IT trainer
IT trainers teach people who want to learn new computer skills or improve their existing ones.
What you'll do
Day-to-day tasks
As an IT trainer, you could:
- work out training needs and agree learning aims
- design new training programmes and adapt existing ones
- create learning materials, and online resources for e-learning
- teach IT skills to learners, face to face or online
- support the roll-out of new software training in a business
- assess the effectiveness of your training courses
- monitor progress and give feedback to learners
- keep up to date with changing technology
Working environment
You could work in an office, at a training centre, at a college or at a client's business.
Career path and progression
With experience, you could become a lead trainer in your organisation, an area training co-ordinator or a freelance trainer. You could also teach in further education.
You could move into technical writing, project management or work in other areas of IT, like e-learning development and publishing.
What it takes
Skills and knowledge
You'll need:
- knowledge of teaching and the ability to design courses
- the ability to create the best conditions for learning or teaching new things
- excellent verbal communication skills
- customer service skills
- active listening skills
- leadership skills
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- the ability to come up with new ways of doing things
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages confidently
Restrictions and Requirements
You'll need to:
How to become
You could get into this job through:
- a university course
- a college course
- an apprenticeship
- volunteering
You could do a relevant foundation degree, higher national diploma or degree in:
- computing
- education and training
- business studies
- human resources
- learning support
Entry requirements
You'll usually need:
- 1 or 2 A levels, or equivalent, for a foundation degree or higher national diploma
- 2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree
More Information
Most colleges offer courses in IT user skills or digital skills.
The International Certification of Digital Literacy (ICDL), previously known as the ECDL qualification, is also widely available.
Courses like these teach you the main computing skills needed for everyday work tasks.
You will usually need to complete an IT qualification at level 3 or higher if you want to go on to teach computer skills to others.
Entry requirements
Entry requirements for these courses vary.
More Information
You could apply to do a Learning and Skills Teacher Level 5 Higher Apprenticeship.
You'll need a qualification in the subject you want to teach, for example, IT skills.
Entry requirements
You'll usually need:
- 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) and A levels, or equivalent, for a higher or degree apprenticeship
More Information
You could move into an IT training role within your organisation by gaining promotion. You'll need a good working knowledge of all the common business IT programs to do this.
You could do voluntary teaching, for example helping students with disabilities to use IT and assistive technology. Volunteering experience may give you an advantage when applying for jobs.
If you already have good IT skills, you could take a learning and development qualification with a professional body like the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. This could help you to improve your training skills.
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External links
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.