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CompTIA A Plus Training in 2009

April 28th, 2009 by Jason Kendall

by Jason Kendall

The CompTIA A+ course has four specialist sections – you’ll have to qualify in two of these areas to be A+ competent. This is why, most colleges only offer two of the four in the syllabus. We consider that this isn’t enough – yes you’ll have qualified, but training on all 4 will give you a distinct advantage in your working life, where gaps in your knowledge will expose weaknesses. That’s the reason why you should train in all 4 specialities.

If you decide to become a student on the A+ training course you’ll be taught how to build, fix, repair and work in antistatic conditions. You’ll also cover fault finding and diagnostics, through both hands-on and remote access. If you feel it appropriate to add Network+ to your CompTIA A+ training course, you’ll also have the ability to assist with or manage networks of computers, allowing you to expect a better remuneration package.

How do we make an educated choice then? With all this potential, we’ll need to know where to be looking – and what we should be looking for.

With so much choice, there’s no surprise that most potential career changers don’t really understand the best career path they will follow. After all, without any background in IT in the workplace, how can you expect to know what some particular IT person fills their day with? And of course decide on what training route is the most likely for your success. Contemplation on many areas is important when you want to reveal the right answer for you:

* The kind of person you reckon you are – which things you enjoy, and don’t forget – what don’t you like doing.

* For what reasons you’re starting in IT – maybe you’d like to conquer some personal goal such as being your own boss maybe.

* Where do you stand on salary vs job satisfaction?

* With many, many markets to choose from in the IT industry – there’s a need to achieve some key facts on what sets them apart.

* You have to appreciate the differences between the myriad of training options.

The bottom line is, your only chance of understanding everything necessary is via a good talk with an advisor or professional that through years of experience will provide solid advice.

We can guess that you’re a practical sort of person – a ‘hands-on’ person. If you’re anything like us, the world of book-reading and classrooms is something you’ll force on yourself if you absolutely have to, but you really wouldn’t enjoy it. You should use video and multimedia based materials if books just don’t do it for you. Learning psychology studies show that we remember much more when we involve as many senses as possible, and we take action to use what we’ve learned.

Modern training can now be done at home via interactive discs. By watching and listening to instructors on video tutorials you’ll learn your subject through the demonstrations and explanations. Knowledge can then be tested by utilising the practice lab’s and modules. Any company that you’re considering should willingly take you through a few samples of the type of training materials they provide. You’re looking for evidence of tutorial videos and demonstrations and interactive areas to practice in.

Some companies only have access to purely on-line training; and although this is okay the majority of the time, imagine the problems when you don’t have access to the internet or you get intermittent problems and speed issues. It is usually safer to have DVD or CD discs that don’t suffer from these broadband issues.

Students often end up having issues because of a single training area usually not even thought about: The way the training is divided into chunks and physically delivered to you. Many companies enrol you into some sort of program spread over 1-3 years, and send out each piece as you complete each exam. On the surface this seems reasonable – until you consider the following: What happens when you don’t complete every single section? What if you don’t find their order of learning is ideal for you? Because of nothing that’s your fault, you may not meet the required timescales and therefore not end up with all the modules.

In a perfect world, you want ALL the study materials up-front – giving you them all to return to any point – at any time you choose. This also allows you to vary the order in which you complete each objective if you find another route more intuitive.

Please understand this most important point: You absolutely must have proper 24×7 instructor and mentor support. You’ll severely regret it if you don’t adhere to this. Always avoid study programmes that only provide support to students with an out-sourced call-centre message system when it’s outside of usual working hours. Training organisations will defend this with all kinds of excuses. But, no matter how they put it – you need support when you need support – not when it’s convenient for them.

The very best programs offer an online 24 hours-a-day system pulling in several support offices throughout multiple time-zones. You’ll have a single, easy-to-use environment that seamlessly selects the best facility available no matter what time of day it is: Support on demand. Don’t under any circumstances take less than you need and deserve. Direct-access 24×7 support is the only viable option for IT study. Maybe late-evening study is not your thing; usually though, we’re out at work while the support is live.

A study programme should always lead to a properly recognised qualification at the end – and not some unimportant ‘in-house’ printed certificate to hang in your hallway. Unless the accreditation comes from a major player like Microsoft, Adobe, CompTIA or Cisco, then you may discover it will be commercially useless – because it won’t give an employer any directly-useable skills.

Including exam fees as an inclusive element of the package price then giving it ‘Exam Guarantee’ status is popular with a good many training companies. Consider the facts:

Patently it’s not free – you’re still being charged for it – it’s just been included in your package price. It’s everybody’s ambition to qualify on the first attempt. Taking your exams progressively in order and paying for them just before taking them makes it far more likely you’ll pass first time – you revise thoroughly and think carefully about the costs.

Hold on to your money and pay for the exam at the time, and keep hold of your own money. You’ll also be able to choose where to do the examinations – meaning you can choose a local testing centre. A great deal of money is netted by some training companies that incorporate exam fees into the cost of the course. For quite legitimate reasons, a number of students don’t get to do their exams and so the company is quids-in. Astoundingly enough, providers exist who depend on students not taking their exams – and that’s how they increase their profits. In addition to this, ‘Exam Guarantees’ often aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. The majority of companies won’t pay again for an exam until you’ve completely satisfied them that you’re ready this time.

Due to typical VUE and Prometric exams coming in at around 112 pounds in the UK, by far the best option is to pay for them as you take them. There’s no sense in throwing away maybe a thousand pounds extra at the start of your studies. Study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will really guarantee success.

Can job security really exist anywhere now? In a marketplace like the UK, with industry changing its mind on a whim, there doesn’t seem much chance. Whereas a marketplace with high growth, where there just aren’t enough staff to go round (as there is a big shortage of trained workers), provides a market for real job security.

A recent UK e-Skills analysis demonstrated that 26 percent of computing and IT jobs cannot be filled as an upshot of an appallingly low number of appropriately certified professionals. Basically, we can’t properly place more than 3 out of 4 positions in Information Technology (IT). This troubling fact shows the validity and need for more commercially qualified IT professionals around the country. No better time or market conditions is ever likely to exist for gaining qualification for this hugely emerging and budding sector.

About the Author:

After 2 Decades in IT, Jason Kendall has turned his attention to computer training consultancy in the UK. If you’re interested in A+ Certification, visit LearningLolly Comptia Certification.

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