'In-Centre workshop days' can be offered as an important element by some certification companies. When you talk to the majority of IT hopefuls who've attended a few, you'll discover that they're really a major negative as they hadn't properly considered the following:

- The amount of travel required - lots of visits and quite often 100's of miles each time.

- Weekday only accessibility for events is typically the case, and with two or three days required at a time, this causes a lot of problems for most working students.

- Let's not forget the lost vacation days. Usually we're lucky to have twenty days annual leave. If at least half is sacrificed to learning, then there's very little left over for us.

- Taking into account the costs associated with delivering a workshop, a lot of schools really push the size of the class - not ideal (and much less personal).

- The pace of the class - classes can contain trainees of varying abilities, so there is often tension between students that want a quicker pace to those who prefer a more relaxed pace.

- Tot up the cost of all the travelling, food, accommodation and parking and you may be surprised (and not pleasantly). Trainees talk of increased costs of hundreds to thousands of pounds over time. Sit down and add it up - and understand where they're coming from.

- Training privacy will be of paramount importance to a lot of students. Why lose any job advancement, salary hikes or achievement with your current employer while you're training. If your boss finds out you've committed to qualification in another sector, what are they going to be thinking?

- It's very common for people not to put a question forward that they would like answered - simply because they're surrounded by fellow attendees.

- Working and living away - a lot of attendees need to live or work somewhere else for certain parts of their training. Workshops are impossible at that point, unfortunately you've already paid for them in your initial payment.

To find a more flexible route, make use of ready-made, videoed lessons at the location of your choice - at a time that's convenient to you - not anybody else. Think... If you've got a laptop then you could learn in any location you choose. And 24x7 support is just a web-browser away when challenges strike you. Any module can be repeated whenever you like - doing something over will help you remember it. And note-taking is a thing of the past - it's all laid on for you. Though this doesn't remove any normal learning difficulties, it certainly removes stress and makes things simpler. You've also got less travel, hassle and costs.

Even though the MCSA and the MCSE are quite often talked of in the same career path, they are essentially very different. The accreditation MCSA (that means 'Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator') will lead you into server-administration & careers in networks & senior-support. Mainly this qualification is an ideal basis for a technical systems administrator, who'll cope with all the functions of running a small to medium business network. You should derive a lot from this role if you're a well organised problem-solver who looks forward to a proper technical challenge. Expect a high amount of interaction with colleagues, (because a great deal of what you will be doing will call for helping the users of the network,) and a diverse working day.

The MCSE, on the other hand, is based around design, planning & project management; i.e. a rather more high amount of responsibility. If senior administration, network management, Senior Security work or project/technical management is your ultimate objective, then this is the path you should think of taking. A few less obvious characteristics associated with a successful MCSE would be good leadership & creative skillsets, since the job can often include in-depth problem solving and personnel together with resource-management.

The way a programme is physically sent to you is usually ignored by most students. In what way are your training elements sectioned? What is the specific order and do you have a say in when you'll get each part? A release of your materials stage by stage, according to your own speed is how things will normally arrive. Of course, this sounds sensible, but you should take these factors into account: How would they react if you didn't complete every section at the speed they required? Often the staged order doesn't work as well as some other structure would for you.

Put simply, the best solution is to get an idea of what they recommend as an ideal study order, but get all the study materials at the start. Everything is then in your possession in the event you don't complete everything quite as quick as they'd want.

Please understand this most important point: It's essential to obtain proper 24x7 round-the-clock instructor and mentor support. You'll severely regret it if you don't heed this. Try and find training with help available at any time of day or night (even if it's early hours on Sunday morning!) You want access directly to professional tutors, and not access to a call-in service which takes messages - so you're consistently being held in a queue for a call-back - probably during office hours.

Top training providers opt for an online round-the-clock facility pulling in several support offices across the globe. You're offered a simple environment which switches seamlessly to the best choice of centres at any time of day or night: Support when you need it. If you opt for less than support round-the-clock, you'll end up kicking yourself. You may avoid using the support throughout the night, but you may need weekends, late evenings or early mornings.

Those that are drawn to this type of work can be very practical by nature, and aren't really suited to the classroom environment, and endless reading of dry academic textbooks. If you identify with this, go for more modern interactive training, with on-screen demonstrations and labs. Learning psychology studies show that much more of what we learn in remembered when we receive multi-sensorial input, and we get physically involved with the study process.

Find a course where you're provided with an array of DVD-ROM's - you'll start with videos of instructor demonstrations, and then have the opportunity to fine-tune your skills in fully interactive practice sessions. Any company that you're considering must be able to demonstrate a few samples of their courseware. You're looking for evidence of tutorial videos and demonstrations and a variety of interactive modules.

You'll find that many companies will only provide training that is purely available online; while you can get away with this much of the time, think what will happen if you lose your internet access or you get intermittent problems and speed issues. It is usually safer to have DVD or CD discs which removes the issue entirely.

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