Should you want a future in network support then the Microsoft MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) course will suit you perfectly. So if you want to get started in the industry or already have experience but want a professional course, a number of options are available to fulfil your needs. If you're thinking of moving into the world of IT for the first time, you're very likely to need to have some coaching before doing the 4 Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) exams that are necessary to pass the MCSA. Find a provider that's willing to create an ideal program to suit your needs - ask to discuss this with an advisor to determine what the best way forward is for you.

Chat with any practiced advisor and we'd be amazed if they couldn't provide you with many terrible tales of how students have been duped by salespeople. Stick to an experienced advisor who asks lots of questions to uncover the best thing for you - not for their bank-account! You must establish a starting-point that will suit you. With a bit of live experience or base qualifications, your starting-point of learning is not the same as someone new to the industry. Always consider starting with a user-skills course first. It can brush up on your current abilities and make your learning curve a little less steep.

Of all the important things to consider, one of the most essential is always proper direct-access 24x7 support via expert mentors and instructors. So many companies we come across only seem to want to help while they're in the office (9am till 6pm, Monday till Friday usually) and nothing at the weekends. You'll be waiting ages for an answer with email based support, and phone support is often to a call-centre who will make some notes and then email an advisor - who'll call back sometime over the next 1-3 days, at a time suitable for them. This isn't a lot of good if you're stuck and can't continue and have a one hour time-slot in which to study.

The most successful trainers use multiple support centres around the globe in several time-zones. By utilising an interactive interface to link them all seamlessly, irrespective of the time you login, help is just seconds away, without any problems or delays. Never settle for anything less. Direct-access round-the-clock support is the only way to go with computer-based study. Perhaps you don't intend to study during the evenings; but for most of us, we're out at work during the provided support period.

You have to make sure that all your accreditations are current and commercially required - you're wasting your time with programmes which end up with a useless in-house certificate or plaque. Unless the accreditation comes from a major player like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA, then it's likely it won't be commercially viable - as no-one will have heard of it.

Qualifications from the commercial sector are now, very visibly, taking over from the more academic tracks into the IT sector - but why has this come about? Corporate based study (as it's known in the industry) is more effective in the commercial field. The IT sector has acknowledged that this level of specialised understanding is vital to handle an increasingly more technical commercial environment. Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA are the dominant players. Many degrees, as a example, often get bogged down in a lot of background study - with a syllabus that's far too wide. Students are then prevented from learning the core essentials in sufficient depth.

Think about if you were the employer - and your company needed a person with some very particular skills. What should you do: Wade your way through a mass of different academic qualifications from several applicants, asking for course details and what workplace skills they've mastered, or choose particular accreditations that exactly fulfil your criteria, and then select who you want to interview from that. Your interviews are then about personal suitability - rather than establishing whether they can do a specific task.

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