These days, commercial institutions could not function efficiently if it weren't for support workers fixing PC's and networks, while making recommendations to users on a day to day basis. Whilst we are getting progressively dependent on advanced technology, we in turn inevitably become increasingly more reliant upon the skilled and qualified IT professionals, who maintain those systems.

What are the questions we need to be raising so as to get the understanding we need? As it's evident there are some rather impressive opportunities for us to think about.

Throw out the typical salesperson who pushes one particular program without an in-depth conversation to assess your abilities as well as experience level. Always check they have access to a wide-enough range of products so they can solve your training issues. An important point to note is that, if you've got any work-experience or certification, then you may be able to commence studying further along than someone new to the industry. Working through a basic PC skills course first can be the best way to start into your computer training, but depends on your skill level.

You have to make sure that all your certifications are commercially valid and current - you're wasting your time with studies which end up with a useless in-house certificate or plaque. Only nationally recognised accreditation from the top companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe and CompTIA will mean anything to employers.

One thing you must always insist on is full 24x7 support through dedicated instructors and mentors. Far too often we see trainers who only provide support to you inside of office hours (typically 9am-6pm) and sometimes a little earlier or later (but not weekends usually). some companies only provide email support (slow), and telephone support is usually to a call-centre that will chat nicely with you for 5 minutes to ask what the issue is and then simply send an email to an instructor - who'll call back sometime over the next 1-3 days, when it's convenient to them. This is no use if you're stuck and can't continue and only have certain times available in which to do your studies.

Keep looking and you'll come across the top providers who give students direct-access support around the clock - no matter what time of day it is. Never settle for a lower level of service. Support round-the-clock is the only viable option with technical courses. Maybe late-evening study is not your thing; often though, we're at work when traditional support if offered.

We can guess that you've always enjoyed practical work - a 'hands-on' type. Typically, the painful task of reading endless manuals is something you'll make yourself do if you have to, but it's not ideal. Consider interactive, multimedia study if you'd really rather not use books. We see a huge improvement in memory retention when we use multiple senses - educational experts have expounded on this for years now.

Find a course where you'll get a host of CD and DVD based materials - you'll begin by watching videos of instructors demonstrating the skills, with the facility to use virtual lab's to practice your new skills. It's wise to view some examples of the kind of training materials you'll be using before you sign on the dotted line. What you want are videoed instructor demonstrations and interactive audio-visual sections with practice modules.

Often, companies will only use just online versions of their training packages; and while this is acceptable much of the time, consider how you'll deal with it when you don't have access to the internet or you get intermittent problems and speed issues. It's much safer to rely on physical CD or DVD discs that will not have these problems.

Adding in the cost of examination fees with the course fee then including an exam guarantee is popular with many companies. However, let's consider what's really going on:

Everybody's aware that they're still paying for it - it's quite obvious to see that it's been added into the overall figure from the course provider. Certainly, it's not a freebie (although some people will believe anything the marketing companies think up these days!) Evidence shows that if students pay for each progressive exam, one after the other, the chances are they're going to pass first time - because they're aware of what they've paid and therefore will put more effort into their preparation.

Do your exams somewhere local and go for the best offer you can find when you're ready. A great deal of money is made by a number of companies who get money for exam fees in advance. A number of students don't take them for various reasons but no refunds are given. Surprising as it sounds, there are providers who actually rely on students not sitting all the exams - and that's how they increase their profits. In addition to this, you should consider what an 'exam guarantee' really means. Most companies won't be prepared to pay again for an exam until you can prove to them you're ready to pass.

Paying maybe a thousand pounds extra on 'Exam Guarantees' is foolish - when a commitment to studying and the use of authorised exam preparation tools is actually the key to your success.

Sometimes men and women think that the school and FE college path is still the best way into IT. So why are commercially accredited qualifications beginning to overtake it? Industry is of the opinion that to learn the appropriate commercial skills, certified accreditation from the likes of Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA most often has much more specialised relevance - for considerably less. Clearly, a certain amount of associated knowledge has to be taught, but core specialisation in the particular job function gives a vendor trained student a distinct advantage.

If an employer understands what areas they need covered, then they just need to look for the particular skill-set required. Syllabuses are set to meet an exact requirement and don't change between schools (like academia frequently can and does).

When did you last consider your job security? For most people, this issue only becomes a talking point when something dramatic happens to shake us. However, the reality is that true job security has gone the way of the dodo, for most of us. However, a marketplace with high growth, where staff are in constant demand (through a growing shortfall of trained staff), provides a market for real job security.

Using the computer market for example, a key e-Skills study demonstrated massive skills shortages throughout the United Kingdom of over 26 percent. It follows then that for each four job positions in existence across Information Technology (IT), organisations are only able to locate properly accredited workers for three of them. Achieving proper commercial computing exams is thus a quick route to succeed in a life-long as well as gratifying living. Unquestionably, it really is the very best time to retrain into IT.