Moving on from the CCNA, you'll find many specialist qualifications out there. You may choose to get into wireless technology, or security, or perhaps even on to the 'Cisco Certified Networking Professional' ('CCNP'). The CCNP is a relatively significant step up from the CCNA, and on the whole, thinking about it before you've fully completed your CCNA is not advisable. You'll want to have two years of Cisco experience alongside the CCNA before progressing on to the CCNP accreditation. There are actually certain exclusions to this advice, mainly if you have worked in the industry for a while, & possess alternative certification that covered a lot of similar material (military examinations for example.) The bottom-line is employers need to be sure that anyone with rather advanced qualifications has had a suitable degree of practical experience to match.

Those that are drawn to this type of work often have a very practical outlook on work, and aren't really suited to the classroom environment, and slogging through piles of books. If this is putting you off studying, opt for more involving, interactive learning materials, where you can learn everything on-screen. Research has always demonstrated that getting into our studies physically, is proven to produce longer-lasting and deeper memory retention.

Courses are now available in disc format, where everything is taught on your PC. Video streaming means you can watch instructors demonstrating how to do something, and then practice yourself - with interactive lab sessions. Don't take any chances and look at some examples of the kind of training materials you'll be using before you hand over your cheque. Always insist on instructor demonstrations, video tutorials and a variety of audio-visual and interactive sections.

Often, companies will only use purely on-line training; and although this is okay the majority of the time, consider what happens if you lose your internet access or you only get very a very slow connection sometimes. It's preferable to have actual CD or DVD ROMs that don't suffer from these broadband issues.

If you're thinking of using a trainer that still provides workshops as a feature of their programme, then consider these problems encountered by the majority of trainees:

- Repeated visits to the centre - quite a distance away in many cases.

- Requesting constant holidays or time off - a lot of training companies provide weekday availability and group several days in a chunk. If you're working then this can be difficult, especially when travel time is included.

- At just 20 days holiday per year, using half of that on training classes leaves us with very few opportunities for days off.

- Training workshops invariably end up over full.

- Often trainees want to progress quickly, others want a more steady pace and not be forced to adopt an uncomfortable speed for them. This will often generate tension a lot of the time.

- Most attendees report that the (not inconsiderable) costs of travelling back and forth to the training centre while covering the cost of accommodation and food becomes prohibitively expensive.

- Training privacy is often very important to many students. Why throw away any possible promotions, income boosts or achievement at your current job because of your studies. If your employer knows you've committed to qualification in a different industry, what are they going to be thinking?

- Raising questions around our class-mates can make any one of us a little self-conscious. Have you ever left a question un-asked because you were worried it might make you look silly?

- For those who have work away from home, you now have to deal with the fact that events sometimes become difficult to get to - and yet, the fees were paid along with everything else at the start.

Doesn't it make more sense to study at your convenience - not your training provider's - and make use of videos of instructors with interactive virtual-lab's. Any time you get a problem, get onto the live 24x7 support (that you should have insisted on for any technical study.) Bear in mind, if you own a laptop, you can study just about anywhere. Lessons and modules can be repeated whenever you like - repetition aids memory. And you can forget taking notes - it's all ready to go. Although it's impossible to remove any normal learning difficulties, it certainly reduces stress and eases things. You also have reduced hassle, travel and costs.

Many people think that the school and FE college system is still the best way into IT. So why then are qualifications from the commercial sector becoming more popular with employers? Vendor-based training (as it's known in the industry) is far more effective and specialised. The IT sector has realised that this level of specialised understanding is necessary to meet the requirements of a technologically complex world. Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA are the key players in this arena. Higher education courses, for example, become confusing because of vast amounts of loosely associated study - and much too wide a syllabus. This holds a student back from learning the core essentials in sufficient depth.

The bottom line is: Authorised IT qualifications provide exactly what an employer needs - it says what you do in the title: for example, I am a 'Microsoft Certified Professional' in 'Designing Security for a Windows 2003 Network'. Therefore an employer can identify just what their needs are and what certifications will be suitable to deal with those needs.

A useful feature that many training companies provide is a Job Placement Assistance program. It's intention is to steer you into your first IT role. The fact of the matter is it's not as difficult as you may be led to believe to find employment - as long as you're correctly trained and certified; employers in this country need your skills.

However, don't procrastinate and wait until you have completed your exams before bringing your CV up to date. Right at the beginning of your training, mark down what you're doing and place it on jobsites! Having the possibility of an interview is far better than not even being known about. A decent number of junior support jobs are given to trainees (sometimes when they've only just got going.) The top companies to get you a new position are most often independent and specialised local recruitment services. Because they only get paid when they place you, they have more incentive to get on with it.

Do ensure you don't invest a great deal of time on your training course, only to stop and leave it in the hands of the gods to find you a job. Stop procrastinating and get on with the job. Put as much resource into securing the right position as you did to get trained.

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