Good for you! Hitting upon this feature proves you must be wondering about where you're going, and if you're considering retraining you've even now progressed more than most. It's a frightening thought that surprisingly few of us describe ourselves as fulfilled and satisfied with our jobs - yet most will just put up with it. Why not be different and do something - you have the rest of your life to enjoy it.

It's in your interests that prior to beginning any study program, you chat with an expert who is familiar with the working environment and can make recommendations. They can look at aspects of your personality and assist in finding the right role for you:

* Do you see yourself dealing with people? Would that be with the same people or with many new people? Maybe working on your own in isolation may be your preference?

* What criteria are fundamental with regard to the sector of industry you're looking to get into?

* Is it important that this should be the last time you'll need to re-qualify?

* Do you feel uncomfortable about the chance of finding new employment, and being gainfully employed to the end of your working life?

It would be an idea for you to really explore the IT sector - there are greater numbers of roles than workers to do them, and it's one of the few choices of career where the sector is growing. In contrast to the beliefs of some, IT isn't all techie people staring at their computers the whole day (though naturally some jobs are like that.) The majority of jobs are done by ordinary people who enjoy better than average salaries.

Student support is absolutely essential - locate a good company that provides 24x7 direct access, as anything less will not satisfy and will also impede your ability to learn. Avoid, like the plague, any organisations that use messaging services 'out-of-hours' - where an advisor will call back during the next 'working' day. It's not a lot of help when you've got study issues and need help now.

World-class organisations offer a web-based round-the-clock facility pulling in several support offices across the globe. You'll have a single, easy-to-use interface that accesses the most appropriate office irrespective of the time of day: Support when you need it. If you opt for less than online 24x7 support, you'll very quickly realise that you've made a mistake. You might not want to use the service late in the night, but consider weekends, late evenings or early mornings.

A typical blunder that potential students often succumb to is to choose a career based on a course, rather than starting with where they want to get to. Universities have thousands of direction-less students that chose a program because it looked interesting - in place of something that could gain them the job they want. Imagine training for just one year and then end up doing a job for a lifetime. Avoid the mistake of finding what seems like a very 'interesting' program and then put 10-20 years into a job you hate!

Stay focused on where you want to go, and formulate your training based on that - avoid getting them back-to-front. Stay on target and study for something that'll reward you for many long and fruitful years. Our recommendation would be to take guidance from a skilled professional before embarking on a study course, so you're sure from the outset that the specific package will give the skill-set required for your career choice.

Look at the points below and pay great regard to them if you've been persuaded that the marketing blurb about 'guaranteeing' exams sounds like a benefit to the student:

Everybody's aware that they're still paying for it - it's not so hard to see that it's been inserted into the overall price charged by the training provider. It's certainly not free (although some people will believe anything the marketing companies think up these days!) Evidence shows that when trainees fund each progressive exam, one after the other, they'll be in a better position to get through on the first attempt - because they'll be conscious of what they've paid and therefore will put more effort into their preparation.

Do your exams at a local pro-metric testing centre and find the best exam deal or offer available then. Huge profits are made by a significant number of organisations who get money upfront for exam fees. A number of students don't take them for various reasons but the company keeps the money. Surprising as it sounds, there are providers that actually rely on students not sitting all the exams - as that's very profitable for them. In addition to this, exam guarantees often have very little value. The majority of organisations won't be prepared to pay again for an exam until you have demonstrated conclusively that you won't fail again.

Exam fees averaged 112 pounds or thereabouts twelve months or so ago when taken at UK VUE or Prometric centres. So don't be talked into shelling out hundreds or thousands of pounds more to get 'Exam Guarantees', when any student knows that the most successful method is study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams.

There is a tidal wave of change coming via technology over the next few decades - and it becomes more and more thrilling each day. We are really only just starting to understand how all this change will affect us. The way we interrelate with the rest of the world will be significantly affected by computers and the web.

Should receiving a good salary be around the top on your goal sheet, you'll appreciate the fact that the income on average of most men and women in IT is a lot more than salaries in the rest of the economy. With the IT marketplace emerging year on year, one can predict that the search for certified IT specialists will continue actively for the significant future.

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