Nice One! Discovering this piece suggests you're thinking about your future, and if you're considering retraining you've already done more than most. Can you believe that surprisingly few of us describe ourselves as contented at work - but most will do absolutely nothing about it. Why don't you stand out from the crowd and make a start - those who do hardly ever regret it.

We recommend you seek advice first - find someone who knows the industry; an advisor who can get to the bottom of what you'll like in a job, and work out what courses which are appropriate for you:

* Do you want to interact with other people? If so, do you want a team or do you want to meet lots of new people? Or are you better working in isolation?

* Are you thinking carefully about which industry you choose to work in? (In this economy, it's essential to be selective.)

* Is this the final time you plan to retrain, and based on that, will your chosen career path allow you to do that?

* Is it important for the course you're re-training in to be in a market sector where you believe you'll have a job up to the time you want to stop?

We would advise you to find out more about the IT industry - there are greater numbers of jobs than employees, because it's a rare career choice where the industry is expanding. Contrary to what some people would have you think, it isn't just geeks looking at screens all day long (some jobs are like that of course.) Most positions are taken by people like you and me who like receiving larger than average salaries.

You have to make sure that all your exams are current and commercially required - forget studies that only give in-house certificates. From the viewpoint of an employer, only top businesses such as Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco or Adobe (to give some examples) will make the right impression. Anything less won't make the grade.

Discovering job security in the current climate is incredibly rare. Businesses will throw us from the workplace at the drop of a hat - as and when it suits them. Where there are escalating skills shortages coupled with growing demand of course, we almost always find a newer brand of security in the marketplace; where, fuelled by conditions of continuous growth, organisations struggle to find enough staff.

The computer industry skills-gap in the UK is standing at approximately 26 percent, as noted by the latest e-Skills survey. Quite simply, we can't properly place more than three out of every 4 jobs in IT. Gaining the appropriate commercial computing certification is correspondingly a quick route to realise a long-term as well as worthwhile living. Quite simply, retraining in Information Technology as you progress through the next year or two is very likely the greatest choice of careers you could make.

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