It’s no secret that the UK technology industry is booming. In 2020, British tech companies raised over $15 billion (£10.8 billion) in investments and job opportunities have increased at a rate of 2.6% a month since the summer, while other sectors such as hospitality are still struggling to get back on their feet. With an average salary of £53,518, over £20,000 more than the national average, it makes sense that many people are considering beginning or shifting into a career in the IT industry. However, the variety of roles available and the different knowledge that is required for each of them can be overwhelming to newcomers, and it can be difficult to figure out where to start.
At IT Career Swap, we offer five courses across a range of IT specialisations that will give you both the learning and practical experience you need to kickstart your career. Our courses are specifically tailored to give you the skills you need to stand out from the crowd on job applications, which is why we are pleased to offer a job interview guarantee upon completion. These courses include:
IT Technician
Our IT Technician course is an entry level all-inclusive package that offers you the chance to gain essential qualifications from industry leaders CompTIA, Microsoft and Cisco. This course includes modules in areas such as security (CompTIA Security+), networking (Cisco CCNA) and cloud technology (Microsoft Azure Foundations AZ-900) to give you a taste of the basics of what a career in IT has to offer, and hopefully inspire an interest in a specific niche for you to specialise in.
We recommend that if you are interested in more than one of our courses, you consider taking this one first to make sure you have a secure understanding of the basics you need to know before beginning a more advanced course. We also offer bolt-on introductory courses in web development and network engineering to help you get up to speed with core industry knowledge. If you’re curious about what a career in IT involves but aren’t fully decided on what area to go into, our IT Technician course will give you a thorough understanding of the hard skills that are in demand in all kinds of IT roles.
Cyber Security
Cyber security is a rapidly growing sector, with the constant development of new technologies and threats meaning that no two days on the job are the same. If you have a keen eye for detail and are a quick learner, then this may be the career choice for you. The first year of the course covers the same areas as our IT Technician course, while the second year will help you further develop your understanding of cyber security essentials such as CompTIA PenTest+ and Cloud+. You will also have the opportunity to learn the basics of Python, a popular programming language that is highly sought after by employers throughout the tech sector.
We are proud to have a job offer guarantee for anyone who completes our cyber security course, and you will also benefit from one-to-one mentoring to help make sure you are set on the road to success, which we offer across all our courses. If you want to know more about what working in cyber security is like, read our blog post on the subject here (https://itcareerswap.com/blog/)!
Could this be your new job?
Project Management
If you consider yourself to be a bit of a jack-of-all-trades who thrives when handling multiple responsibilities at once, but with the strong communication skills to be able to lead and manage a team, a career as an IT project manager might be the right path for you. According to Robert Half, the average salary for an IT project manager is £54,200, with the potential to increase to £65,000 or above for more experienced professionals. This follows the trend of IT positions paying considerably more than the average national salary, so a career in project management could be both professionally and financially rewarding for you!
With our Project Management course, you can choose to complete a package of project management qualifications, or take individual modules in certifications such as Six Sigma Green Belt and ITIL v4 in combination with any of our course packages if you are looking to gain a specific qualification. This means you can customise your course to specifically meet your learning needs, and make the most of your studying experience with us.
Web Development
In light of the impressive rate of developments in internet and mobile technologies over the last few years, web developers have continued to be in high demand. Many businesses in all industries recognise the importance of having an accessible and eye-catching webpage to advertise themselves to prospective customers, which is why many of them will hire web developers to make sure this important marketing tool is up to standard. In many cases, a career in web development offers many opportunities for freelance work, and this flexibility may suit those with other professional or personal commitments that might make the traditional 9-to-5 routine of other careers harder to manage.
Our web development course will set you up with the essentials you need to prepare for a career in this exciting area of IT. Over the course of two years, you will become familiar with languages such as HTML5, JavaScript and Python to name a few. In addition, our Web Application Security package will help widen your skill set even further with additional qualifications from CompTIA, CIW and Cisco CCNA. Our unique Live Labs platform will give you the practical experience you need to immediately begin your web development career, and having these qualifications under your belt will be sure to impress future employers.
Network Engineering
Network engineering is another career guaranteed to keep you busy, as you are given the responsibility of managing computers and networks across an entire business, or sometimes even between organizations. You might find yourself troubleshooting everyday issues or helping design new network systems, depending on the specific network engineering path you decide to follow, but all of these roles are essential to the smooth running of a company’s IT infrastructure. Although it’s a high stakes role, it’s well compensated with an average starting salary of £45,000 and practically guaranteed job security.
Certifications you will gain on our network engineering course include the specialist networking qualifications from CompTIA and Cisco, with the option to include our IT & Microsoft skills package that will help improve your employability and make you a well-rounded IT professional. Our network engineering course will teach you not only how to set up and manage networks, but also how to tackle any security issues to ensure they stay safe to operate. Furthermore, with our job interview guarantee that we offer across all our courses, you will finish the course fully prepared to begin your career in one of the most important areas of IT. Our advisors Vince, Dan, Billy and John will be holding a series of webinars over the next month; these will cover areas such as project management and cyber security, and give you a chance to ask any questions you have about our courses. Visit our events page here to reserve your place today, or call us on 0203 982 7573 to have a chat with one of our colleagues about which course is right for you.