I have been in the business over 30 years, much of it at the forefront of the technology. There were no courses about as we knew as much as the developers. I refused to take MS certification when it came along as many of the answers were blatantly wrong, meaning one had to choose the option that put MS in the best light, which I decided was ridiculous. For over 10 years I have single handed supported 70 plus user international connected systems using MS software as well as Open Source where applicable. For 8 years of 24*7 the company total system downtime was zero. Specific applications downtime was less than 5 working days in total and most of that was down to a fire in the estate power supply plant building.

Now I need a job but can't get one as I don't have Microsoft Certification, Cisco certification etc etc. Still after 6 months I may be retrained so I can get a job in a resource desperate field like... IT!?

Well done kid, Go for all the certs you can get while you have the time. Later on when you are working, with a good colleague you will recognise bits and pieces and it will start to fall into place.