All of us are short of time, and most often if we desire to learn a new profession, getting educated at the same time as holding down a job is what we have to do. Training tracks certified by Microsoft can be the way to do it. Try to discuss all the different permutations with someone who is on familiar terms with the requirements in the workplace, and can influence your choice of the most fruitful career to suit your abilities and character. Having selected the job you'd like to get into, an applicable training course has to be picked that's is in line with your skills and abilities. Make sure it's well designed for you as an individual.

A major candidate for the top potential problem in the IT training sector can be attending multi-day workshops. Most training academies harp on about the so-called 'benefits' of these classes, however, they quickly become a major problem because of:

* Frequent round journeys - normally hundreds of miles each and every time.

* Weekday accessibility with classes is the norm, and with 2-3 days to book off work, this can be difficult for the majority of students who work.

* Don't ignore lost holiday time. Usually we're lucky to have 20 days holiday per year. If over 50 percent is used in classes, then it doesn't leave much for us and our families.

* Training workshops sometimes become quickly full, meaning we have to accept a slot that doesn't really suit.

* The pace of the workshop - workshops normally have trainees of different abilities, so tension can be created between those that want to go quickly as opposed to those who want to go a little slower.

* The growing costs associated with travel - travelling to and from the training facility plus several days bed and breakfast can cost a lot each time you attend. Assuming just five to ten classes costing around 35 pounds for one night's accommodation, plus 40 pounds petrol and 15.00 for food, that equates to 450-900 pounds of hidden costs that we now have to fund.

* Is it worth the possibility of getting ignored for a lift up the ladder or wage increases because your employer knows you're retraining.

* How many of us have shied away from raising a hand in the air, because we wanted to maintain the illusion that we did, in fact, understand?

* Working and living away - many students need to live or work somewhere else for sections of the program. Days in-centre are impossible at that point, unfortunately the money has already changed hands in your initial payment.

It obviously makes a lot more sense to learn at a time that's convenient for you - not the school - and utilise interactive videos of instructors teaching a class. Study can happen anywhere that suits. If your PC is a laptop, you could get a bit of sunshine outside as you work. Any issues that arise just logon to the 24x7 support facility. You could go back and re-cover all the learning modules as often as you need to. And of course, you won't need to scribble any notes as the teaching is yours forever. Could it be more straightforward: Time and money is saved and travelling is avoided altogether; plus you get a more comfortable training setting.

Let's admit it: There's absolutely no personal job security now; there's really only industry and business security - a company will drop any single member of staff when it meets the business' business interests. Of course, a marketplace with high growth, where there just aren't enough staff to go round (as there is a massive shortage of properly qualified people), provides a market for true job security.

Offering the IT industry for example, the most recent e-Skills study showed a skills deficit around Great Britain of over 26 percent. Therefore, for every 4 jobs available around Information Technology (IT), companies can only source certified professionals for 3 of them. Highly qualified and commercially certified new employees are accordingly at a total premium, and it seems it will continue to be so for a long time. It would be hard to imagine if a better time or market state of affairs is ever likely to exist for gaining qualification for this hugely emerging and developing sector.

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