Career training is an important aspect of overall professional career development. Hands-on training is often best, but professionals looking to advance themselves should also take advantage of every opportunity for academic development as well. General classes in management, business, and technology can be vital tools for advancement, particularly when changing jobs into different industries or functional areas.
Besides general education and skill development programs to advance in a particular career, career training refers specifically to an education that prepares an individual to enter a career and is directly related to a specific trade, occupation or vocation. Some examples include HVAC technicians and other skilled trade training, and programs for health care professionals, aircraft and automotive technology and information technology. Career training is more hands-on oriented than traditional school, and in some ways is much more specifically tailored to the specific career or vocation that the individual wishes to pursue than a college degree would be.
When a person finishes career training successfully, he or she will be trained for employment, have received specific preparation for a particular line of work and have the confidence built from prior work regarding success in the future.
People at all stages of life can benefit from career training, whether it is a young person new to the work force, someone who has been working for many years but needs something new to stimulate interest or someone who has been laid off and needs employment. Career training also is helpful for people who have skills and aptitudes that fail to translate well into a traditional classroom setting, where learning is only accomplished through books and lectures, not through doing.
Someone participating in career training should have done the job he or she is training for before they receive their certification, which makes them infinitely more attractive to prospective employers than someone who has not. Many jobs that require such training pay well and require a high level of responsibility. As just one example of such responsibility, an aircraft mechanic is responsible for hundreds of lives as he or she works to keep aircraft in good condition. The educational training required for such a job puts high technical demands on prospective entrants.
It should be noted that students should be cautious when examining various career training programs. Prospective students should be skeptical of “guaranteed” job placement programs or schools that seem like they are using marketing pitches to attract students. Due diligence should include talking to graduates of the program about their experience and their resultant marketability to employers.
