First, let’s examine the case against preseason NFL wagering. Clearly the biggest argument against it is the simple fact that the games don’t count. Though spots will exist during regular season games when the motivation and preparation of individual teams may vary, in theory both teams want to win. That’s not always the case in preseason football, since different coaches have different goals. Some might want to just evaluate their personnel, others might want to establish a winning attitude, and all coaches want to keep their stars from getting injured. Factor in all of the variables and conflicting agendas, the preseason naysayer would argue, and there are just too many unknowns to consider taking a financial position on.

But like the old saying goes “every dark cloud has a silver lining”. And the divergent agendas at play in preseason football can be seen as precisely why it is a good wagering opportunity. For example, say the Superbowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers are set to play an ‘also ran’ team like the Houston Texans. By regular season standards, the Steelers would almost certainly be favored. In the preseason, however, they’ll often have a different agenda for the individual game. A “better” team has more concern about protecting key players. and usually has fewer personnel decisions to deal with. They don’t need to worry about implementing coaching changes, or creating ‘team chemistry’. As a result, ‘better’ teams frequently approach preseason games as a mere annoyance.

NFL ‘doormats’, meanwhile, have a markedly different agenda to their more successful counterparts. They’ve often got heated competition for starting positions or key back up roles. They’ve often got new coaching staffs that players want to impress. Most significantly, they’re in great need of establishing a winning attitude. A win against an elite team in a ‘meaningless’ preseason game often has a much greater value to this type of team than to a playoff contender.

While some teams could care less about the result of preseason games, few want to enter the regular season having lost them all. In light of this fact, a successful preseason situation that has stood the test of time is to bet on teams that lost their first two exhibition games outright. This situation has produced a winning percentage right around 60%.

The philosophy of a NFL head coach is arguably the single most important factor contributing to preseason success. Some coaches always want to win, even if the games don’t count in the standings. Other coaches place a much greater importance on evaluating personnel and giving backups playing time they won’t have the opportunity to get during the regular season. The coaches that have a strong desire to win in the preseason often result in their team’s pointspreads being inflated somewhat, but a motivated team is always worth consideration for a wager.

One of the best tools that a handicapper has at his disposal during the preseason is the Internet. Actually, it’s a great tool year round but during the preseason it is invaluable. The best source of information on coaching philosophies, game plans, injuries, lineup changes, etc, are the local sports pages of NFL teams. Basically, the situation during preseason is that there is a lot of interest in the team and a lot of anxious beat writers looking to write stories. The problem is that there is little in the way of real news, and for that reason you’ll find the sort of minutiae on teams and players from which you can often extract relevant handicapping information. Even if there aren’t any nuggets of handicapping gold, you can at least get a feel for the coach’s goals for the game and the amount of playing time that key players will see. Sometimes coaches will come right out and say who will play at what juncture of the game, and will occasionally go on record that personnel decisions like evaluating all of the guys they’re considering for the backup defensive secondary jobs are more important than winning. Clearly, operating with this knowledge is a distinct advantage and operating without it can be fatal. There’s nothing more frustrating than betting on a team only to have them look like they could care less whether or not they win the game. During the preseason, however, it can frequently be prevented with some simple research and analysis.

The bottom line is that while the NFL preseason does offer some solid moneymaking opportunities, its not a ‘free cash grab’. It’s best viewed as an opportunity to grind out a small profit, but as always its essential to maintain the same degree of discipline in handicapping and money management as at any other time during the pro football season.

Ross Everett is a respected freelance writer specializing in travel, poker and sports handicapping. He is a consulting handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily free sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, flower arranging and scuba diving. He lives in Las Vegas with four dogs and a pet coyote.

To be fair being with a regular employer often results in working from Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm as standard. Approximately wages of 15k and 30k p.a. are reasonable within the UK, along with standard benefits such as holiday pay and sickness allowance. That said it is by working longer than typically 9am to 6pm, Mon to Fri that self employed people achieve higher incomes than those adopting a traditional approach. This is more noticeable when the self employed plumber chooses to work in the domestic market, as result often requiring many evening and weekend visits to suit their clients.

Around which is the question of self employment which appears to fit some people. The inclusion of key elements such as utilising good ‘business sense’, covering areas such as advertising and marketing and getting your own cost-per-hour correct is integral to the picture. Furthermore, additional costs such as materials and transport, along with legal and accountancy fees will need to be paid. Although it is expected that these can be relatively small in relation to the earnings overall they can mount up, but then so can the benefits. And the positives virtually always beat the downsides!

Initially, by searching for standard work a Student Entrant can get the majority of training especially with working knowledge and experience. Alternatively, the Self Employed Entrant needs to quickly establish those certificates that they will rely on in industry. In fairness it is the ‘domestic’ market rather than the commercial sector that attracts the majority of the self-employed workers in the UK. (Whilst not everyone does the majority do!)

Considering the education in Plumbing, each path into the industry needs some match in the certification modules. The issue of NVQ’s (or SVQ’s in Scotland) nevertheless appears to cause some difference.

From the beginning the Student Entrant instead of the Self Employed Entrant is much more reliant upon the NVQ requirements. In order to meet their client’s expectations the Self Employed Entrant will often need to use a greater range of certifications. Certainly, it is the qualifications aimed at meeting the needs of the typical household-based client base that self-employed persons need to focus upon. Having covered off the key elements of training within the college, the Student Entrant usually then enters the apprenticeship stage within the workplace – where the NVQ element can be assessed. By using this cheaper form of study the Student Entrant can make sound financial savings from the outset. It is often by gaining certifications faster, by being motivated by a more commercial standpoint that the Self Employed Entrant will achieve considerable financial benefits before a Student Entrant.

