A big contender for the top potential problem for IT trainees can be attending multi-day workshops. A lot of training companies extol the virtues of the 'benefits' of going in to their classes, however, they quickly become a growing difficulty due to:

- Many round trips - often 100's of miles.

- Workshop availability; normally Mon-Fri and sometimes two to three days together. You then have the difficulty of the leave of absence.

- With only 4 weeks holiday each year, sacrificing half of them for training classes means we'll be hard-pushed to get a holiday with our families.

- 'In-Centre' days invariably end up far too big.

- The pace of the class - centre-days usually feature students of varied talent, consequently there is often tension between students with more background knowledge and those who want to go a little slower.

- Add up the cost of all the travel, fares, food, accommodation and parking and you may be surprised (and not pleasantly). Trainees talk of increased costs of between several hundred and a couple of thousand pounds. Do the maths - and understand where they're coming from.

- Do you want to risk any chance of being side-stepped for advancement or salary hikes because your employer knows you're retraining.

- Raising questions around our class-mates sometimes makes us a little nervous. Ever avoided asking a question because you were worried it might make you look silly?

- It should be remembered that classes become simply undoable, where you work elsewhere in the country for some part of the year.

Infinitely more flexible is to employ videoed workshops wherever you want to take them - taking them when it's convenient to you - not anybody else. Study can happen anywhere that suits. If you own a laptop, take in some sun outside while you work. Any difficulties and logon to the 24x7 support facility. Just go back and re-cover all the elements as many times as you want or need. There's also no need to scribble any notes because you'll always have access to the teaching. The final outcome: Reduced hassle, less cost, and you've got no travelling to do.

Students who consider this area of study can be very practical by nature, and don't really enjoy classrooms, and slogging through piles of books. If this is putting you off studying, try the newer style of interactive study, with on-screen demonstrations and labs. Our ability to remember is increased when all our senses are brought into the mix - experts have been clear on this for decades now.

You can now study via interactive CD and DVD ROM's. Through instructor-led video classes you'll take everything in by way of the expert demonstrations. You can then test yourself by utilising the practice lab's and modules. Every company that you look at must be able to demonstrate some examples of their courseware. You're looking for evidence of tutorial videos and demonstrations and interactive areas to practice in.

Go for physical media such as CD or DVD ROM's in all circumstances. This then avoids all the potential pitfalls with broadband outages, failure and signal quality issues etc.

These certifications and positions are in many cases done en-route to a more advanced I.T. placement. Before you decide to commit yourself to a training-program, consider just where you plan for your final destination to be. Do take the opportunity to go through every little thing with a training & IT expert - it will safeguard you against set-backs as time goes on. Many organisations also offer 'packaged' career paths which incorporate these accreditations, and so buying in a career bundle can provide significant cost savings.

For the 'A+' exams allow yourself around 100 to 150 hours to study & prepare, and slightly less for the 'Network+' examinations (possibly close to 100 hours). This means acquiring them both inside of 6 months part time studying totally possible, providing good quality multimedia training products utilised, in conjunction with excellent examination preparation software.

In 2009 each program underwent up-dates, and new examinations are actually to be found for them both. Globally the 2006/2007 editions of 'A+' (with the exam prefix 600) will be phased-out over the next 12 months. At the close of August 2010, the examinations will be retired in the British Isles. Up to that time, students can sit either the 600 or the more recent 700 examinations in local test centres (namely 'Vue' & Prometric). Reason suggests that new entrant students should take version 2009. 'A+' 2009 is now offered as '220/701' CompTIA 'A+' Essentials and '220-702' 'CompTIA' 'A+' Practical Application. The 4 original examinations have been stream-lined into 2 brand new examinations, and some additional up-dated information has been introduced. Even though the older 'A+' had four exams in the total program, only 2 were required to get the certification. During the last four years, the marketplace has grown to the point where all four exams are now regarded as essential - hence the re-formatting into 2 required examinations. A bridging exam has been created by CompTIA for any person who have the old certification. 'BR-003' is the reference number. This will probably require further learning, although not so much if you covered information on all 4 of the original exams, instead of only the required 2. Adequate training time should be factored in for the newer technology aspects however.

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