A major candidate for the top potential problem across all IT training can be attending multi-day workshops. Most training academies push the so-called 'benefits' of these classes, however, they quickly become a thorn in your side due to many reasons:

- Frequent long journeys - hundreds of miles usually.

- If, like many of us, you work, then weekday events are hard to attend. Typically you are looking at 2-3 days at a time as well.

- If we've got 20 days holiday per year, giving half of them to training classes leaves very little time for holidays.

- Workshops usually get too big.

- Many attendees want to work as quickly as possible, others want a more steady pace and be allowed to set their own speed. This generates tension and bad atmosphere on many workshops.

- Calculate the increasing cost of all the travel, fares, food, parking and accommodation and you could find yourself astounded. Attendees report costs mounting to several hundred and sometimes thousands of pounds. Do the maths - and you'll see how.

- Privacy is important to us all. We wouldn't want to run the risk of giving up any lift up the ladder that we're owed while we're training.

- Surely, all of us at some time have avoided posing that question we were dying to ask, just because we wanted to maintain the illusion that we did, in fact, understand?

- Living away for part of your working week - a minority of attendees need to live or work somewhere else for sections of their study. Workshops become impossible at that point, but you've already paid for them with your initial fees.

It has to make much more sense to learn when it's convenient for you - not the company - and exploit videos of instructors with interactive virtual-lab's. You can study anywhere you want. If your PC is a laptop, why not take in some fresh air outside while you study. If you have any problems then utilise the 24x7 Support. Note-taking is a thing of the past - all the lessons are prepared and laid out for you - ready to go. If you need to cover something again, just do it. The outcome: Less hassle and stress, less cost, and no travelling or long journeys.

Commercial qualifications are now, very visibly, taking over from the traditional academic paths into the industry - why then should this be? Industry is of the opinion that for mastery of skill sets for commercial use, official accreditation supplied for example by Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe most often has much more specialised relevance - at a far reduced cost both money and time wise. Of course, a necessary amount of associated detail has to be learned, but core specialised knowledge in the areas needed gives a commercially educated person a massive advantage.

Just like the advert used to say: 'It does what it says on the label'. Employers simply need to know what they need doing, and then request applicants with the correct exam numbers. Then they know that anyone who applies can do the necessary work.

Should you plan to aim for the first stages of Professional IT certification, then User & Systems-support might be a valid step. The Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) can be a good training course if you're planning to provide technical help for business users. A training course of this nature usually takes roughly 100 hours of study time.

We move onto full I.T. professional career training programs at the following level. CompTIA offer probably the most widely recognised entry to industry exams (known as 'A+' & Network+) for hardware-support, networking & security. These exams will take care of the basics of hard-ware and network installation, security, administration, trouble shooting & support. Most blended 'A+' and 'Network+' training programmes will take the average person about 200 - 250 hours to complete, so can easily be taken alongside regular job.

Watch out that all certifications you're working towards are recognised by industry and are current. The 'in-house' certifications provided by many companies are not normally useful in gaining employment. The top IT companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA have internationally renowned proficiency programmes. Huge conglomerates such as these can make sure you stand out at interview.

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