This shows the necessity of a clear careers discussion, covering the overall study and certification requirements alongside the required financial return. It is often the issue of 3 years in low-paid apprenticeship work, alongside going back to college that many adults having to look after their family and with say 20kp.a requirements find difficult. It should also be borne in mind that many young Student Entrants have their studies paid for them as part of their overall apprenticeships, whereas the self-employed student generally funds the course themselves. The level of certification sought by the student drives the course structure and can result in costs of between 3k through to 10k+.

Self Employed Entrants can consider a wide range of private technical colleges as opposed to the reliance on further-education colleges and that differentiates them from Student Entrants. Plumbing training companies can offer commercial routes in to reputable training paths that cover the necessary qualifications and skill-sets. The ability to train in evenings, part-time or in self study classes allowing people to continue with their existing job and maintaining their current financial situation remains one of the key advantages to Self Employed Entrants. With so many training colleges available, it makes sense to gather information from as many sources as possible. We’ve provided links and adverts from several, so why not book-mark this page (CTRL-D) so you can come back later to review your options.

Many plumbing students will go on to consider additional courses to increase their ‘marketability’. Key certificates in areas such as Gas, Green Energy and Electrical training can be provided by these courses. Gas training has always been a route for Plumbers to consider, as this forms part of the common domestic and commercial heating system.

It is with its main subjects, alongside added NVQ’s, that result in Gas Training being viewed as a technical program. It also features many options for on-going training, especially for those who trained as a plumber first and are now looking at some extra skills to add to their stable. From this idea the mature student works better with a fusion offered by Gas/Plumbing training. The path of focussing on the core subjects and at the same time dropping the NVQ’s seems to favour the Mature Student.

It is from this mix of training methods that the self-employed professional appears to benefit. The attraction is certainly the chance to gain a wider range of skill sets and earn money from them. The removal of any reliance of sub-contracting key skills of third parties definitely enhances the commercial package. Whilst sub-contracting can reduce the earning of a particular job perhaps more important is the deterioration of the value in a customer’s eye as they have to wait for jobs to be handled by others before completion of the overall task. To be fair the more talent a Plumber has in their own job then the more they have to offer their client base.

In retrospect, the Self Employed Entrant has the potential to achieve a much higher and more readily available income stream than Student Entrant, but to do so they need to develop both their business skills and achieve a broader range of certifications. Note: This information relates to the UK market, policies and industry requirements alone.

(C) S. Edwards 2009. Browse around Plumbing Apprenticeships or Plumbing and Heating Courses.

You may end up employed by an internet service provider or a big organisation that is spread out geographically but needs to keep in touch. This career path is very well paid and quite specialised.

Getting your Cisco CCNA is the right level to aim for; at this stage avoid being tempted to do the CCNP. After gaining experience in the working environment, you’ll know whether CCNP is something you want to do. If you decide to become more qualified, you’ll have the knowledge you need to tackle the CCNP – which is quite a hard qualification to acquire – and shouldn’t be looked upon as otherwise.

Don’t get hung-up, as can often be the case, on the accreditation program. Your training isn’t about getting a plaque on your wall; you should be geared towards the actual job at the end of it. You need to remain focused on where you want to go.

It’s common, for instance, to obtain tremendous satisfaction from a year of studying and then find yourself trapped for decades in a tiresome job role, as an upshot of not doing some quality research at the beginning.

You’ll want to understand the expectations of your industry. What precise accreditations you’ll need and how to gain experience. It’s definitely worth spending time assessing how far you reckon you’re going to want to go as it will force you to choose a particular set of accreditations.

We’d recommend you take advice from a professional advisor before you begin a particular training programme, so there’s little doubt that the chosen route will give you the appropriate skill-set.

Have you recently questioned how safe your job is? For most of us, this issue only becomes a talking point when something dramatic happens to shake us. Unfortunately, the lesson often learned too late is that true job security doesn’t really exist anymore, for nearly everyone now.

Security can now only exist via a quickly increasing market, pushed forward by a shortage of trained workers. This shortage creates the correct background for market-security – a far better situation.

The Information Technology (IT) skills deficit across the UK falls in at approx 26 percent, as noted by the latest e-Skills study. Or, to put it differently, this clearly demonstrates that Great Britain is only able to source three properly accredited workers for every four jobs available at the moment.

This disturbing truth shows the urgent need for more appropriately trained computing professionals in the UK.

It’s unlikely if a better time or market state of affairs could exist for gaining qualification for this swiftly emerging and blossoming business.

The way in which your courseware is broken down for you is often missed by many students. How many parts is the training broken down into? What is the order and how fast does each element come?

Drop-shipping your training elements one piece at a time, as you pass each exam is the normal way of receiving your courseware. Of course, this sounds sensible, but you should take these factors into account:

What if you don’t finish every section? And what if you find the order of the modules counter-intuitive? Through no fault of your own, you mightn’t complete everything fast enough and not get all the study materials as a result.

To avoid any potential future issues, it’s normal for most trainees to have all their training materials (which they’ve now paid for) couriered out in one package, all at the beginning. It’s then up to you in what order and how fast or slow you’d like to work.

An advisor that doesn’t ask you a lot of questions – it’s likely they’re just a salesperson. If they’re pushing towards a particular product before looking at your personality and current experience level, then it’s very likely to be the case.

Occasionally, the starting point of study for someone with a little experience is often largely dissimilar to someone without.

For those students embarking on IT studies anew, it can be useful to avoid jumping in at the deep-end, by working on a user-skills course first. This is often offered with most accreditation programs.

(C) 2009 Scott Edwards. Try HR Management Courses or CLICK HERE.