Be watchful that any qualifications that you're considering are recognised by industry and are the most recent versions. 'In-house' exams and the certificates they come with are usually worthless. The main industry leaders such as Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA have nationally approved skills programmes. Huge conglomerates such as these will make sure you're employable.

Charging for examinations upfront then giving it 'Exam Guarantee' status is popular with many training course providers. However, let's consider what's really going on:

Clearly it's not free - you're still being charged for it - it's just been included in your package price. If you want to pass first time, you must avoid exam guarantees and pay when entering exams, focus on it intently and apply yourself as required.

Why pay the training college at the start of the course for exam fees? Find the best deal you can when you're ready, instead of paying any mark-up - and do it locally - instead of miles away at the college's beck and call. Big margins are netted by a significant number of organisations who get money for exam fees in advance. For various reasons, many students don't take their exams and so the company is quids-in. Surprising as it sounds, providers exist who actually bank on it - as that's very profitable for them. Pay heed to the fact that, with most 'Exam Guarantees' - the company controls how often and when you can re-take the exam. They'll only allow a re-take once completely satisfied.

Exam fees averaged 112 pounds or thereabouts in the last 12 months when taken at Prometric or VUE centres around the United Kingdom. So why pay hundreds or thousands of pounds extra to have 'an Exam Guarantee', when it's no secret that the most successful method is study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams.

Its pretty much accepted that it should take roughly 300-350 hours to train for an MCSA, & about 200 hours extra for the 'MCSE', assuming you have use of exceptional multimedia training, plus excellent support facilities and exam preparation. Therefore with experience you could successfully complete them in roughly eight to twelve months studying part time. However, if you're entering the market without prior certification, then your normal starting-point will be CompTIA A+ & 'Network+'. Aspects of these accreditations can be found on their particular pages on this site, but this will add 200 hrs or six months of part-time study into the mix, perhaps longer.

Although quite often grouped in unison, the MCSA & MCSE are actually designed to fulfil two different purposes. The qualification 'MCSA' (that means Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) will get you into server administration and work in networking and senior-support. Someone looking for technical systems roles, managing the functions of a medium sized or small company network would benefit if they go for the 'MCSA'. The job is actually ideal for somebody that enjoys the nitty gritty of technical-challenges, as there's a lot of problem solving in this role. There is a great deal of variance during the working-day, and because the role necessitates offering support to users of the network, there's also a good deal of interaction with fellow workers.

On the other hand, the 'MCSE' (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) function offers a position with increased accountability, where the work revolves more around planning, design and project management. So if senior-administration, network management, Senior Security employment or technical/project management is your ultimate aim, then this is the direction you should look at taking. Some less obvious qualities associated with a successful 'MCSE' are good creative & leadership abilities, since the role can often entail in-depth problem solving and personnel along with resource management.

Don't listen to the typical salesman that offers any particular course without a decent chat so as to understand your abilities as well as level of experience. Ensure that they have a wide-enough stable of training programs so they can solve your training issues. With some work-based experience or qualifications, it may be that your starting point of study is different from a beginner. If this is your first stab at studying for an IT examination then you may want to start with some basic user skills first.

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