Ask HN: How should I advise a friend who wants to get into IT?

I've got a friend who is interested in getting into IT, but doesn't want to go with the expensive certification-prep classes. I know there's dubious value to certs among this community, but she's in a work situation where such certificates may actually be a useful credential for making the initial jump.

I know I learned most of what's covered by these exams by just breaking computers and networks and fixing them. But I have something of an expert's dilemma here since I don't know how to decompose what I know into learnable chunks.

How would you advise my friend?