'In-Centre workshop days' can be offered as a major benefit by some trainers. After a good chat with the majority of IT students who have partaken in a couple, you'll find they generally end up being seen as a major problem because of many things:

- Periodic driving or public transport - quite a distance away in more cases than not.

- If, like many of us, you work, then Mon-Fri events are difficult to make. Typically you are having to deal with two or three days together to make it worse.

- Lost holiday days - most students get just four weeks holiday each year. If you use up half of that with training workshops, that isn't going to leave much vacation time for the family as a whole.

- 'In-Centre' days usually get fully subscribed quite quickly, so we end up having to take a slot that doesn't really suit.

- Often attendees want to work as quickly as possible, but some need a more gentle learning curve and not be forced to adopt an uncomfortable speed for them. This generates tension and unrest on many workshops.

- A lot of trainees speak about the high (and unexpected) costs associated with getting to and from the facility while covering the cost of accommodation and food can get very expensive.

- Don't risk any chance of getting passed-over for advancement or pay-rises because you're getting trained in a different area.

- Don't think it's unusual for people to hide the fact that they want to raise a question - just because they're in front of other people.

- There are those of us who sometimes live away for part of the week, imagine the trouble involved in travelling to the needed workshops, when time-off becomes even harder to obtain.

A more flexible training route is to use filmed lessons in the comfort of your own chosen environment - and do it when it's convenient to you - not anyone else. You can train wherever you want. If you've got a laptop, why not catch a bit of fresh air outside as you study. If you have any difficulties then make use of the 24x7 support. Repeat lessons and modules whenever you feel you need to - repetition is good for memory. And you can forget taking notes - it's already laid on for you. Essentially: You save time, hassle, money and avoid polluting our environment.

Many trainers provide a big box of books. Learning like this is dull and repetitive and not a very good way of achieving retention. We see a huge improvement in memory retention with an involvement of all our senses - this has been an accepted fact in expert circles for decades now.

Locate a program where you're provided with an array of CD and DVD ROM's - you'll begin by watching videos of instructors demonstrating the skills, with the facility to hone your abilities through virtual lab's. Every company that you look at must be pushed to demo samples of the materials provided for study. Make sure you encounter videos of instructor-led classes and a variety of interactive modules.

Plump for physical media such as CD or DVD ROM's every time. This then avoids all the potential pitfalls with internet connection failure and issues with signal quality.

One area often overlooked by people considering a training program is the issue of 'training segmentation'. This is essentially the method used to break up the program to be delivered to you, which can make a dramatic difference to what you end up with. Many companies enrol you into a program spread over 1-3 years, and courier the materials in pieces as you complete each section or exam. Sounds reasonable? Well consider these facts: It's not unusual for trainees to realise that their providers 'standard' path of training isn't the easiest way for them. They might find it's more expedient to use an alternative order of study. And what happens if they don't finish at the pace they expect?

The ideal solution is to have all the training materials packed off to you right at the start; the entire thing! This prevents any future issues from rising that will affect the reaching of your goals.

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