Are you toying with the idea of doing an MCSE? If the answer's 'yes', there's a good chance that you'll fall into one of two camps: You're someone with a certain amount of knowledge and you want to enhance your CV with an MCSE. Instead this might be your initial foray into the computer world, and research demonstrates that there are many opportunities for those with appropriate certifications.

Be sure you check that the training provider you're using is definitely teaching with the latest version from Microsoft. Many students are left in a mess when it turns out they have been studying for an outdated MCSE program which inevitably will have to be up-dated. Be on your guard for training companies who are just interested in your money. You should know that buying a course for an MCSE is the same in a way as buying a car. They vary hugely; some are comfortable and reliable, whilst some will be completely unreliable. A worthy company will spend time understanding your needs to be sure the course will work for you. If they're confident of their product, they'll show you examples of it before you buy.

Have a conversation with a knowledgeable consultant and we'd be amazed if they couldn't provide you with many worrying experiences of salespeople ripping-off unsuspecting students. Stick to a skilled professional who asks lots of questions to find out what's right for you - not for their pay-packet! It's very important to locate a starting-point that will suit you. With a little commercial experience or certification, you could discover that your appropriate starting-point is very different to someone completely new. For students commencing IT study from scratch, it can be helpful to ease in gradually, kicking off with some basic user skills first. This can easily be incorporated into most training packages.

Commercial qualifications are now, undoubtedly, beginning to replace the traditional routes into the IT sector - so why should this be? As demand increases for knowledge about more and more complex technology, industry has moved to the specialised core-skills learning that the vendors themselves supply - that is companies like Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA. Often this saves time and money for the student. In essence, students are simply taught the necessary specifics in depth. It isn't quite as lean as that might sound, but the principle remains that students need to concentrate on the fundamentally important skill-sets (alongside some required background) - without going into too much detail in all sorts of other things (as academia often does).

Put yourself in the employer's position - and you wanted someone who could provide a specific set of skills. Which is the most straightforward: Pore through a mass of different academic qualifications from various applicants, struggling to grasp what they've learned and what workplace skills they've mastered, or select a specialised number of commercial certifications that precisely match your needs, and then choose your interviewees based around that. You can then focus on how someone will fit into the team at interview - rather than establishing whether they can do a specific task.

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