IT support technician

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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

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How to become an IT support technician

You can get into this job through:

  • a college course
  • an apprenticeship
  • working towards this role
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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

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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

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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.

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Further information

You can find out more about working in IT support from Tech Future Careers and The Chartered Institute for IT.

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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
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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.

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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
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