Please understand this most important point: You absolutely must have proper 24x7 professional support from mentors and instructors. You'll definitely experience problems if you don't. Never purchase study programmes that only provide support to trainees via a call-centre messaging system when it's outside of usual working hours. Training organisations will give you every excuse in the book why you don't need this. The simple fact of the matter is - you want support at the appropriate time - not at their convenience.

Be on the lookout for training programs that use several support centres from around the world. All of them should be combined to enable simple one-stop access together with round-the-clock access, when it suits you, without any problems. Never make the mistake of compromise with the quality of your support. Many trainees who give up, just need the right support system.

The principal Windows software program development 'environment' is called Microsoft 'Visual Studio'. A number of languages are provided, but the 2 most regularly applied ones are C#.Net and 'Visual Basic.Net'. Advice concerning both of these 'languages' is covered in the Programming and Development sector of this web-site. Principle certifications are the MCTS and MCPD (having superseded the earlier MCAD and MCSD.)

Now, why ought we to be looking at commercially accredited qualifications rather than traditional academic qualifications obtained from schools and Further Education colleges? As demand increases for knowledge about more and more complex technology, industry has moved to the specialised training only available through the vendors themselves - namely companies such as Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA. Often this saves time and money for the student. This is done through focusing on the skill-sets required (together with a proportionate degree of related knowledge,) rather than trawling through all the background 'padding' that degrees in computing are prone to get tied up in - to pad out the syllabus.

Imagine if you were an employer - and you required somebody who had very specific skills. Which is the most straightforward: Pore through a mass of different academic qualifications from graduate applicants, struggling to grasp what they've learned and what commercial skills they have, or choose a specific set of accreditations that precisely match your needs, and make your short-list from that. Your interviews are then about personal suitability - rather than establishing whether they can do a specific task.

Considering how a program is 'delivered' to you isn't always given the appropriate level of importance. In what way are your training elements sectioned? What is the specific order and how fast does each element come? Usually, you will join a program that takes between and 1 and 3 years and get posted one section at a time - from one exam to the next. This sounds logical on one level, until you consider this: What would happen if you didn't finish every module at the speed they required? Often the staged order doesn't work as well as an alternative path could be.

Truth be told, the best option is to get an idea of what they recommend as an ideal study order, but get all the study materials at the start. You're then in possession of everything if you don't manage to finish within their ideal time-table.

We can guess that you probably enjoy fairly practical work - the 'hands-on' type. If you're like us, the trial of reading reference books and manuals can be just about bared when essential, but it's not ideal. You should use video and multimedia based materials if learning from books is not your thing. If we can utilise all of our senses into our learning, then we normally see dramatically better results.

Locate a program where you'll receive a library of CD and DVD based materials - you'll start with videos of instructor demonstrations, and then have the opportunity to fine-tune your skills in fully interactive practice sessions. You must ensure that you see the type of training provided by your chosen company. It's essential they incorporate instructor-led video demonstrations with virtual practice-lab's.

It's folly to choose training that is only available online. Connection quality and reliability varies hugely across most broadband providers, ensure that you have access to actual CD or DVD ROM's.

Microsoft Visual Studio Development Online Home-Based Career Computer Training Courses >>