OK, why ought we to be looking at commercial qualifications rather than familiar academic qualifications gained through tech' colleges and universities? Key company training (to use industry-speak) is far more effective and specialised. Industry is aware that such specialised knowledge is vital to meet the requirements of an increasingly more technical world. Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA are the key players in this arena. Higher education courses, for example, clog up the training with too much loosely associated study - with a syllabus that's far too wide. This prevents a student from getting enough specific knowledge about the core essentials.

Just as the old advertisement said: 'It does what it says on the label'. Employers simply need to know what they're looking for, and then request applicants with the correct exam numbers. Then they know that anyone who applies can do the necessary work.

One useful service provided by many trainers is job placement assistance. It's intention is to help you find your first job in the industry. The fact of the matter is it isn't a complex operation to land a job - assuming you're well trained and qualified; the growing UK skills shortage sees to that.

Work on polishing up your CV right away however (advice and support for this should come from your course provider). Don't delay for when you're ready to start work. It's not uncommon to find that junior support jobs have been offered to students who're still on their course and have yet to take their exams. This will at least get you on your way. You can usually expect better performance from a specialist independent regional employment service than any training course provider's employment division, because they'll know local industry and the area better.

Just be sure that you don't invest a great deal of time on your training course, just to give up and leave it up to everyone else to find you a job. Stand up for yourself and start looking for yourself. Put as much resource into securing your first job as it took to pass the exams.

We can see a plethora of jobs and positions available in the IT industry. Finding the particular one in this uncertainty can be very difficult. Therefore, if you have no know-how of the IT sector, how can you expect to know what some particular IT person spends their day doing? How can you possibly choose which educational path is the most likely for ultimate success. Achieving a well-informed answer really only appears from a thorough examination of several different criteria:

- Which type of person you think yourself to be - the tasks that you enjoy, and on the other side of the coin - what makes you unhappy.

- Are you driven to get qualified due to a specific raison d'etre - for instance, are you pushing to work based from home (being your own boss?)?

- Is your income higher on your priority-scale than other requirements.

- Some students don't fully understand the energy involved to gain all the necessary accreditation.

- You will need to take in what is different for each individual training area.

To completely side-step the confusing industry jargon, and reveal the best route for you, have an informal meeting with an industry-experienced advisor; an individual that will cover the commercial realities and truth and of course all the qualifications.

One interesting way that training providers make a big mark-up is by charging for exams up-front and offering an exam guarantee. It looks impressive, but let's just examine it more closely:

Everybody's aware that they're still being charged for it - it's not so hard to see that it's already in the full cost of the package supplied by the college. It's definitely not free - don't think these companies are so generous with their money! If you want to qualify first 'go', you must pay for one exam at a time, give it the necessary attention and give the task sufficient application.

Shouldn't you be looking to hold on to your money and pay for the exam at the appropriate time, instead of paying a premium to a training company, and also to sit exams more locally - instead of the remote centre that's convenient only to the trainer? Huge profits are secured by a number of companies that get money upfront for exam fees. For various reasons, many students don't take their exams and so they pocket the rest. Amazingly, there are companies around that rely on that fact - and that's how they increase their profits. You should fully understand that re-takes with training course providers who offer an 'Exam Guarantee' are always heavily controlled. You will be required to do mock exams until you've proven that you're likely to pass.

Splashing out often many hundreds of pounds extra on an 'Exam Guarantee' is naive - when hard work, commitment and the right preparation via exam simulations is what will really guarantee success.

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