Should you fancy being a web designer, then you need training in Adobe Dreamweaver.
The full Adobe Web Creative Suite should additionally be learned comprehensively. This will educate you in Action Script and Flash, (and more), and will prepare you for the Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) or Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) certification.
To develop into a professional web-designer however, there are other things to consider. You’ll need to study various programming essentials like PHP, HTML, and MySQL. A good understanding of E-Commerce and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) will also give you a distinct advantage in the marketplace.
Adding in the cost of examination fees with the course fee then giving it ‘Exam Guarantee’ status is a common method with many companies. But let’s examine why they really do it:
We all know that we’re still being charged for it – it’s quite obvious to see that it’s been inserted into the gross price invoiced by the course provider. It’s absolutely not free (although some people will believe anything the marketing companies think up these days!)
If it’s important to you to get a first time pass, then the most successful route is to avoid exam guarantees and pay when entering exams, prioritise it appropriately and apply yourself as required.
Isn’t it outrageous to have to pay a training company at the start of the course for exam fees? Go for the best offer when you’re ready, rather than coughing up months or even a year or two in advance – and sit exams more locally – rather than in some remote place.
Many questionable training companies net a great deal of profit by getting in the money for exams at the start of the course and hoping that you won’t take them all.
Additionally, exam guarantees often have very little value. The majority of organisations will not pay again for an exam until you can prove to them you’re ready to pass.
With average prices for VUE and Pro-metric exams costing in the region of 112 pounds in this country, it makes sense to pay as you go. There’s no sense in throwing away maybe a thousand pounds extra at the start of your studies. Commitment, effort and practice with quality exam preparation systems are the factors that really get you through.
Students often end up having issues because of one area of their training which doesn’t even occur to them: The way the training is divided into chunks and packaged off through the post.
The majority of training companies will set up a program spread over 1-3 years, and send out each piece as you get to the end of each exam. This sounds reasonable until you consider the following:
Maybe the order of study offered by the provider doesn’t suit. It may be difficult to get through all the elements at the speed required?
The very best situation would see you getting all the learning modules packed off to your home before you even start; the whole caboodle! This way, nothing can happen down the line which could affect your ability to finish.
Does job security really exist anymore? In the UK for example, where business constantly changes its mind on a day-to-day basis, we’d question whether it does.
Wherever we find increasing skills shortages coupled with areas of high demand however, we always find a newer brand of market-security; where, fuelled by the conditions of constant growth, companies just can’t get the staff required.
Recently, a UK e-Skills investigation brought to light that over 26 percent of IT jobs cannot be filled as an upshot of an appallingly low number of well-trained staff. This shows that for every 4 jobs existing around the computer industry, we have only 3 certified professionals to perform that task.
This one fact in itself is the backbone of why the United Kingdom urgently requires many more trainees to join the IT sector.
While the market is growing at such a quick pace, could there honestly be a better area of industry worth investigating as a retraining vehicle.
Be watchful that any certifications that you’re considering are commercially relevant and are the most recent versions. The ‘in-house’ certifications provided by many companies are not normally useful in gaining employment.
Unless your qualification is issued by a major player like Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe, then you may discover it will have been a waste of time – as it’ll be an unknown commodity.
(C) 2010 S. Edwards. Pop over to Microsoft Certification Courses or www.FindingANewCareer.co.uk/nfaneca.html.
