Many training academies are still using the slightly musty old method of classroom days. Quite often pushed as a positive point, following a chat with most students who've had to attend a couple, you'll most likely hear about many or all of these problems:

- Frequent round trips - quite often hundreds of miles at a time.

- Weekday only availability to workshops is usual, and with two or three days required at a time, this can represent quite a problem for most working students.

- Lost holiday days - a lot of IT hopefuls only get 4 weeks annual leave. If half or more of that is used up by educational classes, vacation time is going to be quite short for the family as a whole.

- Workshops can 'sell out' fast and can sometimes be too big - so they're not personal enough.

- Class pace - centre-days normally feature trainees of varied abilities, consequently tension can run high between students with more background knowledge and those who want to go a little slower.

- And let's not ignore the increased expense of arranging transport and accommodation either. Don't be surprised to find this become a lot of money - from hundreds to thousands. Do the maths yourself - you may be surprised.

- Quite a lot of attendees want their studies to remain private so as to avoid any management questions in their work.

- It's not unusual to feel awkward about asking questions in a room full of other attendees - as we don't want to look silly.

- For students working away from home occasionally, you now have to deal with the fact that days in-centre now become very hard to attend - unfortunately however, the fees were paid along with everything else at the start.

Wouldn't it be better to watch on-screen and be trained by teachers one-on-one through ready-made lessons, working on them at a time that's convenient for you and you alone. You can study anywhere you want. If you own a laptop, you could catch a bit of sunshine in your garden as you work. If any problem raises its head then utilise the 24x7 Support. Forget taking notes - every lesson is laid out for you already. If you need to cover something again, it's there. While this doesn't remove every single problem, it undoubtedly reduces stress and eases things. And you've reduced hassle, costs and travel.

A useful feature offered by some training providers is a programme of Job Placement assistance. This is to steer you into your first IT role. With the great demand for appropriately skilled people in this country right now, it's not too important to get too caught up in this feature though. It isn't such a complex operation to get employment as long as you're correctly trained and certified.

Advice and support about getting interviews and your CV should be offered (if not, see one of our sites for help). Ensure you work on your old CV today - not when you're ready to start work! Getting your CV considered is far better than not even being known about. A decent number of junior support roles are given to people (sometimes when they've only just got going.) The most reliable organisations to help you land that job are most often local IT focused employment agencies. Because they make their money when they've found you a job, they have more incentive to get on with it.

Just ensure you don't conscientiously work through your course materials, and then just stop and expect somebody else to land you a job. Stand up for yourself and make your own enquiries. Put the same resource into landing your new role as it took to get qualified.

If its the development side of databases which is of interest to you, the 'MCITP' DB Developer from Microsoft will suit your needs. This particular qualification teaches how to set Databases up - rationalisation, design etc., but it won't go into detail on how to create programs for them. If you are thinking about Database programming then you really should check out the relevant programming webpages on this website. In truth, there tends to be a greater desire for the DBA side from both students & employers. Even so, in the event the Developer track is for you, it might be advisable to incorporate the MCITP DB Developer in to a more expansive programming training-path. As time goes on, make sure you equally look at taking the 'MCTS' accreditation in 'SQL' Server '08.

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