Congratulations! As you're reading this article you're probably toying with the idea of learning new skills to change career - that means you've already taken one more step than the majority. Only one in ten of us are content with our jobs, but no action is ever taken. So, why not be one of the few who make a difference in their lives.

Before embarking on a course, look for some advice - talk to a knowledgeable person; a guide who can really get to know you and find the best job role for you, and then show you the courses which are appropriate for you:

* Do you like working on your own or is being part of a team more important to you?

* What's important that you get from the market sector you work in? - We all know that things have changed, look at building and banking for instance.

* How long a career do you hope to have once retrained, and will the market sector offer you the chance to do that?

* Do you have the assurance that retraining in your chosen sector can help you find employment, and will provide the facility to be employed up to retirement age?

Pay attention to the IT sector, it will be well worth your time - it's one of the only growing market sectors in Great Britain and Europe. In addition, salaries and benefits exceed most other industries.

Quite often, students have issues with one area of their training which is often not even considered: The way the training is divided into chunks and sent out to you. Students often think it makes sense (when study may take one to three years to pass all the required exams,) for many training providers to send out a single section at a time, until you've passed all the exams. But: Often, the staged breakdown prescribed by the provider doesn't suit you. What if you find it hard to complete all the modules at the speed required?

Ideally, you want everything at the start - meaning you'll have all of them to come back to in the future - at any time you choose. This allows a variation in the order that you complete your exams if another more intuitive route presents itself.

Usually, trainers will provide a big box of books. Learning like this is dull and repetitive and isn't the best way to go about studying effectively. Studies in learning psychology have shown that memory is aided when we involve as many senses as possible, and we get physically involved with the study process.

Interactive audio-visual materials with demonstrations and practice sessions will beat books every time. And you'll find them fun and interesting. Always insist on a look at some courseware examples from the school that you're considering. The materials should incorporate slide-shows, instructor-led videos and fully interactive skills-lab's.

Purely on-line training should be avoided. Always choose CD or DVD based study materials where obtainable, so that you have access at all times - you don't want to be reliant on a good broadband connection all the time.

Let's admit it: There really is absolutely no personal job security now; there's only market and business security - any company is likely to remove anyone if it meets the business' trade requirements. Now, we only experience security in a swiftly rising marketplace, fuelled by a lack of trained workers. These circumstances create the correct setting for a secure marketplace - definitely a more pleasing situation.

A rather worrying UK e-Skills investigation demonstrated that 26 percent of IT jobs cannot be filled mainly due to a chronic shortage of well-trained staff. That means for each four job positions that are available throughout Information Technology (IT), there are barely three qualified workers to fill that need. Well skilled and commercially educated new staff are thus at an absolute premium, and in all likelihood it will stay that way for much longer. Undoubtedly, now really is the very best time for retraining into the computing industry.

Make sure that all your qualifications are current and what employers are looking for - you're wasting your time with programmes that lead to in-house certificates. If your certification doesn't come from a big-hitter like Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe, then it's likely it will be commercially useless - as no-one will have heard of it.