Can job security honestly exist anymore? Here in the UK, where business constantly changes its mind at alarming speeds, there doesn't seem much chance. However, a sector experiencing fast growth, with a constant demand for staff (through a growing shortage of trained people), provides a market for proper job security.

Offering the IT sector for example, a key e-Skills analysis demonstrated a national skills shortage across the United Kingdom in excess of 26 percent. Meaning that for each 4 job positions that are available throughout computing, there are barely three qualified workers to do them. Fully taught and commercially educated new workers are accordingly at a resounding premium, and it's estimated to remain so for a long time to come. Actually, retraining in Information Technology throughout the next few years is very likely the greatest career choice you could ever make.

So many training providers focus completely on the certification process, and completely miss what you actually need - which is of course employment. Always begin with the end in mind - don't make the vehicle more important than the destination. You could be training for only a year and end up doing a job for a lifetime. Avoid the mistake of finding what seems like a program of interest to you only to spend 20 years doing an unrewarding career!

Make sure you investigate how you feel about earning potential and career progression, and whether you intend to be quite ambitious. It makes sense to understand what the role will demand of you, what certifications are required and in what way you can develop commercial experience. Seek guidance and advice from a skilled professional, even if there's a fee involved - it's considerably cheaper and safer to find out at the beginning if something is going to suit and interest you, rather than realise following two years of study that you've picked the wrong track and have to start from the beginning again.

We're regularly asked to explain why academic qualifications are now falling behind more commercial qualifications? With a growing demand for specific technological expertise, industry has had to move to the specialised core-skills learning that can only be obtained from the actual vendors - that is companies like CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA. This often comes in at a fraction of the cost and time. Higher education courses, for example, often get bogged down in too much background study - with a syllabus that's far too wide. Students are then prevented from getting enough core and in-depth understanding on a specific area.

When an employer understands what they're looking for, then they just need to look for a person with the appropriate exam numbers. Syllabuses are set to meet an exact requirement and don't change between schools (as academic syllabuses often do).

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