Well done! Reading this subject matter means you're likely to be thinking about your future, and if it's re-training you're considering you've already done more than the majority of people will. Can you believe that just one in ten of us consider ourselves contented at work - but most won't do a thing about it. We encourage you to be different and move forward - you have the rest of your life to enjoy it.

It's in your interests that prior to beginning a course of training, you run through some things with a mentor who can see the bigger picture and can give you advice. They can assess your personality and help you find your ideal job to train for:

* Are you happier left to your own devices at work or do you find company is vital for your sanity?

* Have you given much thought to which industry you maybe could work in? (These days, it's more important than ever to choose well.)

* Is this the final time you imagine you'll re-train, and therefore, do you believe this career choice will service that need?

* Would you like your training course to be in an industry where you know you'll remain employable until your pension kicks in?

We would strongly recommend that you consider the IT industry - everyone knows that it's on the grow. IT isn't all techie people looking at computer screens the whole time - naturally those jobs exist, but most jobs are filled with Joe averages who earn considerably more than most.

We're regularly asked to explain why traditional academic studies are being replaced by more commercial qualifications? Vendor-based training (as it's known in the industry) is most often much more specialised. The IT sector has acknowledged that a specialist skill-set is essential to cope with a technically advancing world. Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA dominate in this arena. Higher education courses, for example, become confusing because of a great deal of loosely associated study - with much too broad a syllabus. This holds a student back from getting enough core and in-depth understanding on a specific area.

What if you were an employer - and you wanted someone who could provide a specific set of skills. What's the simplest way to find the right person: Wade your way through loads of academic qualifications from hopeful applicants, struggling to grasp what they've learned and what vocational skills they've mastered, or select a specialised number of commercial certifications that exactly fulfil your criteria, and make your short-list from that. Your interviews are then about personal suitability - rather than establishing whether they can do a specific task.

The somewhat scary thought of securing your first job can be made easier because some trainers offer a Job Placement Assistance programme. Because of the massive shortage of skills in Britain right now, it's not necessary to get too caught up in this feature though. It's not as difficult as you may be led to believe to find the right work once you're properly qualified.

However, avoid waiting until you've qualified before updating your CV. Right at the beginning of your training, enter details of your study programme and get promoting! Getting onto the 'maybe' pile of CV's is more than not being regarded at all. Many junior jobs are got by students in the early stages of their course. If it's important to you to find work near your home, then it's quite likely that a specialist independent regional recruitment consultant or service may serve you better than the trainer's recruitment division, as they are much more inclined to have insider knowledge of the jobs that are going locally.

A constant grievance of various training course providers is how much people are focused on studying to pass exams, but how un-prepared they are to work on getting the role they've acquired skills for. Don't give up when the best is yet to come.

Be careful that the certifications you're studying for are commercially relevant and are current. 'In-house' exams and the certificates they come with are generally useless. Only fully recognised accreditation from the major players like Microsoft, CompTIA, Adobe and Cisco will be useful to a future employer.

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