Please Help - Training Required

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I have been in the IT Industry for 7 years.

My first 2 years were tough and the only experience I achieved was basic 1st line (log and flog/remote support of desktop's) due to allot of the companies I worked for moved their call centers abroad .
The last 5 years I have been in desktop support/2nd line roles (Windows) and I want to take that step into 3rd line Server/Virtualisation.

I have been trying within my last few roles to progress towards 3rd line duties/skills however the companies I have worked for haven't allow or encourage strong knowledge shares from 3rd to 2nd line, and therefore I have hardly improved on my skill set.

What would be the best way forward for me in terms of training courses?
I learn better in class room training labs.

I was thinking an MCSA in windows 2012 to get me a better understanding of servers and then follow it up with a VCP....
Maybe a network+ as well might aid the above courses?

Any advise on the best route forward would be really appreciated.
I would be happy to take a 2 months study break to dedicate to full time learning, so any recommendations on London based training organisations would be really appreciated.

 

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So there are two different paths here, actually scratch that, there is path progression.

You need to move to a role that is 3rd line based, the courses you're talking about are aimed at people who are already at that level as the exams\certifications are designed to prove knowledge rather than provide it.

Moving from a 3rd line Server Admin role to a virtualisation role is pretty much a natural progression (and something I did a couple of years ago so do have some knowledge and experience in this) but not every 3rd line Server Admin wants or even needs to move in to a virtualisation role because there are a lot of non virtualisation roles out there (SharePoint, Messageing, System Center etc).

My advice would be to find a role that lets you move into a Server based role, gain some experience with the software and decide if virtualisation or something else takes your fancy and then after that take the next step towards it.

As far as getting some knowledge or experience now goes, I would suggest a home lab, building up an Active Directory environment, playing with it (I mean really playing with it) and then looking at the MCSA as a step to aim for when you're in your role and actually experiencing first hand what the technology is capable of.
Don't be too much of a rush with 2012 because there are still LOADS of places out there running 2008R2 and you don't want to limit your chances.

If I tell you that I came in to IT back in 1997 and it's only recently that I have moved away from being 100% hands on technical to a more management position, I am still 80% technical tho, go back 3 years however and I was 100% Windows Server Admin based with a smattering of VMware, move forward 1 year and I was doing 80% VMware Admin, 20% Windows.

What I am trying to say is that 7 years in the industry and being in a 2nd line role isn't the end of your career, I mean I am 44 and only became a manager this year so you have plenty of time.