In this day and age, industry would be severely hampered were it not for support workers solving problems with networks and computers, while giving advice to users on a day to day basis. The need for increasing numbers of skilled and qualified individuals grows, as we become ever more dependent on PC's in the modern world.

A typical blunder that students everywhere can make is to look for the actual course to take, instead of focusing on where they want to get to. Colleges are stacked to the hilt with students that chose an 'interesting' course - in place of something that could gain them the job they want. Avoid becoming one of those unfortunate students who set off on a track which looks like it could be fun - and end up with a plaque on the wall for something they'll never enjoy.

Set targets for the income level you aspire to and how ambitious you are. This will influence what qualifications will be expected and what'll be expected of you in your new role. Take advice from an experienced professional, even if you have to pay a small fee - it's usually much cheaper and safer to investigate at the start whether your choices are appropriate, rather than realise after two full years that you're doing entirely the wrong thing and have to start from the beginning again.

Most people don't even think to ask about a vitally important element - the way the company divides up the physical training materials, and into how many bits. Delivery by courier of each element one stage at a time, according to your own speed is the typical way that your program will arrive. This sounds logical, but you should take these factors into account: With thought, many trainees understand that their training company's typical path to completion doesn't suit. They might find varying the order of study will be far more suitable. And what happens if they don't finish in the allotted time?

In a perfect world, you want everything at the start - meaning you'll have all of them to return to any point - irrespective of any schedule. You can also vary the order in which you move through the program if another more intuitive route presents itself.

Some commercial training providers will only offer basic 9am till 6pm support (maybe a little earlier or later on certain days); most won't answer after 8-9pm at the latest and frequently never at the weekends. Beware of institutions which use 'out-of-hours' call-centres - with the call-back coming in during the next 'working' day. This is useless when you're stuck and want support there and then.

The most successful trainers have many support offices from around the world. By utilising an interactive interface to seamlessly link them all, any time of the day or night, help is just seconds away, avoiding all the delays and problems. Unless you insist on support round-the-clock, you'll regret it very quickly. You may not need it late at night, but you may need weekends, evenings and early mornings at some point.

With so much choice, there's no surprise that the majority of newcomers to the industry get stuck choosing the job they could be successful with. Flicking through a list of IT job-titles is just a waste of time. Most of us have no idea what our own family members do for a living - let alone understand the complexities of a new IT role. Achieving an informed conclusion only comes through a systematic examination of several unique key points:

* What nature of individual you think yourself to be - what kind of jobs you get enjoyment from, and conversely - what don't you like doing.

* What time-frame are you looking at for the retraining?

* What priority do you place on salary vs job satisfaction?

* Considering the huge variation that IT encompasses, it's obvious you'll need to be able to see how they differ.

* Our advice is to think deeply about the level of commitment you'll put into your training.

The bottom line is, the only real way of covering these is from a long chat with a professional who knows the industry well enough to be able to guide you.

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