What could a trainee searching for certified training from Microsoft expect to come across? Clearly, companies should be offering a selection of routes that cover the portfolio of training tracks certified by Microsoft. It's a good idea to talk through what you're looking to do with a person who's got industry experience - and if you're uncertain, then get some ideas on whereabouts in industry would work for you, based on your personality and ability level. When you've chosen the area you want to get into, an applicable training course must be picked that's suits your current skills and aptitude. Make sure it's well designed for your needs.

Many training companies only provide office hours or extended office hours support; very few go late in the evening or at weekends. You'll be waiting ages for an answer with email based support, and phone support is usually just a call-centre who will chat nicely with you for 5 minutes to ask what the issue is and then simply send an email to an instructor - who will call back over the next day or so (assuming you're there), when it suits them. This is no good if you're lost and confused and can only study at specific times.

As long as you look hard, you will find the top providers who offer online direct access support around the clock - including evenings, nights and weekends. You can't afford to accept less than you need and deserve. 24x7 support is the only viable option for technical courses. It's possible you don't intend to study late evenings; but for most of us, we're working when traditional support if offered.

Often, students don't think to check on a painfully important area - how their training provider divides up the courseware sections, and into what particular chunks. You may think that it makes sense (with most training taking 1-3 years to gain full certified status,) for a training company to release the courseware in stages, as you achieve each exam pass. However: Maybe the order of study pushed by the company's salespeople doesn't suit all of us. And what if you don't finish all the elements within their timetable?

To be in the best situation you would have all the training materials posted to you right at the start; every single thing! Then, nothing can hinder the reaching of your goals.

Speak with a knowledgeable consultant and you'll be surprised by their many worrying experiences of how students have been duped by salespeople. Stick to a skilled professional that digs deep to find out what's right for you - not for their wallet! You must establish the right starting point of study for you. With a strong background, or perhaps a bit of live experience (possibly even some previous certification?) then it could be that your starting point will be different from a trainee who has no experience. It's usual to start with user-skills and software training first. This can often make your learning curve a much more gentle.

We'd hazard a guess that you probably enjoy fairly practical work - the 'hands-on' individual. Usually, the world of book-reading and classrooms can be just about bared when essential, but it doesn't suit your way of doing things. Check out video-based multimedia instruction if books just don't do it for you. Many studies have proved that we remember much more when we receive multi-sensorial input, and we get practically involved in what we're studying.

Start a study-program in which you'll receive a selection of DVD-ROM's - you'll learn by watching video tutorials and demonstrations, and then have the opportunity to fine-tune your skills in fully interactive practice sessions. Every company that you look at must be able to demonstrate some samples of their courseware. Expect video tutorials, instructor led classes and a variety of interactive modules.

Go for actual CD or DVD ROM's wherever available. You're then protected from broadband 'downtime' or slow-speeds.

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