Locating job security in this economic down-turn is incredibly rare. Businesses often drop us out of the workforce at a moment's notice - whenever it suits. We could however hit upon security at the market sector level, by searching for areas of high demand, together with work-skill shortages.

The computing Industry skills shortfall in the United Kingdom falls in at over twenty six percent, according to the most recent e-Skills study. Therefore, out of each 4 positions in existence around Information Technology (IT), organisations can only find enough qualified individuals for three of them. Properly trained and commercially educated new staff are correspondingly at a resounding premium, and it seems it will continue to be so for many years to come. In actuality, gaining new qualifications in IT over the next few years is very likely the safest career move you'll ever make.

Make sure you don't get caught-up, like so many people do, on the accreditation program. Training for training's sake is generally pointless; you're training to become commercially employable. Stay focused on what it is you want to achieve. It's not unheard of, in some situations, to obtain tremendous satisfaction from a year of studying but end up spending 10 or 20 years in a tiresome job role, as an upshot of not doing the correct level of soul-searching at the outset.

You need to keep your eye on what it is you're trying to achieve, and formulate your training based on that - not the other way round. Stay focused on the end-goal and study for a career that'll reward you for many long and fruitful years. Your likely to need help from an advisor who can explain the market you're hoping to qualify in, and is able to give you 'A day in the life of' synopsis for that career-path. This is incredibly important as you'll need to know whether or not you've chosen correctly.

Following on from the CCNA, certification paths are diverse and could include a specialisation in Security or Wireless areas, alternatively you could take a look at progressing on to the CCNP (Cisco Certified Networking Professional.) The 'CCNP' is a relatively significant step-up from the 'CCNA', & on the whole, contemplating it before you have fully completed your 'CCNA' isn't to be recommended. You should anticipate to be operating in a 'Cisco' environment for at least a year or two (together with your 'CCNA' accreditation) prior to getting started to study for the CCNP. There are certain exceptions to this, particularly if you've been in IT for quite some time, and have got alternative certification covering much of the same material (armed service examinations for example.) Fundamentally recruiters will want to be sure that anyone with rather senior accreditations has also had an appropriate amount of working experience to match them.

To get a really comprehensive networking career path, you might consider adding either the MS MCSE or 'MCSA' to your 'A+', Network+ & CCNA package. Always discuss your training choices with an IT-training professional ahead of concluding your options - it will not only save money & time, it will guarantee that you're on the ideal path from day one.

If you may be starting with a training school which still provides workshop days as part of their program, then take note of these issues experienced by many IT hopefuls:

- Masses of journeys to the centre - sometimes 100's of miles.

- If you're working, then Mon-Fri events represent a difficulty in getting time off. Typically you are having to deal with two or three days together to make it worse.

- And don't forget lost holiday time. Often, we get 4 weeks annual leave. If half is given up to classes, then we haven't got much left for ourselves.

- Training workshops normally end up far too big.

- There is often tension inside the classroom as students want to progress at their own pace.

- Most attendees report that the (not inconsiderable) costs of all the travelling back and forth to the training centre and paying for food and accommodation can get very expensive.

- We all enjoy our privacy. We shouldn't risk throwing away any advancement at our current place of work because our employer knows we're retraining.

- It's really not that uncommon for students to keep a question to themselves - simply due to the reason that they're with their peers.

- Where students have to on occasion live or work away from home, consider the added problems of getting to the requisite events, as time becomes even more scarce.

It would be better to just watch and study with industry specialists one-on-one in pre-filmed lessons, taking them at your convenience - not somebody else's. Whenever an ugly problem rears its head, make use of the 24x7 support (that we hope you'll insist on with any technical courses.) Don't forget, if you've got a laptop, you could study in breaks at work. It really doesn't matter how frequently you want to re-do a section, on-screen teachers aren't ever likely to rush you! And remember, in this situation, you'll never have to write notes again. Everything is already there for you when you need it. Could it get any simpler: No travelling, wasted time or money; and of course you get a much more stress-free learning setting.

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