heavyweights can make sure you stand out at interview.

A fatal Faux-Pas that many potential students make is to choose a career based on a course, and not focus on where they want to get to. Training academies have thousands of students who took a course because it seemed fun - in place of something that could gain them their end-goal of a job they enjoyed. It's common, for instance, to obtain tremendous satisfaction from a year of studying and then find yourself trapped for decades in a career that does nothing for you, as a consequence of not performing the correct level of soul-searching at the outset.

Take time to understand how you feel about earning potential, career development, and if you're ambitious or not. You need to know what will be expected of you, which accreditations will be required and in what way you can develop commercial experience. Chat with a professional advisor that knows about the sector you're looking at, and is able to give you an in-depth explanation of what to expect in that role. Getting to the bottom of all this well before commencement of any retraining programme makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

Commercial qualifications are now, without a doubt, beginning to replace the traditional routes into IT - but why should this be? Corporate based study (in industry terminology) is more effective in the commercial field. The IT sector has acknowledged that such specialised knowledge is vital to cope with an increasingly more technical marketplace. CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA are the dominant players. In essence, students are simply taught the necessary specifics in depth. Actually, it's not quite as pared down as that, but principally the objective has to be to concentrate on the fundamentally important skill-sets (along with a certain amount of crucial background) - without overdoing the detail in all sorts of other things (as universities often do).

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty: Recognised IT certifications let employers know exactly what you're capable of - everything they need to know is in the title: i.e. I am a 'Microsoft Certified Professional' in 'Windows XP Administration and Configuration'. So employers can look at the particular needs they have and which qualifications are needed for the job.

Following on from the CCNA, accreditation tracks are varied & could very well incorporate a specialization in Wireless or Security fields, alternatively you could consider moving to the 'CCNP' (Cisco Certified Networking Professional.) It's not advisable to contemplate doing the CCNP before you have entirely accomplished your 'CCNA'. You would expect to be employed in a 'Cisco' environment for not less than one or two years (having got your 'CCNA' accreditation) before you started to train for your CCNP. If however you've already been in IT for some time, and have already achieved a accreditation that is equivalent to a 'CCNA' (for instance during military service) you could possibly move directly onto CCNP. The bottom-line is recruiters need to know that anybody with rather advanced qualifications has had a suitable amount of working experience to go with it.

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