Good for you! Reading this subject matter means you're likely to be pondering over your options, and if it's re-training you're considering that means you've taken it further than most others. Are you aware that surprisingly few of us consider ourselves fulfilled and satisfied with our jobs - yet most will do absolutely nothing about it. We encourage you to be different and move forward - you have the rest of your life to enjoy it.

We'd strongly advise that before you start any study program, you run through some things with a mentor who has knowledge of the industry and can point you in the right direction. Such a person will go through personality profiling with you and assist in finding the right role for you:

• Are you happier left to your own devices at work or is being part of a team an important option?

• Have you given much thought to which sector you could be employed in? (Post credit crunch, it's essential to choose carefully.)

• Is this the final time you plan to retrain, and based on that, will your chosen career path allow you to do that?

• Is it important for your training course to be in an area where you're comfortable your chances of gainful employment are high up to the time you want to stop?

Pay attention to the IT sector, it will be well worth your time - you'll find it's one of the only growth areas in the UK and Europe. Another benefit is that remuneration packages are much better than most.

Most training providers will only provide 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 that use call-centres 'out-of-hours' - where you'll get called back during office hours. It's not a lot of help when you've got study issues and need help now.

World-class organisations offer an online 24x7 system pulling in several support offices over many time-zones. You get an easy to use environment that accesses the most appropriate office any time of the day or night: Support on demand. Don't compromise when you're looking for the right support service. The majority of trainees that give up, are in that situation because of a lack of support.

The area most overlooked by those mulling over a new direction is the issue of 'training segmentation'. Basically, this means the way the course is divided up for delivery to you, which completely controls what you end up with. You may think that it makes sense (with training often lasting 2 or 3 years to pass all the required exams,) for your typical trainer to courier the courseware in stages, as you achieve each exam pass. However: Often, the staged breakdown prescribed by the provider doesn't suit you. What if you find it hard to complete all the elements at the speed required?

In an ideal situation, you'd get ALL the training materials right at the beginning - meaning you'll have all of them to come back to in the future - at any time you choose. Variations can then be made to the order that you attack each section where a more intuitive path can be found.

Commercial certification is now, without a doubt, taking over from the traditional academic paths into the IT sector - but why is this? With 3 and 4 year academic degree costs increasing year on year, alongside the industry's growing opinion that key company training often has more relevance in the commercial field, there's been a great increase in Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA certified training courses that provide key skills to an employee at a fraction of the cost and time involved. This is done by honing in on the skill-sets required (together with an appropriate level of background knowledge,) rather than covering masses of the background detail and 'fluff' that degrees in computing can often find themselves doing - to pad out the syllabus.

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty: Accredited IT qualifications provide exactly what an employer needs - the title is a complete giveaway: for example, I am a 'Microsoft Certified Professional' in 'Managing and Maintaining Windows Server 2003'. Therefore companies can look at the particular needs they have and which qualifications are needed for the job.

A typical blunder that students everywhere can make is to concentrate on the course itself, rather than starting with the desired end-result. Universities have thousands of direction-less students that chose a program because it looked interesting - in place of something that could gain them the career they desired. Never let yourself become one of those unfortunate students who choose a training program which looks like it could be fun - and end up with a certification for something they'll never enjoy.

Prioritise understanding what industry will expect from you. Which particular accreditations you'll be required to have and how you'll go about getting some commercial experience. Spend some time setting guidelines as to how far you reckon you're going to want to build your skill-set as often it can force you to choose a particular set of accreditations. We recommend that students seek guidance and advice from an industry professional before embarking on a particular study path, so there's little doubt that the content of a learning package provides the skills necessary.