Should you have aspirations for a career in web design, find a course in Adobe Dreamweaver. The full Adobe Web Creative Suite ought also to be understood in detail. This will educate you in Action Script and Flash, amongst others, and means you’ll be in a position to take your Adobe Certified Expert or Adobe Certified Professional (ACE or ACP) certification.
Understanding how to design a website just gets you started. Traffic creation, maintaining content and some programming skills are also required. Look for training with bolt-ons to cover these skills maybe PHP, HTML, and MySQL, in addition to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and E-Commerce skills.
Huge changes are coming via technology in the near future - and it becomes more and more thrilling each day. We’re barely beginning to understand how this will truly impact our way of life. How we interrelate with the rest of the world will be massively affected by computers and the web.
Should receiving a good salary be around the top on your wish list, you will be pleasantly surprised to hear that the income on average for IT employees in general is considerably higher than salaries in much of the rest of industry. Excitingly, there is a lot more room for IT sector development throughout this country. The industry continues to develop hugely, and we don’t have anywhere near enough qualified skilled IT professionals to fill current job vacancies, so it’s highly unlikely that things will be any different for decades to come.
How can we make an educated choice then? With all these possibilities, it’s essential to be guided as to where to dig - and of course, what to actually be digging for.
You should remember: the training course or the accreditation is not the ultimate goal; the career that you want is. Too many training companies over-emphasise the certificate itself. Students often train for a single year but end up doing a job for a lifetime. Ensure you avoid the fatal error of finding what seems like a very ‘interesting’ program and then spend decades in a job you don’t like!
Stay focused on where you want to get to, and formulate your training based on that - don’t do it the other way round. Stay on target - making sure you’re training for a job that will keep you happy for many years. Seek guidance and advice from a skilled professional, even if you have to pay - it’s considerably cheaper and safer to investigate at the start whether something is going to suit and interest you, rather than realise following two years of study that the job you’ve chosen is not for you and have wasted years of effort.
The classroom style of learning we remember from school, utilising reference manuals and books, is an up-hill struggle for the majority of us. If all this is ringing some familiar bells, look for learning programmes that are multimedia based. We see a huge improvement in memory retention when we use multiple senses - learning experts have been saying this for years now.
Programs are now found in disc format, where your computer becomes the centre of your learning. Utilising the latest video technology, you can sit back and watch the teachers showing you precisely how to perform the required skill, and then have a go at it yourself - in an interactive lab. It’s very important to see some example materials from your chosen company. Be sure that they contain full motion videos of instructors demonstrating the topic with lab’s to practice the skills in.
Purely on-line training should be avoided. Ideally, you should opt for CD and DVD ROM courseware where offered, so that you have access at all times - it’s not wise to be held hostage to a quality and continuous internet connection.
If you forget everything else - then just remember this: You absolutely must have proper 24×7 instructor support. Later, you’ll kick yourself if you don’t follow this rule rigidly. Be wary of any training providers which use call-centres ‘out-of-hours’ - where you’ll get called back during standard office hours. This is useless when you’re stuck and need an answer now.
The very best training providers incorporate three or four individual support centres across multiple time-zones. They use an online interactive interface to join them all seamlessly, irrespective of the time you login, help is just a click away, with no hassle or contact issues. Never make do with a lower level of service. Direct-access 24×7 support is really your only option with IT courses. Maybe late-evening study is not your thing; but for the majority of us however, we’re at work while the support is live.
Commercial qualifications are now, without a doubt, taking over from the traditional routes into IT - but why has this come about? With 3 and 4 year academic degree costs increasing year on year, and the industry’s increasing awareness that key company training often has more relevance in the commercial field, we’ve seen a great increase in CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA authorised training paths that educate students at a fraction of the cost and time involved. Vendor training works by concentrating on the skill-sets required (along with a relevant amount of associated knowledge,) instead of trawling through all the background ‘padding’ that computer Science Degrees can get bogged down in - to pad out the syllabus.
Put yourself in the employer’s position - and you wanted someone who could provide a specific set of skills. What’s the simplest way to find the right person: Go through loads of academic qualifications from several applicants, trying to establish what they know and what trade skills they’ve mastered, or pick out specific commercial accreditations that precisely match your needs, and then select who you want to interview from that. The interview is then more about the person and how they’ll fit in - rather than on the depth of their technical knowledge.
It’s not uncommon for companies to offer inclusive exam guarantees - this always means exams have to be paid for upfront, at the very beginning of your studies. However, prior to embracing the chance of a guarantee, think about this:
In this day and age, we tend to be a little more ‘marketing-savvy’ - and most of us realise that of course we’re actually paying for it - they’re not just being charitable and doling out freebies! Those who go in for their examinations when it’s appropriate, paying for them just before taking them are much more likely to pass. They’re mindful of what they’ve paid and so are more inclined to ensure they are ready.
Hold on to your money and pay for the exam when you’re ready, and hang on to your cash. You also get more choice of where you take your exam - so you can find somewhere local. Paying in advance for examinations (which also includes interest if you’ve taken out a loan) is insane. Don’t line companies bank accounts with extra money of yours simply to help their cash-flow! Some will be pinning their hopes on the fact that you don’t even take them all - but they won’t refund the cash. Re-takes of any failed exams through organisations with an ‘Exam Guarantee’ are tightly controlled. They will insist that you take pre-tests first to make sure they think you’re going to pass.
With average prices for VUE and Pro-metric tests in the United Kingdom costing around 112 pounds, it makes sense to pay as you go. Not to fork out thousands extra in up-front costs. A commitment to studying and the use of authorised exam preparation tools are actually the key to your success.
One feature that many training companies provide is a programme of Job Placement assistance. The service is put in place to steer you into your first IT role. The need for this feature can be bigged up out of proportion though - it isn’t unusual for training companies to overplay it. The fact of the matter is, the massive skills shortage in Britain is what will enable you to get a job.
Get your CV updated straight-away though (advice can be sought on this via your provider). Don’t wait until you’ve qualified. Quite often, you’ll secure your initial job while still studying (sometimes when you’ve only just got going). If your CV doesn’t show your latest training profile (and it isn’t in the hands of someone with jobs to offer) then you won’t even be considered! Actually, a local IT focused employment agency (who will, of course, be keen to place you to receive their commission) is going to give you a better service than a recruitment division from a training organisation. Also of course they should know the local industry and employment needs.
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.
