Joining the ICT World

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one recent field which has seen tremendous growth and development in a period less than three decades. Since computers were allowed to be applied in other fields other than the science world, many people have seen the logics of joining this field of ICT as researchers, software developers and hardware technicians.
What actually has motivated me in writing this article is the disappointment I experienced with a student when I went to make an honest enquiry on a software product. Personally I am not a professional neither a student of ICT, but I do use computer products daily, even earning me my daily living. Now, my computer operating system, which happened to be Windows 2002 Service Pack 2 (2006 version with enhance security features for antivirus control and management) crashed. It had given me a dozen of problems and I thought that acquiring the original Service Pack 2 would have been better. Now, the computer student who happened to be forth year student in a local university could not differentiate between the service packs neither the term commonly referred to as drivers. I was left wondering what in the world this student has been doing in the field of ICT.

Ok, I am referring this article to the one who wants to join the field of ICT and base his/her career in this field. It is true that many people do join different careers without the interest of such careers built in their hearts. Such people have offered low quality services when at last they get employed in the field of their studies. But, some of the crucial and essential elements of this modern world need safeguarding against pilferage by those who may end up being a threat to the survival of the crucial sector of education.

What an aspiring ICT student should first of all realize is the interrelationship of various disciplines, and that today this interrelationship get its connection in the ICT. The aspiring ICT student should therefore be ready, whether interested in software engineering, hardware maintenance and innovation, ICT applications to different fields, or otherwise, to take up the responsibility of acquiring basic knowledge of all the facets of ICT.

The student described above who could not know much about a computer driver is hardware based student. Though drivers in essence are software packages that come with the computer, programmed and embedded in the computer's Read Only Memory to form the part of the BIOS, these drivers are the sole ways in which the computer's operation system communicates to the hardware. Knowledge therefore of the required drivers in order to operate specific hardware such as the hard disc and the floppy drive is essential.

Acquiring knowledge of both the software and hardware compatibility for a particular field of education like business enterprise, medicine, engineering fields like civil engineering or geology, and other similar firms, require utmost dedication and practice. When one is truly venturing into the study of ICT, what one need to remember is that the individual should be ready to equip himself/herself with vast knowledge from all the fields of ICT such as A+ certification, N+ certification, software development languages (almost all) and interrelation between these and the various fields of application.
In summary, what ICT Director ones told me should be true to the aspiring field, "be an ICT professional with a consultant capability in one of the many other fields of knowledge." Good lack in endeavoring to achieve the best from ICT.