by Jason Kendall
If your dream is to become a great web designer and have the most recognised qualification for the job market today, you’ll need to study Adobe Dreamweaver. We also advise that you learn all about the complete Adobe Web Creative Suite, which incorporates Flash and Action Script, to be able to use Dreamweaver as a commercial web-designer. These skills can result in you subsequently becoming an ACP (Adobe Certified Professional) or an ACE (Adobe Certified Expert).
Designing a website is only the beginning of the learning required by today’s web technicians. We would recommend that you find a course with a range of specialist features, for example PHP, HTML, MySQL, E-Commerce and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation,) to enable you to know how to maintain content, create traffic and operate on dynamic database-driven web-sites.
At times individuals don’t really get what information technology is about. It’s electrifying, revolutionary, and puts you at the fore-front of developments in technology that will change our world over the next few decades. Society largely thinks that the increase in technology we have experienced is slowing down. This couldn’t be more wrong. There are huge changes to come, and the internet particularly will be the most effective tool in our lives.
Wages in the IT sector aren’t to be ignored either - the typical remuneration throughout Britain for the usual IT professional is considerably better than remuneration packages in other sectors. It’s likely that you’ll earn a whole lot more than you’d expect to earn doing other work. It’s evident that we have a substantial country-wide requirement for trained and qualified IT technicians. And as growth in the industry shows little sign of contracting, it seems this pattern will continue for the significant future.
Picking up on all this discussion about computer technology nowadays, how is it possible to understand what exactly to look for?
Don’t get hung-up, as can often be the case, on the certification itself. You’re not training for the sake of training; you should be geared towards the actual job at the end of it. You need to remain focused on where you want to go. Imagine training for just one year and then end up doing the job for 20 years. Avoid the mistake of opting for what may seem to be an ‘interesting’ training program and then put 10-20 years into a job you hate!
You’ll want to understand what industry will expect from you. Which certifications they will want you to have and how you’ll build your experience level. You should also spend a little time assessing how far you think you’ll want to build your skill-set as often it can present a very specific set of exams. Look for help from a skilled professional that has commercial knowledge of your chosen market-place, and who can offer ‘A typical day in the life of’ synopsis of what kinds of tasks you’ll be undertaking with each working day. It’s good sense to know if this change is right for you long before you start on any retraining programme. After all, what is the point in starting to train only to find you’ve gone the wrong way entirely.
We can guess that you probably enjoy fairly practical work - a ‘hands-on’ type. If you’re anything like us, the painful task of reading endless manuals is something you’ll force on yourself if you absolutely have to, but it’s not really your thing. Consider interactive, multimedia study if you’d really rather not use books. Many years of research has consistently demonstrated that becoming involved with our studies, to utilise all our senses, will more likely produce memories that are deeper and longer-lasting.
Interactive full motion video utilising video demo’s and practice lab’s will beat books every time. And you’ll actually enjoy doing them. Each company you’re contemplating should be able to show you a few examples of their training materials. Make sure you encounter videos of instructor-led classes and interactive areas to practice in.
Seek out CD and DVD ROM based physical training media wherever available. You’re then protected from broadband ‘downtime’ or slow-speeds.
A lot of training companies only provide support available from 9-6 (office hours) and sometimes later on specific days; most won’t answer after 8-9pm at the latest and frequently never at the weekends. some companies only provide email support (slow), and telephone support is usually to a call-centre that will chat nicely with you for 5 minutes to ask what the issue is and then simply send an email to an instructor - who’ll call back sometime over the next 1-3 days, at a time suitable for them. This isn’t a lot of good if you’re sitting there confused over an issue and can only study at specific times.
If you look properly, you’ll find professional companies that offer online direct access support all the time - including evenings, nights and weekends. Don’t compromise where support is concerned. Many trainees who fall by the wayside, are in that situation because of a lack of support.
Commercial qualifications are now, very visibly, already replacing the traditional routes into the IT sector - why then is this the case? With 3 and 4 year academic degree costs climbing ever higher, and the IT sector’s general opinion that vendor-based training often has more relevance in the commercial field, there has been a great increase in Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA authorised training routes that provide key skills to an employee at a fraction of the cost and time involved. University courses, for instance, can often get caught up in a great deal of background study - and a syllabus that’s too generalised. Students are then prevented from getting enough core and in-depth understanding on a specific area.
If an employer is aware what they’re looking for, then all it takes is an advert for a person with the appropriate exam numbers. Vendor-based syllabuses are set to meet an exact requirement and don’t change between schools (as academic syllabuses often do).
Charging for examinations with the course fee and offering an ‘Exam Guarantee’ is popular with many training course providers. However, let’s consider what’s really going on:
They’ve allowed costings for it by some means. One thing’s for sure - it isn’t free - it’s simply been shoe-horned into the price as a whole. Students who take exams one at a time, paying as they go are much more likely to pass. They’re mindful of the cost and prepare more appropriately to be ready for the task.
Take your exams at a local pro-metric testing centre and find the best deal for you at the time. A surprising number of questionable training course providers net a great deal of profit through asking for examinations upfront and banking on the fact that many won’t be taken. It’s worth noting, in the majority of cases of ‘exam guarantees’ - the company decides when you can do your re-takes. They’ll only allow a re-take once completely satisfied.
On average, exams cost about 112 pounds last year via Prometric or VUE centres around the United Kingdom. So what’s the point of paying maybe a thousand pounds extra to have ‘an Exam Guarantee’, when common sense dictates that the responsible approach is consistent and systematic learning, coupled with quality exam simulation software.
A useful feature provided by many trainers is job placement assistance. This is designed to help you get your first commercial position. At the end of the day it’s not as difficult as you may be led to believe to get a job - once you’re trained and certified; because there’s still a great need for IT skills in the UK today.
Having said that, it’s important to have CV and Interview advice and support though; additionally, we would recommend any student to update their CV as soon as they start a course - don’t procrastinate and leave it for when you’re ready to start work. It’s possible that you won’t have even taken your exams when you will be offered your first junior support role; yet this is not possible unless your CV is with employers. If you’d like to get employment in your home town, then you may well find that a specialist independent regional recruitment consultant or service can generally be of more use than the trainer’s recruitment division, because they’re going to have insider knowledge of what’s available near you.
Certainly be sure that you don’t invest a great deal of time on your training course, only to stop and expect somebody else to find you a job. Stand up for yourself and start looking for yourself. Put as much time and energy into finding the right position as you did to get trained.
About the Author:
After 2 Decades in IT, Jason Kendall has turned his attention to computer training consultancy in the UK. To find out more on
Web Design Courses, visit LearningLolly
Dreamweaver Training.