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.
Since the computing market provides such an array of superb career development possibilities for everyone - then which questions should we be raising and what aspects are most important?
Beware of putting too much emphasis, as many people do, on the accreditation program. Training for training’s sake is generally pointless; this is about employment. Stay focused on what it is you want to achieve. You may train for one year and then end up doing the actual job for 10-20 years. Ensure you avoid the fatal error of finding what seems like an ‘interesting’ training program and then spend decades in something you don’t even enjoy!
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.
People attracted to this sort of work often have a very practical outlook on work, and aren’t really suited to the classroom environment, and slogging through piles of books. If this could be you, try the newer style of interactive study, where you can learn everything on-screen. Long-term memory is enhanced with an involvement of all our senses - educational experts have expounded on this for decades now.
Fully interactive motion videos with demonstrations and practice sessions will turn you off book-based study for ever more. And you’ll actually enjoy doing them. It’s imperative to see examples of the study materials provided by your chosen company. Be sure that they contain video, demonstrations and various interactive elements.
Some companies only have access to purely on-line training; sometimes you can get away with this - but, consider how you’ll deal with it when you don’t have access to the internet or you only get very a very slow connection sometimes. It’s much safer to rely on actual CD or DVD ROMs that don’t suffer from these broadband issues.
Of all the important things to consider, one of the most essential is always proper direct-access 24×7 support with expert mentors and instructors. Too many companies will only offer a basic 9am till 6pm support period (maybe later on certain days) with very little availability over the weekend. Never accept study programmes that only provide support to students via an out-sourced call-centre message system outside of normal office hours. Trainers will defend this with all kinds of excuses. The bottom line is - you want support at the appropriate time - not as-and-when it’s suitable for their staff.
Top training providers tend to use an internet-based 24 hours-a-day package combining multiple support operations across the globe. You will be provided with a single, easy-to-use interface which seamlessly accesses whichever office is appropriate irrespective of the time of day: Support on demand. Search out a training provider that goes the extra mile. Only true live 24×7 round-the-clock support delivers what is required.
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.
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.
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.
Don’t you think it’s more sensible to hold on to your money and pay for the exam when you’re ready, rather than coughing up months or even a year or two in advance to the college, and to do it in a local testing office - rather than in some remote centre? Why tie up your cash (or borrow more than you need) for exams when there’s absolutely nothing that says you have to? A great deal of money is netted by organisations charging upfront for all their exams - and banking on the fact that many won’t be taken. In addition to this, many exam guarantees are worthless. The majority of organisations won’t be prepared to pay for re-takes until you’re able to demonstrate an excellent mock pass rate.
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.
CV and Interview advice and support is sometimes offered (if it isn’t, consult one of our sites). Be sure to you bring your CV right up to date immediately - don’t leave it till you pass the exams! It’s not unusual to find that you will get your first job whilst you’re still studying (even when you’ve just left first base). If you haven’t updated your CV to say what you’re studying (and it isn’t in the hands of someone with jobs to offer) then you’re not even going to be known about! If you’d like to keep travelling time and costs to a minimum, then you’ll often find that a local IT focused recruitment consultancy may be more appropriate than a centralised service, for 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.