Job: Network & Computer Systems Administrator / Systems Programmer (United States)

Don't wait for the employer to provide education to you. Buy your own books, if you can get reimbursed, that's great. Study, study, study. If you are new to the IT field, you do not have a life. You don't get to go to parties, and other waste of time social events. You life for the moment is in your lab. What? You don't have a lab? You've not bought a couple of used computers, and built a domain? Added users? Set group policy?

Then you might as well go back to flipping burgers because unless you want to stay right where you are, you have to learn it on your own. The days of OJT are gone. You have to come to the table with knowledge and skills. Networks are too expensive and too heavily relied on for employers to 'let you learn' on their dime.