Both if you’re a beginner, or an experienced technician looking to gain acknowledged certifications, there are interactive MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) courses to cater for both student levels.
To become certified at the level of MCSA it’s necessary to achieve pass marks in four MCP’s (Microsoft Certified Professional exams). For a newcomer to the industry, it’s likely you’ll be required to improve your skill-set prior to doing the first of the four MCP’s. Find a company that has industry experts who can identify the ideal program for you and will take care to start you at the right entry level.
OK, why ought we to be looking at qualifications from the commercial sector instead of more traditional academic qualifications gained through schools and Further Education colleges?
Key company training (to use industry-speak) is far more specialised and product-specific. The IT sector has acknowledged that specialisation is essential to cope with a technologically complex world. CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA are the dominant players.
This is done through focusing on the skill-sets required (together with a proportionate degree of background knowledge,) instead of covering masses of the background ‘extras’ that degree courses can get bogged down in - to fill a three or four year course.
Put yourself in the employer’s position - and you wanted someone who could provide a specific set of skills. What should you do: Wade your way through reams of different degrees and college qualifications from hopeful applicants, struggling to grasp what they’ve learned and which commercial skills have been attained, or choose a specific set of accreditations that exactly fulfil your criteria, and draw up from that who you want to speak to. Your interviews are then about personal suitability - instead of long discussions on technical suitability.
The market provides a myriad of employment in IT. Finding the particular one out of this complexity often proves challenging.
After all, if you have no background in the IT industry, how are you equipped to know what any qualified IT worker fills their day with? Let alone decide on which certification program will be most suitable for your success.
Usually, the way to come at this problem in the best manner comes from a thorough discussion of a number of areas:
* Your personality can play a major role - what kind of areas spark your interest, and what are the things that get you down.
* What length of time can you allocate for your training?
* The income needs that are important to you?
* Some students don’t fully understand the amount of work required to get fully certified.
* Having a good look at what commitment and time you’ll make available.
When all is said and done, your only chance of covering these is through an in-depth discussion with an advisor who knows the industry well enough to lead you to the correct decision.
Of all the important things to consider, one of the most essential is always full 24×7 support through trained professional instructors and mentors. It’s an all too common story to find providers that will only offer a basic 9am till 6pm support period (maybe later on certain days) with very little availability over the weekend.
Avoid, like the plague, any organisations who use ‘out-of-hours’ call-centres - where an advisor will call back during normal office hours. It’s no use when you’re stuck on a problem and need an answer now.
Keep your eyes open for providers that utilise many support facilities around the globe in several time-zones. All of them should be combined to enable simple one-stop access together with round-the-clock access, when it’s convenient for you, with no fuss.
If you fail to get yourself 24×7 support, you’ll quickly find yourself regretting it. You may avoid using the support during late nights, but you may need weekends, late evenings or early mornings.
It’s essential to have an accredited exam preparation programme included in your course.
Confirm that the mock exams are not only asking questions from the right areas, but also asking them in the way the real exams will structure them. This throws students if the questions are phrased in unfamiliar formats.
Always ask for testing modules so you’ll be able to test your comprehension whenever you need to. Practice exams help to build your confidence - so the actual exam is much easier.