i would suggest one of two ways(sorry if this has already been posted, i havent read them all lol)
now to start my it career i had to take training from a training provider, now in some cases goverment will fund this kind of thing but sometimes they dont, after two years of my training corse i had employers wanting to take me on as a 'hot prospect' even though i still had a year of training left, now i turned these employers down simply for the fact that i wouldnt be used as 'cheap labour' now the laws in what employers must pay their staff has increased so this is a good option, but i finished my training and then went to the companies i wanted, i had the papers so there was no problem.
now my brother on the other hand, he could not get goverment funding for his training so i would help him with what i could and he went and bought books, he even resorted to corrupting his hardware just to see if he could fix it, not a very smart idea but i have to say it does pay off if you stick at it, after 6-8 months of plodding along i suggested him to some family friends who ran a computer store, he worked there for a few weeks, then was advised to try for a nother job at a nother computer store, he did and he went on working at various computer stores for small periods learning as much as he could and building a portfolio of references, he did that for about two years in total before he had enough knowledge to approach a decent company, now he works for insight which is a big company in the uk and other parts of the world and he has no qualifacations, so those are my two suggestions on how to start your i t career, hope you like