If there's any chance you'll be enrolling with a certification company which is still using workshop days as a feature of their programme, then consider these hassles reported by the majority of students:

- Regular driving or public transport - 100's of miles in many cases.

- Access to classes; normally Mon-Fri and sometimes two to three days together. It's never convenient to take the required leave of absence.

- The majority of us find 4 weeks off each year is barely enough. Use up a good 50 percent of that for educational classes and see how much more difficult it makes things.

- Classes fill up fast and can sometimes be too big - so they're not personal enough.

- Often trainees are trying to maintain a quick pace, others want a more steady pace and not be pushed beyond their comfort-zone. This causes difficulty and tension in most cases.

- Rising travel prices - arranging transport to and from the training facility plus accommodation can start to get expensive with each visit. Assuming just a basic 5-10 centre-days at about thirty-five pounds for a single over-night room, plus 40 pounds petrol and food at 15 pounds, that equates to four to nine hundred pounds of hidden costs that we now have to fund.

- All of us want some privacy. We shouldn't risk giving up any advancement that could awarded to us while we retrain.

- Every one of us must, at some time, have avoided posing that question we were dying to ask, just because we wanted to fit in?

- More often than not, workshops are virtually undoable, when you live or work away from home for part of your week or month.

The perfect situation is based on viewing a pre-made workshop - providing direct instruction whenever you wish. Think... If you have a laptop then you're free to work wherever you want. And 24x7 support is only a web-browser click away in case you get challenged. It's never going to matter how frequently you want to re-do a section, video instructors won't ever lose patience! Plus, as a consequence, you don't have to worry about any note-taking. It's already there for quick access. While there's no way this can avoid all study problems, it undoubtedly vastly reduces stress and simplifies things. You also have reduced travel, hassle and costs.

Incorporating exams as an inclusive element of the package price and presenting it as a guarantee for your exams is a common method with many training course providers. But let's examine why they really do it:

We all know that we're still paying for it - it's quite obvious to see that it's been inserted into the full cost of the package supplied by the college. Certainly, it's not a freebie (it's just marketing companies think we'll fall for anything they say!) Passing first time is everyone's goal. Progressively working through your exams one by one and paying as you go sees you much better placed to get through first time - you put the effort in and are mindful of the investment you've made.

Don't pay up-front, but seek out the best deal for you when you take the exam, and avoid college mark-up fees. In addition, it's then your choice where to do your exams - which means you can stay local. Many so-called credible training colleges net huge amounts of money because they're asking for exams at the start of the course and banking on the fact that many won't be taken. Re-takes of previously unsuccessful exams via training course providers with an 'Exam Guarantee' are tightly controlled. You will be required to do mock exams so you can prove to them you have a good chance of passing.

On average, exams cost 112 pounds or thereabouts in the last 12 months when taken at local VUE or Pro-metric centres throughout the country. So don't be talked into shelling out hundreds or thousands of pounds more to get 'an Exam Guarantee', when any student knows that what's really needed is study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams.

The vendor neutral global organisation CompTIA now offers possibly the most familiar and widely-respected independent I.T. accreditations. In addition there are various other establishments, including the 'ISC2' (shortened from the somewhat long winded: International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium!) & CWNP ('Certified Wireless Network Professional'). Most conspicuously not surprisingly are Cisco and Microsoft themselves, each with their very own qualification paths. The choice may well be a bit over-whelming, and therefore we advise you to go very carefully and discuss all of your alternatives with an expert who understands the process very well. Without individually-tailored help you could head-off in a wrong direction & squander a lot of time or money.

Any program that you're going to undertake must provide a properly recognised qualification as an end-goal - not a useless 'in-house' printed certificate to hang in your hallway. You'll find that only recognised examinations from the likes of Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe and CompTIA will open the doors to employers.

Chat with a skilled advisor and you'll be surprised by their many worrying experiences of students who've been conned by dodgy salespeople. Stick to someone that asks lots of questions to uncover the best thing for you - not for their retirement-fund! Dig until you find the right starting point of study for you. It's worth remembering, if you've got any accreditation or direct-experience, then it's not unreasonable to expect to start at a different point than a student who's starting from scratch. It's wise to consider a user-skills course first. It will usually make the learning curve a much more gentle.

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