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Finding The Right Web Design Course For You (180409)

May 4th, 2009

If you’d like to become a web designer and have the most recognised qualification for the job market today, your must-have certification is Adobe Dreamweaver. For commercial applications you should have a full understanding of the entire Adobe Web Creative Suite. This is including (but isn’t limited to) Action Script and Flash. If your goal is to become an Adobe Certified Expert or Adobe Certified Professional (ACE or ACP) then such knowledge is non-negotiable.

To become a web designer of professional repute however, there is much more to consider. You’ll need to study various programming essentials like HTML, PHP and MySQL. An excellent grasp of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and E-Commerce will give your CV some extra credibility and make you more employable.

How can we arrive at a good decision then? With all this potential, we’ll need to know where to dig - and what we should be searching for.

An all too common mistake that students everywhere can make is to choose a career based on a course, rather than starting with the desired end-result. Schools are brimming over with unaware students that chose an ‘interesting’ course - instead of what would yield their end-goal of a job they enjoyed. It’s unfortunate, but the majority of trainees kick-off study that often sounds great from the sales literature, but which delivers a career that is of no interest at all. Try talking to typical university graduates and you’ll see where we’re coming from.

Take time to understand how you feel about career progression and earning potential, plus your level of ambition. You need to know what will be expected of you, what accreditations will be required and where you’ll pick-up experience from. The best advice for students is to talk with an experienced industry professional before they make a decision on a particular study programme. This gives some measure of assurance that it has the required elements for that career path.

Only consider learning paths that’ll grow into industry approved qualifications. There are far too many minor schools offering ‘in-house’ certificates that are essentially useless when it comes to finding a job. Only properly recognised qualifications from the likes of Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA and Adobe will open the doors to employers.

Full support is of the utmost importance - ensure you track down something offering 24×7 direct access to instructors, as anything less will not satisfy and will also impede your ability to learn. Be wary of any training providers who use ‘out-of-hours’ call-centres - with the call-back coming in during typical office hours. This is useless when you’re stuck and need help now.

It’s possible to find professional training packages who provide their students online direct access support 24×7 - even in the middle of the night. Search out a trainer that gives this level of learning support. As only 24×7 round-the-clock live support truly delivers for technical programs.

The age-old way of teaching, involving piles of reference textbooks, is an up-hill struggle for the majority of us. If this sounds like you, check out study materials which feature interactive and multimedia modules. If we’re able to involve all our senses in the learning process, our results will often be quite spectacular.

Find a course where you’ll receive a selection of CD and DVD based materials - you’ll learn by watching video tutorials and demonstrations, with the facility to use virtual lab’s to practice your new skills. Make sure to obtain a look at some courseware examples from your training provider. The package should contain instructor videos, demonstrations, slide-shows and interactive labs where you get to practice.

You should avoid purely online training. Ideally, you should opt for CD and DVD ROM courseware where available, as you need to be able to use them whenever it’s convenient for you - and not be totally reliant on a good broadband connection all the time.

Review the following facts very carefully if you think the marketing blurb about examination guarantees seems like a good idea:

You’ll pay for it one way or another. One thing’s for sure - it isn’t free - it’s just been rolled into the price of the whole package. If you want to pass first time, then you should fund each exam as you take it, give it the necessary attention and apply yourself as required.

Find the best exam deal or offer available at the time, and avoid college mark-up fees. In addition, it’s then your choice where to do your exams - so you can choose somewhere closer to home. Why tie up your cash (or borrow more than you need) for examination fees when you don’t need to? Huge profits are made because training colleges are getting money in early for exam fees - and hoping either that you won’t take them, or it will be a long time before you do. Also, many exam guarantees are worthless. The majority of organisations will not pay for re-takes until you have demonstrated conclusively that you won’t fail again.

Spending hundreds or even thousands extra on an ‘Exam Guarantee’ is short-sighted - when study, commitment and preparing with good quality mock and practice exams is what will get you through.

Now, why might we choose commercial certification instead of more traditional academic qualifications gained through schools and Further Education colleges? Key company training (as it’s known in the industry) is most often much more specialised. Industry is aware that a specialist skill-set is essential to cope with an acceleratingly technical workplace. CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA are the big boys in this field. Essentially, the learning just focuses on what’s actually required. It isn’t quite as lean as that might sound, but the principle remains that students need to cover the precise skills needed (along with a certain amount of crucial background) - without overdoing the detail in everything else (as universities often do).

Imagine if you were an employer - and you required somebody who had very specific skills. What should you do: Wade your way through reams of different degrees and college qualifications from various applicants, having to ask what each has covered and which vocational skills they’ve mastered, or select a specialised number of commercial certifications that specifically match what you’re looking for, and then choose your interviewees based around that. You can then focus on how someone will fit into the team at interview - instead of having to work out if they can do the job.

How long has it been since you considered how safe your job is? For most people, this issue only becomes a talking point when something dramatic happens to shake us. But in today’s marketplace, the painful truth is that true job security doesn’t really exist anymore, for the vast majority of people. When we come across growing skills deficits together with areas of high demand though, we always find a fresh type of security in the marketplace; driven forward by conditions of continuous growth, companies are struggling to hire enough staff.

With the Information Technology (IT) industry as an example, a key e-Skills investigation showed massive skills shortages in the UK around the 26 percent mark. To explain it in a different way, this means that the United Kingdom can only locate three qualified staff for every 4 jobs available at the moment. This one reality on its own shows why the UK is in need of a lot more new trainees to enter the IT industry. It’s unlikely if a better time or market conditions will exist for acquiring training in this quickly emerging and developing market.

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