IT support technician
IT user support technician, IT helpdesk technician, service desk technician
IT technical support staff diagnose and solve software and hardware problems for computer users.
Salary Range: £16,000 to £50,000
How to become an IT support technician
You can get into this job through:
- a college course
- an apprenticeship
- working towards this role
College
You could take a college course in computing or IT support, like a:
- Level 2 Certificate in ICT Systems Support
- Level 3 Diploma in ICT Professional Competence
Entry requirements
You may need:
- 2 or more GCSEs at grades 9 to 3 (A* to D), or equivalent, for a level 2 course
- 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, for a level 3 course
More information
Apprenticeship
You could do an intermediate or advanced apprenticeship in IT support, or an infrastructure technician advanced apprenticeship.
Entry requirements
You’ll usually need:
- some GCSEs, usually including English and maths, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship
- 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship
More information
Work
You could get started as a trainee technician and do qualifications while you work. You’ll need some IT skills to get a trainee job.
More information
Further information
You can find out more about working in IT support from Tech Future Careers and The Chartered Institute for IT.
What it takes
Skills and knowledge
You’ll need:
- the ability to work well with others
- excellent verbal communication skills
- analytical thinking skills
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- customer service skills
- to be flexible and open to change
- the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
- the ability to use your judgement and make decisions
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages confidently
What you’ll do
Day-to-day tasks
Your day-to-day duties may include:
- getting details from customers about their IT problems
- finding and fixing faults
- tracking work in progress and recording issues and solutions
- updating online knowledge banks
- servicing equipment like printers, projectors and IT networks
- setting up new equipment and upgrading existing systems
- training people on new systems, face-to-face and online
Working environment
You could work in an office, at a client’s business or in a contact centre.
Career path and progression
With experience, you could move into a supervisory or management role. You could also apply for roles in training or technical sales.
With training, you could move into:
- network engineering
- database administration
- business or systems analysis
- IT security
- IT project management
©opyright The CV Writer
The career profiles database is designed to compliment the sreries of five Career Advice Guides. Providing information covering the qualifications, skills, expertise and an overview of the responsibilites required for each job role that you can use to build your CV, application letters, application forms and that all important job interview.
For a more detailed description of what’s included in the pack click here
By placing your order with The CV Writer you agree to our Terms and Conditions in full.