The most important step in choosing IT Training, is to be sure that it's the right choice. There's nothing worse than starting a IT Training program only to find that the career involved, isn't in demand. Leading to not only a waste of money but more importantly time too.
So the first step to take, is to choose IT Training in a career that is in demand and has good career progression.
There are many companies offering IT Training designed to increase the chances of getting a job but not all training companies are the same.
I've found it incredibly difficult to find a training company that I can recommend to an absolute beginner, who has little or no previous experience of working in IT.
Mainly because none of the training I researched could provide real IT experience, which is essential in getting a job.
All the IT Training seemed highly theoretical without any practical elements or project work involving tasks similar to what would be required in the real world.
Worse still most of the training that I deemed as satisfactory was hideously expensive, which simply isn't fair on those who haven't got a sponsor like an employer to pay for it. You'd have to dig pretty deep to come up with the cash that some training companies want for their courses.
There are many good training companies providing excellent courses in many different areas. However, these courses tend to be quite expensive and are generally tailored for those already with some experience in the area the course is designed for.
Just as there are many good IT Training companies, their inevitably has to be many bad training companies, who are only interested in one thing and that's to make as much money as they can out of each student.
The courses they provide can be quite expensive with limited prospects of getting work. I'm amazed at some of the tricks that some companies will use to get people to buy their average courses such as,
Some IT Training companies will offer an IQ or related test to see whether you are suited to IT. These are just geared up to make you feel that you have the right IQ to succeed.
I actually sat one of these tests and deliberately got all the questions wrong but was still told I was suitable, obviously they don't bother checking them!
Some IT Training companies use the ploy of interviewing potential students to see if they are acceptable for their courses. Again, it's designed to make you feel important that you are being selected for a course while supposedly others aren't.
The truth is that everyone they see who can pay for the course, gets a place on the course, irrespective of whether they're suitable or not.
Some IT Training companies may try to sell you courses to which you are not suited to, that is those courses which are designed for experienced people.
They know they can charge more money for these courses. Good training companies will follow the guidelines set by the course developer on who is suitable for taking a course. These come in the form of pre-requisites which must be present before being allowed to take a course.
Some IT Training companies can offer to find you work at the end of course but all they really do is prepare a CV (resume) for you and blitz email it to employers.
This is spam emailing and the chances of getting a job is going to be very difficult. The resume they prepare is pretty basic and won't do you any favours when trying to build your career.
Many IT Training companies boast about being accredited to a quality standard, but these standards generally don't apply to their courses. They only apply to the way the training company operates, that is the way it does it's paperwork.
Do not be taken in by a training company boasting that it's accredited or certified by a particular vendor. I found out that to be accredited by Microsoft as a Microsoft Certified Technical Education Centre (CTEC) you only need to employ 2 Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCP).
These 2 MCP's only need to pass 1 exam each to get the MCP status and the exams they take can be in easier subject areas. So, passing an exam in a webpage development program can lead to MCP status and having two MCP's with this exam pass, the training centre can still run advanced courses in anything from messaging, databases and so on.
There are some training companies out there that repackage free course material and then sell it onto unsuspecting individuals. The free course material is taken from the internet and isn't of the best quality.
I'm strongly against the charging of enrolment fees to students, which are inflated and run into a couple of hundred bucks. Some companies insist that an introductory course needs to be done before being allowed to study any other courses, however these courses are quite rudimentary and over inflated.
Sometimes these courses are called along lines of "Stage 1" or "Pre-requisite course". Even if you have some IT experience, these training companies still make you pay extortionate prices for these substandard courses.
Never believe the success stories training companies give as examples of the quality of their courses. Typical stories such as students part way through a course finding work cannot be attributed to the training companies.
What's important here is to realise that these students actually find work themselves and it has nothing to do with the training companies. What these students have done is actively carried out their own research, contacted employers and even done voluntary work to build their skills.
Salaries quoted by Training Companies for positions in IT should always be checked to ensure that they are reliable and valid for entry level positions.
Entry level positions can pay a pittance, especially in IT support jobs and it may take many years to get up to a decent level of income.
Some IT career paths will pay a lot more and as such require a higher level of experience which a beginner simply won't possess.