by Jason Kendall
If you’ve aspirations to be a professional web designer with the right credentials for the job market today, you’ll need to study Adobe Dreamweaver. In order to take advantage of Dreamweaver professionally in web design, a full understanding of the complete Adobe Web Creative Suite (which incorporates Flash and Action Script) is without doubt a bonus. With this knowledge, you can go onto become either an Adobe Certified Expert or Adobe Certified Professional (ACE or ACP).
Knowing how to make a website is only the beginning. Traffic creation, maintaining content and programming database-driven sites should come next. Consider training programmes with bolt-ons to teach these subjects for example HTML, PHP and database engines like MySQL, alongside SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and E-Commerce skills.
Many people don’t catch on to what IT is doing for all of us. It is thrilling, changing, and puts you at the fore-front of developments in technology that will affect us all over the next generation. We’re only just starting to get a handle on what this change will mean to us. How we interrelate with the rest of the world will be profoundly affected by technology and the internet.
And don’t forget that the average salary in the IT market across the UK is a lot better than the national average salary, therefore you will probably gain considerably more as a trained IT professional, than you could reasonably hope to achieve elsewhere. It would appear there’s no end in sight for IT sector expansion in the United Kingdom. The market sector is continuing to expand enormously, and with the skills shortage of over 26 percent that we’re experiencing, it’s not likely that there’ll be any kind of easing off for the significant future.
Listening to all this talk covering computing technology right now, how are we supposed to appreciate what in particular to look for?
You should remember: the actual training program or a qualification isn’t what this is about; a job that you’re getting the training for is. Many trainers unfortunately completely prioritise the qualification itself. It’s not unheard of, in many cases, to get a great deal of enjoyment from a year of study only to end up putting 20 long years into a tiresome job role, simply because you did it without some decent due-diligence when it was needed – at the start.
You must also consider how you feel about earning potential, career development, and whether you intend to be quite ambitious. It makes sense to understand what will be expected of you, which particular certifications will be required and how to develop your experience. Sense dictates that you take guidance from a skilled professional before embarking on a particular study path, so you can be sure that a program provides the skills for the job being sought.
People attracted to this sort of work are often very practical, and aren’t really suited to the classroom environment, and endless reading of dry academic textbooks. If this is putting you off studying, use multimedia, interactive learning, where learning is video-based. Where possible, if we can utilise all of our senses into our learning, then the results are usually dramatically better.
Top of the range study programs now offer interactive discs. By watching and listening to instructors on video tutorials you’ll take everything in by way of their teaching and demonstrations. Then you test your knowledge by interacting with the software and practicing yourself. Any company that you’re considering should willingly take you through some samples of the materials provided for study. You’re looking for evidence of tutorial videos and demonstrations and many interactive sections.
Some companies only have access to online training only; sometimes you can get away with this – but, think what will happen when you don’t have access to the internet or you get slow speeds and down-time etc. It’s much safer to rely on actual CD or DVD ROMs which removes the issue entirely.
Many training companies will only offer basic 9am till 6pm support (maybe a little earlier or later on certain days); very few go late in the evening or at weekends. Always avoid training that only supports you through a call-centre messaging system when it’s outside of usual working hours. Colleges will defend this with all kinds of excuses. The simple fact of the matter is – you need support when you need support – not as-and-when it’s suitable for their staff.
Top training providers opt for an online access round-the-clock package involving many support centres over many time-zones. You get an environment that seamlessly accesses whichever office is appropriate irrespective of the time of day: Support when it’s needed. Always pick a company that offers this level of study support. As only true live 24×7 round-the-clock support delivers what is required.
Many people question why academic qualifications are now falling behind more commercial certificates? As we require increasingly more effective technological know-how, industry has of necessity moved to specific, honed-in training that the vendors themselves supply – in other words companies such as Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe. This frequently provides reductions in both cost and time. University courses, for instance, become confusing because of a lot of background study – and much too wide a syllabus. This holds a student back from getting enough specific knowledge about the core essentials.
As long as an employer understands what areas need to be serviced, then they simply need to advertise for a person with the appropriate exam numbers. Vendor-based syllabuses are all based on the same criteria and don’t change between schools (as academic syllabuses often do).
Think about the following facts carefully if you’ve been persuaded that that old marketing ploy of a guarantee for your exam looks like a reason to buy:
Clearly it’s not free – you’re still being charged for it – it’s just been wrapped up in the price of the package. For those who want to pass in one, then you should pay for each exam as you go, focus on it intently and give the task sufficient application.
Do your exams somewhere close to home and hold on to your money and pay for the exam when you take it. A lot of extra profit is netted by a number of companies who take the exam money up-front. A number of students don’t take them for various reasons but the company keeps the money. Believe it or not, there are providers who actually rely on students not sitting all the exams – as that’s very profitable for them. Remember, in the majority of cases of ‘exam guarantees’ – the company controls how often and when you are allowed to do a re-take. They’ll only allow a re-take once completely satisfied.
Exams taken at local centres are currently clocking in at an average of 112 pounds in Britain at the time of writing. Why spend so much more on ‘Exam Guarantee’ costs (usually wrapped up in the course package price) – when a quality course, support and exam preparation systems and a dose of commitment and effort are what’s required.
Getting into your first IT role can feel more straightforward if you’re offered a Job Placement Assistance program. With the massive need for more IT skills in Great Britain even when times are hard, there isn’t a great need to place too much emphasis on this feature however. It isn’t so complicated as you might think to get employment as long as you’ve got the necessary skills and qualifications.
One important thing though, avoid waiting until you have qualified before getting your CV updated. As soon as your training commences, mark down what you’re doing and get it out there! Having the possibility of an interview is more than not being regarded at all. A decent number of junior support roles are given to students (sometimes when they’ve only just got going.) In many cases, an independent and specialised local recruitment consultancy – who make their money when they’ve found you a job – will perform better than any division of a training company. It also stands to reason that they’ll know the local area and commercial needs.
Do make sure you don’t conscientiously work through your course materials, and then just stop and leave it up to everyone else to land you a job. Stand up for yourself and get out there. Invest as much resource into getting a good job as you did to get trained.
