I can remember seeing the Computeach adverts for the first time, they had some online test you could do to see if you could have a career in IT. Having nothing better to do at the time and having spent my entire career in IT I decided to take the test. The wording on the questions was pretty bad leaving the answers open. I soon got bored and started to click on the wrong answer, guess what, it still said I could have a career in IT. In fact, that was the only response I could get out of the test no matter what I did. Draw your own conclusion.
Richard_16v raises a good point (it's not a new one either) and it's a bit of a bug bare for me so I hope you excuse the little rant that is coming. A lot of training companies are advertising these courses that are the key to the perfect life. You will get paid lots, sit on your arse all day, get a company car, wear a suit, smile a lot, fit birds will smile at you and the sun will shine. Unfortunately (and this isn't a dig at the OP) people fall for it. I once had a taxi ride back from a night out and my taxi driver had an MCSE (even showed me the card!).
IT can be a rewarding career, I've been doing it for 10 years now, but go into it with your eyes open.
Most IT courses are designed for you to pass the certification. Plain and simple. Trouble is most of the certification doesn't actually reflect the real world. It's getting better (I did the NT MCSE track and it was more marketing that technical! The 2000 MCSE was better but didn't acknowledge anything outside the MS world. The 2003 MCSE starts to acknowledge other products but still has some way to go and needs more practical testing than questions). The CCNA is one of the better ones. The old Compaq ones use to be really good as they were taught by the technical staff, sadly now they are HP they have dedicated training professionals :-/
Braindumping and boot camps are a real problem for IT. A lot of "paper" certified people who have pretty much cheated there way to a certification. This caused the 2000 MCSE in particular to become devalued but it is becoming a bigger problem for Cisco at the moment. Businesses have woken up to this and are dealing with it in different ways. Some jaded people will ignore most certification (I've worked for two!), some will insist on experience to back up the certification (kinda funny when you consider it was meant to be the other way around!) and the one that is becoming more popular now; testing. I went for a job interview a few months ago and whilst signing into reception I was given a five page test to complete. Once complete I had to wait for it to be marked (I guess a low mark would have seen me sent packing). I've also worked for businesses that had practical tests for Cisco roles (I will never forget the so called CCNP who failed the most basic of the tests and left after 10 mins, up to that point he was the leading candidate!).
Not all jobs have prospects. A lot of the entry level jobs will be dead ends. Helpdesk roles can be a prime example as you will have very little chance to broaden your skills or develop into other areas. This is especially true for larger firms with defined roles and structures and some public sector employers.
Pay within IT is a broad spectrum. Entry level roles tend to be poorly paid. Lot of kids out of school and people retraining want to get into IT so demand for the jobs are high so businesses don't feel they need to pay well. The more specialised you get the better the pay becomes but getting there is usually hard work; although sometimes a bit of luck plays a part. But, since IT is a fast moving industry you will have to keep learning and you may find what is a very well paid job today could be worthless in a few years time as demands change. Developers and programmers have dealt with this for years.
Certification can help with some employers but be prepared to deal with other sceptical employers. I definitely wouldn't spend thousands getting one though! Get your hands on and buy a book or two. You can get router and switch simulation software for Cisco stuff and MS products can be downloaded on a 120 day trial and used in a virtual environment. You will learn a lot more than you ever will just sat there on most of the courses out there.
nooooooo
umm yeah right, 
