Nearly all aspiring web designers start their careers with Adobe Dreamweaver training. It’s most likely the favourite environment for web development on the planet.
The entire Adobe Web Creative Suite should also be learned in-depth. Doing this will familiarise you in Action Script and Flash, amongst others, and means you’ll be in a position to take your Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) or an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) qualification.
The building of a website only scratches the surface of the skills needed though – in order to drive traffic, update content, and work on dynamic sites that are database driven, you will need further programming skills, for example HTML and PHP, and database engines like MySQL. In addition, you should gain a good understanding of E-Commerce and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
The area most overlooked by potential students mulling over a new direction is the concept of ‘training segmentation’. This basically means the method used to break up the program to be delivered to you, which vastly changes where you end up.
Most companies will sell you a 2 or 3 year study programme, and deliver each piece one-by-one as you complete each exam. If you think this sound logical, then consider this:
What if you find the order offered by the provider doesn’t suit. What if you find it hard to complete each and every section at the speed required?
For maximum flexibility and safety, most students now choose to make sure that every element of their training is couriered out in one package, all at the beginning. It’s then your own choice at what speed and in which order you’d like to work.
If you forget everything else – then just remember this: You have to get round-the-clock 24×7 instructor and mentor support. Later, you’ll kick yourself if you let this one slide.
Many only provide email support (too slow), and telephone support is usually to a call-centre who will chat nicely with you for 5 minutes to ask what the issue is and then simply send an email to an instructor – who will then call back sometime over the next 24hrs, at a time suitable for them. This is not a lot of use if you’re stuck and can’t continue and only have a specific time you can study.
Keep your eyes open for training programs that incorporate three or four individual support centres around the globe in several time-zones. All of them should be combined to offer a simple interface as well as round-the-clock access, when it’s convenient for you, with no fuss.
Never make do with a lower level of service. 24×7 support is the only way to go with IT study. It’s possible you don’t intend to study late evenings; usually though, we’re at work while the support is live.
One fatal mistake that potential students often succumb to is to look for the actual course to take, and not focus on the desired end-result. Universities are brimming over with direction-less students who chose a course based on what sounded good – instead of what would yield their end-goal of a job they enjoyed.
It’s a sad testimony to the sales skills of many companies, but a large percentage of students kick-off study that often sounds spectacular in the syllabus guide, but which provides the end-result of a job that doesn’t fulfil at all. Try talking to typical college graduates for examples.
It’s well worth a long chat to see the exact expectations industry will have. What precise certifications they will want you to have and in what way you can gain some industry experience. Spend some time considering how far you reckon you’re going to want to go as it will often control your selection of accreditations.
All students are advised to talk with an experienced industry advisor before they embark on a training course. This is required to ensure it contains the commercially required skills for the chosen career.
Qualifications from the commercial sector are now, very visibly, starting to replace the older academic routes into IT – but why is this the case?
As demand increases for knowledge about more and more complex technology, industry has been required to move to specialist courses that the vendors themselves supply – in other words companies like CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA. Often this saves time and money for the student.
Vendor training works through focusing on the skills that are really needed (along with an appropriate level of associated knowledge,) instead of trawling through all the background ‘extras’ that degree courses are prone to get tied up in – to pad out the syllabus.
Think about if you were the employer – and you needed to take on someone with a very particular skill-set. Which is the most straightforward: Go through a mass of different academic qualifications from various applicants, trying to establish what they know and what workplace skills they’ve mastered, or choose a specific set of accreditations that exactly fulfil your criteria, and draw up from that who you want to speak to. The interview is then more about the person and how they’ll fit in – rather than establishing whether they can do a specific task.
(C) Jason Kendall. Navigate to LearningLolly.com for superb ideas on Adobe Dreamweaver Courses and Dreamweaver Courses.
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