Retraining in IT?

[JudyJones]

Anyone know anything about IT?

My DH desperately needs to retrain and move into another field - he currently works long, poorly paid hours in hospitality and though he has a great CV, with loads of management experience, it just does not feel like a field that is compatible with raising a family. He really will go insane if he delays this any longer. I'm feeling a bit desperate, with baby No 1 now very much on the way

He's very taken with the idea of IT and I think it could work, but it is such a vast field, it's hard to know where to start. Any ideas on how to narrow down to what might be something he would be good at? Any ideas on the fields in which there are jobs in the UK?

At this stage he thinks the best thing to do would be to take some shorter courses to get skills and then try to make a move into the industry, before looking at longer courses and more retraining. He's thinking Advent or Computeach. These are expensive, I know, and reviews are mixed, but at least they help you get a job? Anyone tried them?

From my perspective, it seems positive that he may be able to move industries without first having to complete a whole undergraduate degree. But would he be better off doing that?

Anyone out there work in the industry? Or anyone started down this path? And anyone got any stirring stories about how it is possible for a DH to study and change careers successfully, just as you have a small, hungry baby on the way? Any advice pitifully, gratefully received...

I moved into IT in my early thirties. I started a part-time masters degree going one day a week. There are courses that are evenings only. Within six months I had a job in IT, and they let me complete the MSc. I don't know about Advent or Computeach, the problem with IT is getting into it as most jobs want some experience so beware of spending a lot of money.

There are many different types of jobs, not just people sitting silently in front of screens writing code! Would your husband be able to get some experience in his current job? For example, there must be desktop PCs, can he be responsible for sorting out problems with them? Alternatively, is his current experience relevant to project management in IT? Would his knowledge of hospitality enable him to get a job with a company who sell software for the hospitality industry? He would obviously know what is required. You should also consider location, London has all types of jobs but if you are not close to a big city then there may be a much more limited range.

Good luck with the change, getting in to IT is the difficulty, once in the pay can be very good, although my experience is that one has to change jobs quite a bit to increase pay.

Oh and you might want to post this on the geeky stuff topic as well!

It's worth getting him to think clearly about which bits of IT he's interested in then look around for the industry standard qualifications. For instance, if it's project management then he needs to do the Prince2 qualification, if it's networking a CISCO qualification is useful, as is the Comptia A+, which is also good for helpdesk work.

There's a lot of redundancies going on - might not be the best time to get into IT - lots of big companies are shelving IT projects.

What about law?