We've all seen the adverts. Train for a better career in IT in your spare time and earn over £30K in your first year!

Several training providers out there use various platforms, including national TV advertising, to promote their wares and, on the surface, this all seems perfectly plausible. But are these training providers simply preying on the vulnerable, the low paid, the un-educated, the 'no idea what I want to do' members of our society?

Having considerable personal experience of this industry my own thoughts are that far too many students are taken on by these providers without any pre-course assessment or interview. In a lot of cases, the personal investment made by these students can be well over £5,ooo and, even more disturbing, is the fact that less than 20% of these people will actually complete a training programme!

You have to be encredibly disciplined to complete a self study training programme from home and most IT training programmes such as MCSE, CCNA or Web Design can take anything up to 3 years to complete. How many of us actually do have the motivation and structure in our lives to dedicate 10-15 hours each week to studying towards a new career over a 2 or 3 year period??

The harsh reality of it all is that these home learning providers are simply sales machines designed to put numbers on the bank balance rather than providing their students with a worthwhile and rewarding career in IT. The level of support and guidance given to students once they've parted with their money is quite frankly poor to say the least. One or two of the providers I'm very familiar with actually call their sales people 'Selection Executives' and claim to have a selection process in place - "We don't take everybody that applies..." Absolute nonsense!

It's time for the Government and varoius Watchdogs out there to get tough on these providers and put some real and measurable perfomance indicators in place. Do it now before thousands more students are mislead and mis-sold a career!