If Cisco training is your aspiration, and you've no practical experience with network switches or routers, we'd recommend taking a CCNA course. This will give you the necessary skills to set up and maintain routers. The world wide web is built up of many routers, and big organisations with several locations also utilise routers to allow their networks of computers to communicate.

Routers connect to networks, so seek out training that covers networking fundamentals (for example Network+, perhaps with A+) prior to starting your CCNA course. It's vital that you've got some knowledge of how networks operate before getting going with Cisco or you may be out of your depth. Once qualified and looking for work, networking skills will be valuable alongside your CCNA.

You should get a specially designed course that will systematically go through everything to ensure you've got the appropriate skills and abilities prior to commencing your Cisco training.

Often, students don't think to check on something that can make a profound difference to their results - how their training provider actually breaks down and delivers the courseware elements, and into how many bits. By and large, you will purchase a course taking 1-3 years and get sent one module each time you pass an exam. This may seem sensible until you think about these factors: What would their reaction be if you find it difficult to do every section within the time limits imposed? Often the staged order doesn't come as naturally as some other structure would for you.

The ideal circumstances are to get all the learning modules sent to you immediately; every single thing! Thus avoiding any future problems that could impede your ability to finish.

It's essential to have the most up to date Microsoft (or any other key organisation's) accredited exam simulation and preparation packages. Some students can get thrown by going through practice questions that aren't from official boards. Often, the way questions are phrased is startlingly different and you should be prepared for this. Simulations and practice exams can be enormously valuable in helping you build your confidence - so much so, that at the real deal, you don't get phased.

A subtle way that training providers make a big mark-up is through up-front charges for exams and offering an exam guarantee. This sounds impressive, until you think it through:

Clearly it isn't free - you are paying for it - the price has simply been included in the whole thing. Students who take exams one at a time, paying as they go are far more likely to pass first time. They are aware of their spending and so are more inclined to be ready for the task.

Take your exams at a local pro-metric testing centre and find the best deal for you at the time. Buying a course that includes payments for exam fees (which also includes interest if you've taken out a loan) is insane. It's not your job to boost the training company's account with extra money of yours just to give them more interest! A lot bank on the fact that you don't even take them all - so they don't need to pay for them. You should fully understand that re-takes via companies who offer an 'Exam Guarantee' are monitored with tight restrictions. You'll be required to sit pre-tests till you've proven conclusively that you can pass.

Shelling out hundreds or thousands of pounds on an 'Exam Guarantee' is short-sighted - when study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is actually the key to your success.