To become a proficient web designer with relevant qualifications for the job market today, your must-have certification is Adobe Dreamweaver.
We'd also suggest that students get an in-depth understanding of the full Adobe Web Creative Suite, which includes Flash and Action Script, in order to take advantage of Dreamweaver commercially as a web-designer. This can result in you subsequently becoming either an Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) or an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE).
Constructing the website only scratches the surface of what you'll need - 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, for example HTML and PHP, and database engines like MySQL. You should also gain a good understanding of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and E-Commerce.
Make sure you don't get caught-up, like so many people do, on the training process. Your training isn't about getting a plaque on your wall; you're training to become commercially employable. Stay focused on what it is you want to achieve.
You could be training for only a year and end up performing the job-role for decades. Avoid the mistake of finding what seems like a program of interest to you only to spend 20 years doing an unrewarding career!
It's well worth a long chat to see the expectations of your industry. What certifications they'll want you to gain and how you'll go about getting some commercial experience. You should also spend a little time considering how far you'd like to go as it may affect your choice of exams.
Prior to embarking on a particular study program, it's good advice to talk through individual career needs with an experienced advisor, to make sure the study programme covers everything needed.
It's likely that you're a practical sort of person - the 'hands-on' person. If you're anything like us, the world of book-reading and classrooms would be considered as a last resort, but you really wouldn't enjoy it. You should use video and multimedia based materials if you'd really rather not use books.
Studies have always shown that getting into our studies physically, is much more conducive to long-term memory.
Start a study-program in which you'll get a host of CD or DVD ROM's - you'll start with videos of instructor demonstrations, with the facility to hone your abilities through virtual lab's.
It makes sense to see examples of the courseware provided before you sign on the dotted line. Always insist on instructor-led video demonstrations and interactive audio-visual sections with practice modules.
You'll find that many companies will only provide purely on-line training; and while this is acceptable much of the time, imagine the problems if you lose your internet access or you get a slow connection speed. It is usually safer to have physical CD or DVD discs which will solve that problem.
Looking around, we find a myriad of professional positions up for grabs in computing. Deciding which one could be right out of this complexity can be very difficult.
Perusing long lists of different and confusing job titles is no use whatsoever. The majority of us have no idea what our own family members do for a living - let alone understand the intricacies of a new IT role.
To get through to the essence of this, we need to discuss several unique issues:
* Your personality can play an important role - what kind of areas spark your interest, and what are the things that get you down.
* Are you driven to obtain training because of a specific reason - for instance, is it your goal to work from home (being your own boss?)?
* Have you thought about salary vs the travel required?
* Looking at the many markets that IT encapsulates, it's obvious you'll need to be able to absorb what is different.
* Taking a cold, hard look into the effort, commitment and time that you're going to put into it.
The bottom line is, the best way of investigating all this is via a good talk with an advisor who has enough background to provide solid advice.
Discovering job security these days is incredibly rare. Businesses will throw us out of the workplace with very little notice - whenever it suits.
We can however locate security at the market sector level, by probing for areas of high demand, coupled with work-skill shortages.
The computer industry skills shortage throughout Great Britain clocks in at just over 26 percent, as shown by a recent e-Skills survey. Essentially, we can only fill three out of every 4 jobs in the computer industry.
Accomplishing full commercial Information Technology qualification is therefore a fast-track to realise a long-term as well as satisfying occupation.
It's unlikely if a better time or market conditions is ever likely to exist for getting trained into this quickly growing and budding market.
Author Resource:
(C) 2009. Try LearningLolly.com for clear career advice on Dreamweaver Courses and Adobe CS4 Training .