Good for you! As you’re reading this article it’s likely you’re thinking about retraining for a new career – so already you’ve made a start. Very few of us are satisfied with our careers, but no action is ever taken. You could be a member of the few who make a difference in their lives.

When considering retraining, it’s important to first define what you want and don’t want from the career you would like to get. Ensure that things would be a lot better before much time and effort is spent re-directing your life. So much better to look at the end goal first, to make the right judgements:

* Do you like to work collaborating with people? Would you prefer to work with a small team or with many new people? Possibly operating on your own with your own methodology would be more your thing?

* What ideas do you have regarding the industry you’re looking to get into?

* Should this be a one off time that re-training is necessary?

* Are you concerned about the possibility of getting another job, and being in demand in the employment market until you plan to retire?

Don’t overlook Information Technology, that’s our recommendation – it’s one of the few growth areas in Great Britain and Europe. Another benefit is that remuneration packages are much better than most.

Locating job security in the current climate is very rare. Businesses often remove us out of the workforce at a moment’s notice – as long as it fits their needs.

It’s possible though to discover market-level security, by digging for areas in high demand, mixed with a lack of qualified workers.

The Information Technology (IT) skills deficit around the country currently stands at over twenty six percent, as noted by the most recent e-Skills investigation. Put simply, we’re only able to fill three out of every four jobs in Information Technology (IT).

This single truth alone underpins why the country urgently requires considerably more new trainees to join the IT industry.

We can’t imagine if a better time or market conditions could exist for getting trained into this hugely emerging and blossoming business.

An area that’s often missed by new students considering a training program is the issue of ‘training segmentation’. This is essentially how the program is broken down into parts to be delivered to you, which vastly changes the point you end up at.

Trainees may consider it sensible (with most training taking 1-3 years for a full commercial certification,) for a training company to release the training stage by stage, as you achieve each exam pass. Although:

Students often discover that their training company’s standard order of study is not what they would prefer. Sometimes, a slightly different order suits them better. And what happens if they don’t finish within their exact timetable?

Put simply, the best option is to get an idea of what they recommend as an ideal study order, but get all the study materials at the start. Everything is then in your possession if you don’t manage to finish within their ideal time-table.

An all too common mistake that many potential students make is to look for the actual course to take, and take their eye off the end result they want to achieve. Colleges are brimming over with direction-less students that chose an ‘interesting’ course – in place of something that could gain them an enjoyable career or job.

Imagine training for just one year and then end up doing a job for a lifetime. Ensure you avoid the fatal error of choosing what sounds like a program of interest to you only to waste your life away with a job you hate!

Make sure you investigate your feelings on career development, earning potential, and how ambitious you are. You need to know what industry expects from you, what particular qualifications are required and how you’ll gain real-world experience.

Have a chat with a skilled advisor who knows about the sector you’re looking at, and could provide a detailed description of what to expect in that role. Getting all these things right long before beginning a retraining program will prevent a lot of wasted time and effort.

A competent and professional advisor (vs a salesman) will want to thoroughly discuss your current experience level and abilities. This is vital for understanding your study start-point.

Remember, if in the past you’ve acquired any accreditation or direct-experience, then you may be able to pick-up at a different starting-point to a trainee with no history to speak of.

Consider starting with some basic user skills first. This can set the scene for your on-going studies and make the slope up to the higher-levels a a little easier.

(C) Jason Kendall. Go to LearningLolly.com for the best career advice. www.learninglolly.com or Career Training.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 25th, 2009 at 8:01 pm and is filed under Jobs and Careers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.