Today, you'll find very few 'Windows' 'NT' server installations remaining, but there are even now quite a lot remaining at Server '2000'. It's actually still early-days yet for Windows server '2008', with '2003' remaining dominant. Since this is the case within the business environment, most of MS's certifications continue to be centred on the '2003' Operating System. The 'Microsoft' MCSE and Microsoft MCSA training programs have evolved as time has passed in line with the Servers. Currently, both MCSE 2003 & MCSA 2003 are MS's key Network accreditations. It must however be remembered that up-grade training to server '08 is coming, & advisable wherever feasible.

The sometimes daunting task of landing your first IT job is often made easier by some companies, via a Job Placement Assistance facility. Because of the massive need for more IT skills in this country right now, there's no need to get too caught up in this feature though. It really won't be that difficult to land employment once you're trained and certified.

However, don't wait till you've completed your exams before updating your CV. As soon as your training commences, list what you're working on and get it out there! Getting your CV considered is more than not being regarded at all. A decent number of junior jobs are bagged by trainees who are still at an early stage in their studies. If you'd like to keep travelling time and costs to a minimum, then you may well find that a specialist independent regional recruitment consultant or service can generally be of more use than a national service, because they're going to have insider knowledge of the jobs that are going locally.

Various men and women, so it seems, are prepared to study their hearts out (for years sometimes), and then just stop instead of finding a job. Introduce yourself... Make an effort to get in front of employers. Don't expect a job to just fall into your lap.

How can job security honestly exist anywhere now? Here in the UK, with industry changing its mind on a day-to-day basis, it seems increasingly unlikely. In times of increasing skills shortages and growing demand of course, we can locate a newly emerging type of security in the marketplace; driven forward by the conditions of constant growth, businesses struggle to find the number of people required.

Looking at the computer industry, the recent e-Skills investigation demonstrated an over 26 percent shortfall of skilled workers. Showing that for every four jobs that exist across Information Technology (IT), there are barely three qualified workers to fill that need. Highly trained and commercially accredited new workers are accordingly at a resounding premium, and it's estimated to remain so for many years longer. No better time or market conditions could exist for gaining qualification for this hugely increasing and budding sector.

Some training academies are still offering the rather old-fashioned idea of classroom attendance. Quite often pushed as a positive point, if you talk to a student who has had to attend a few, you'll hear a common theme of many or most of these problems:

- The amount of travel required - frequent trips and normally hundreds of miles a time.

- Workshop availability; normally Mon-Fri and 2-3 days in a row. It's never convenient to take the required leave of absence.

- And let's not overlook the lost vacation days. Most of us have twenty days annual leave. If over 50 percent is used in classes, then it doesn't leave much for us and our families.

- Workshops sometimes are over-subscribed, giving us the only option of something that we don't really want.

- Often, tension develops in classes where the right pace for one student is not the same as another.

- Calculate the increasing cost of all the petrol, fares, accommodation, food and parking and you may be surprised (and not pleasantly). Attendees talk of increased costs ranging from hundreds to over a thousand pounds. Work it out - then you'll know.

- The majority of trainees want to keep their training private so as to avoid any come-back whilst in their current job.

- Raising questions in a class full of students often makes any one of us a little self-conscious. Ever avoided asking a question just because you didn't want to appear stupid?

- If your work takes you away from home, it's a fact of life that events now become impossible to get to - unfortunately however, the fees were paid along with everything else at the start.

Wouldn't it be better to watch a video and be taught by industry specialists one-on-one from pre-made modules, doing them when it's convenient for you, not someone else. Whenever an ugly problem rears its head, logon to the 24x7 support facility (that we hope you'll insist on with any technical courses.) You should remember, if you own a laptop, you can study just about anywhere. Note-taking is gone forever - all the lessons are prepared and laid out for you - ready to go. If you need to cover something again, it's immediately available. Essentially: You save time, hassle, money and steer clear of polluting the skies.

Interactive Self-Paced Commercial Computer Training For Microsoft Visual Basic Development >>