Commercial computer programmers are also known as software-engineers, or software developers. Software engineering has, of necessity, existed for as many years as the computing devices which run those programs. With no software application, virtually all 'electronics' would be just dumb containers that didn't actually do anything. Nearly every bit of technology that exists has a program running it. DVD players for example have a thing known as firmware which essentially is a simple operating system which allows the kit to work. Think about the navigation menu that pops-up when you are watching a DVD - that's software, & so is the on-screen inter-face that you use to set up the recording of a programme on your Television. The simple fact that you can see a film whenever you press 'Play' on a DVD recorder, is just a function of a piece of a software program that draws the 1s & 0's from a disc, and then decrypts them into video 'information' at amazing speed.

Its normally accepted that the most effective place to begin studying professional computer programming is with C. Not only is it highly disciplined, it's also the foundation for a number of other more up to date programming-languages. Therefore once you've got the hang of 'C', getting to grips with other languages will be more straightforward. MS supports C very much - its the main systems language, and one of the main languages in both MS Visual-Studio & their range of certifications. Such a big promotion and wide accreditation collection from Microsoft simply enhance the credibility of learning 'C' at the start of just about any programming training-course. Even though it was not known as 'C' until the '70's, the 'language' began it's existence in the 1960's. During the decade of the 80's, the transition was made to object-oriented C++ . Object oriented means this program can be multiple 'objects' talking to each other - not just a single, linear pattern of activities. At the turn of the century, MS launched a '.NET' enabled adaptation which came to be labelled C# ('C' Sharp,) leading us all to where we are today. '.Net' was a significant advancement, as 'Windows' software-writers could now gain access to pre written programs that completed a lot of the elementary tasks on their behalf.

The key MS accreditation tracks were upgraded a short while ago, as they moved from the older MCAD/MCSD (Microsoft Certified Application/Solutions Developer) to the more modern 'MCTS' ('Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist') and MCPD ('Microsoft Certified Professional Developer') exams. Before you tackle the complete 'MCPD' exam, make sure you complete 2 'MCTS' programs initially. When programming is going to be new to you, it seems sensible to get going on an introductory programming course first - regardless of the fact MS list their 1st unit a 'foundation unit'. We would equally recommend getting a support certification before all of this, so as to acquire a professional understanding of software-environments and support. You can then get into the market doing support work while you continue your studies. Normal training periods tend to be approximately 600 to 700 hrs for the complete career-track, and therefore you'd usually plan for 12 - 18m of part-time study.

Software engineers implementing systems use languages such as C. The 'C' of today is a low-level user friendly language which hardly resembles the original version. Applications programmers work in lots of different higher-level languages, - there are too many to list them all, but each will have their own unique set of instructions and rules - & may suit a particular task more readily than another. As an example a software engineer writing database-software for corporate and business use would work with a language that suits that environment, but a software engineer writing games-software would very likely use 'C', to attain rapid running speeds. If you're writing a database application, then it doesn't matter if your display 're-draws' in one 10th of a second or a 100th of a second, whilst with video games, it matters a whole lot. We need features that are intended to make things easier for the database end-user, and so a stripped down 'language' for speed would be totally inappropriate. You might compare it to the difference between a racing car & a family-estate. The estate-car will be a lot more relaxing & cost effective, but the trade-off is speed and handling. For the purpose of getting the children from one place to another though, it is more suited to the job.

Recognising where you'd like to reach is vital before starting this or any other professional accreditation course, if you want to plan the best path. Accepting a training course in some sort of ad-hoc way might easily result in you arriving at a completely different position to that which you thought you had been working hard towards. Software & programming accreditations aren't really straightforward, and if you don't choose them very carefully it could appear that you are walking through a minefield! Our IT advisors can help explain everything to suit your needs. A forty five min chat could save you thousands of pounds & years of inappropriate training!

As the world moves much more closely to the concept of cloud-computing, we're experiencing an increasing acceleration towards network and internet based software. This is a phrase meaning that all your files are stored out in the 'ether', so they can be accessed from any place. All of the processes are performed elsewhere - right down to the raw processing. Sooner or later the only real requirement will be that you need to have a very basic terminal plugged into the Network (or obviously wirelessly connected to it).

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