There is no way of over emphasising this: It's essential to obtain proper 24x7 round-the-clock instructor and mentor support. You will have so many problems later if you don't adhere to this. Find a good quality service with proper support available at any time you choose (even 1am on Sunday morning!) Make sure it's always direct-access to qualified mentors and tutors, and not a call-centre that will take messages so you're consistently being held in a queue for a call-back during office hours.

It's possible to find professional companies that provide their students direct-access online support around the clock - no matter what time of day it is. If you accept anything less than support round-the-clock, you'll very quickly realise that you've made a mistake. You might not want to use the service in the middle of the night, but consider weekends, evenings and early mornings at some point.

You should remember: the actual training program or an accreditation is not what you're looking for; the particular job that you're getting the training for is. A lot of colleges seem to put too much weight in the certificate itself. It's quite usual, in many cases, to find immense satisfaction in a year of study and then spend 20 miserable years in a tiresome job role, entirely because you stumbled into it without the correct level of soul-searching at the outset.

Never let your focus stray from what it is you're trying to achieve, and build your study action-plan from that - don't do it back-to-front. Keep on track - making sure you're training for a career you'll enjoy for years to come. Your likely to need help from someone that can explain the sector you're hoping to qualify in, and will be able to provide 'A typical day in the life of' outline of the job being considered. This really is absolutely essential because you need to know if you're going down the right road.

Finding your first job in the industry sometimes feels easier to handle with a Job Placement Assistance facility. Often, too much is made of this feature, as it's really not that difficult for any motivated and trained individual to secure work in the IT industry - because there's a great need for well trained people.

Advice and support about getting interviews and your CV might be provided (if not, see one of our sites for help). Be sure to you update that dusty old CV straight away - not when you're ready to start work! Having the possibility of an interview is far better than not even being known about. A surprising amount of junior support jobs are given to people (who've only just left first base.) In many cases, a specialist independent regional employment service - who make their money when they've found you a job - will be more pro-active than a recruitment division from a training organisation. Also of course they should know the local industry and employment needs.

A good number of students, it would appear, invest a great deal of time on their training course (for years sometimes), only to give up at the first hurdle when attempting to secure a good job. Promote yourself... Work hard to get yourself known. Good jobs don't just knock on your door.

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