Home Web Design Training Uncovered
By Jason Kendall

Should you fancy being a web designer, find a course in Adobe Dreamweaver. For commercial applications you should have an in-depth understanding of the whole Adobe Web Creative Suite. This will include (but is by no means restricted to) Action Script and Flash. If you wish to become an ACP (Adobe Certified Professional) or an ACE (Adobe Certified Expert) then such knowledge is non-negotiable.

The building of the website is only the beginning of the skill set required though - in order to maintain content, create traffic, and work on dynamic sites that are database driven, you'll need to bolt on more programming skills, such as PHP, HTML, and MySQL. In addition, you should have an excellent grasp of E-Commerce and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Students often end up having issues because of one area of their training which doesn't even occur to them: The way the training is divided into chunks and packaged off through the post. Many think it logical (with most training taking 1-3 years to achieve full certification,) that a training provider will issue one section at a time, as you achieve each exam pass. Although: What if for some reason you don't get to the end of every single section? What if you don't find their order of learning is ideal for you? Without any fault on your part, you may not meet the required timescales and not receive all the modules you've paid for.

To provide the maximum security and flexibility, it's not unusual for students to make sure that every element of their training is sent immediately, and not in a piecemeal fashion. You can then decide how fast or slow and in what order you want to finish things.

Consider only learning programmes that move onto commercially accepted certifications. There's an endless list of small companies promoting unknown 'in-house' certificates which aren't worth the paper they're printed on in the real world. All the major commercial players like Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco or Adobe all have nationally renowned skills programmes. Huge conglomerates such as these will make sure you're employable.

So, why might we choose commercially accredited qualifications rather than the usual academic qualifications taught at tech' colleges and universities? Vendor-based training (as it's known in the industry) is far more effective and specialised. The IT sector has acknowledged that this level of specialised understanding is vital to cope with a technically advancing commercial environment. Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe are the key players in this arena. In a nutshell, only required knowledge is taught. It's slightly more broad than that, but principally the objective has to be to master the precisely demanded skill-sets (with some necessary background) - without attempting to cover a bit about every other area (as universities often do).

The bottom line is: Accredited IT qualifications tell an employer precisely what skills you have - the title is a complete giveaway: as an example - I am a 'Microsoft Certified Professional' in 'Planning and Maintaining a Windows 2003 Infrastructure'. Therefore employers can look at the particular needs they have and what certifications are needed for the job.

Massive developments are flooding technology in the near future - and it becomes more and more thrilling each day. We're barely starting to understand how all this change will affect us. The way we correlate with the world as a whole will be profoundly affected by computers and the internet.

If making decent money is way up on your scale of wants, then you will appreciate the fact that the income on average of IT employees in general is significantly higher than with other market sectors. As the IT industry keeps increasing with no sign of a slow-down, the chances are that demand for certified IT professionals will flourish for the significant future.

(C) 2009 - J. Kendall. Visit Click HERE or Alternative Careers.