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Good for you! Hitting upon this feature suggests you’re contemplating your career, and if it’s re-training you’re considering you’ve even now progressed more than the majority of people will. It’s a frightening thought that surprisingly few of us are satisfied and happy at work - but the majority will just put up with it. We implore you to liberate yourself and move forward - you have the rest of your life to enjoy it.

We suggest that you discuss your ideas first - find someone who knows the industry; someone who’ll give you career advice based on what works best for you, and analyse the training programs you may be suited to:

* Are you hoping to be involved with others in the workplace? Would that be with the same people or with a lot of new people? It could be working by yourself with your own methodology may be your preference?

* The banks and building sector are struggling these days, so think carefully about the sector that will answer your needs?

* Is it important that this should be the last time you’ll have to retrain?

* Are you worried about the chance of new employment opportunities, and being in demand in the employment market all the way until retirement?

We would advise that your number one choice is the IT sector - everyone knows that it’s getting bigger. IT isn’t all techie people staring at computers the whole time - naturally there are those roles, but the majority of roles are carried out by people like you and me who get on very well.

Many students come unstuck over a single training area very rarely considered: The method used to ’segment’ the courseware before being packaged off through the post.

Delivery by courier of each element stage by stage, as you complete each module is the typical way that your program will arrive. This sounds logical, but you might like to consider this:

How would they react if you didn’t complete everything at the required speed? Often the prescribed exam order doesn’t come as naturally as another different route may.

To be in the best situation you would have all the learning modules sent to you right at the start; every single thing! This way, nothing can happen down the line which could affect your capability of finishing.

Trainees looking to kick off a career in IT generally have no idea of what direction they should take, let alone what area to build their qualifications around.

How can most of us possibly understand the many facets of a particular career if we’ve never been there? We normally have never met anyone who does that actual job anyway.

Arriving at an informed answer really only appears through a careful examination covering many changing key points:

* Personality plays an important role - what gets you ‘up and running’, and what are the areas that ruin your day.

* Are you hoping to re-train due to a precise reason - i.e. do you aim to work at home (being your own boss?)?

* How highly do you rate salary - is it the most important thing, or is day-to-day enjoyment a lot higher on the scale of your priorities?

* Considering all that computing covers, it’s a requirement that you can absorb what is different.

* Having a serious look at the level of commitment, time and effort you’ll make available.

In actuality, you’ll find the only real way to research these issues will be via a meeting with an advisor that has experience of IT (and chiefly it’s commercial needs.)

A typical blunder that many potential students make is to look for the actual course to take, and take their eye off where they want to get to. Training academies are stacked to the hilt with unaware students who chose a course based on what sounded good - rather than what would get them their end-goal of a job they enjoyed.

You may train for one year and then end up performing the job-role for decades. Ensure you avoid the fatal error of finding what seems like an ‘interesting’ course and then spend decades in a job you hate!

Make sure you investigate how you feel about career progression and earning potential, plus your level of ambition. It makes sense to understand what (if any) sacrifices you’ll need to make for a particular role, what particular accreditations will be required and how to develop your experience.

Seek guidance and advice from an experienced industry professional, even if you have to pay a small fee - it’s usually much cheaper and safer to discover early on whether your choices are appropriate, instead of finding out after two full years that the job you’ve chosen is not for you and now need to go back to square one.

Some training providers offer a Job Placement Assistance service, to help you into your first commercial role. But don’t place too much emphasis on it - it’s quite easy for eager sales people to make too much of it. Ultimately, the still growing need for IT personnel in the UK is what will enable you to get a job.

You would ideally have help and assistance with preparing a CV and getting interviews though; and we’d encourage everyone to bring their CV up to date as soon as they start a course - don’t delay till you’ve finished your exams.

Getting your CV considered is more than not being regarded at all. A decent number of junior positions are given to students (sometimes when they’ve only just got going.)

Normally you’ll get quicker results from a specialised and independent local recruitment service than you will through a training course provider’s national service, because they will understand the local industry and employment needs.

Various students, so it seems, spend evenings and weekends on their training and studies (sometimes for years), only to do nothing special when finding the right position. Sell yourself… Do your best to let employers know about you. Don’t think a job’s just going to jump out in front of you.