Training for your CompTIA A+ covers four specialised areas – you need to pass exams in two of these areas to reach the level of competent in A+. Because of this, most training providers only offer two of the training options. We consider that this isn’t enough – of course you can gain accreditation, but knowing about the others will give you greater confidence in your working life, where knowledge of all four will be necessary. So that’s why you require information in the whole course.
If you decide to become a student on the A+ computer training course you will develop an understanding of how to build computers and fix them, and work in antistatic conditions. You’ll also cover fault finding and diagnostics, through both hands-on and remote access. It could be a good idea to consider adding the CompTIA Network+ training as you’ll then be in a position to take care of computer networks, and have a more responsible working role.
Huge changes are flooding technology over the next generation – and it only gets more exciting every day. We’re at the dawn of starting to understand what this change will mean to us. The way we interact with the world will be profoundly affected by technology and the internet.
Let’s not ignore salaries also – the typical remuneration over this country as a whole for an average IT employee is a lot better than in other market sectors. It’s a good bet that you’ll earn quite a bit more than you’d expect to earn doing other work. It’s evident that we have a considerable national need for certified IT specialists. And as growth in the industry shows little sign of contracting, it looks like this will be the case for years to come.
You have to make sure that all your exams are current and what employers are looking for – don’t even consider programs which lead to some in-house certificate (which is as useless as if you’d printed it yourself). The main industry leaders like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA each have widely acknowledged skills programs. These big-hitters will give some sparkle to your CV.
One area often overlooked by people considering a training program is the concept of ‘training segmentation’. Essentially, this is the way the course is divided up for timed release to you, which vastly changes where you end up. You may think that it makes sense (with training often lasting 2 or 3 years to pass all the required exams,) for many training providers to send out the training stage by stage, as you achieve each exam pass. But: How would they react if you didn’t complete each and every exam at the speed they required? Often the prescribed exam order doesn’t come as naturally as another different route may.
In a perfect world, you’d ask for every single material to be delivered immediately – enabling you to have them all to return to any point – whenever it suits you. Variations can then be made to the order that you move through the program if you find another route more intuitive.
The age-old way of teaching, utilising reference manuals and books, is often a huge slog for most of us. If this describes you, look for learning programmes which feature interactive and multimedia modules. Long-term memory is enhanced when all our senses are brought into the mix – experts have been clear on this for as long as we can remember.
Programs are now found in disc format, where everything is taught on your PC. Video streaming means you can watch instructors demonstrating how to perform the required skill, with some practice time to follow – in an interactive lab. It’s wise to view some examples of the kind of training materials you’ll be using before you purchase a course. What you want are videoed instructor demonstrations and interactive audio-visual sections with practice modules.
Often, companies will only use purely on-line training; and although this is okay the majority of the time, think what will happen if internet access is lost or you only get very a very slow connection sometimes. It’s much safer to rely on physical CD or DVD discs that will not have these problems.
(C) J. Kendall 2009. Pop over to Careers Advisor or Which-Career.co.uk.