If you’re considering being a web designer, find a course in Adobe Dreamweaver. To facilitate Dreamweaver commercially in web design, an in-depth understanding of the whole Adobe Web Creative Suite (which includes Flash and Action Script) is without doubt a bonus. Having this knowledge will mean, you might lead on to becoming an ACP (Adobe Certified Professional) or an ACE (Adobe Certified Expert).

Having knowledge of how to construct a website is simply the first base. Driving traffic, maintaining content and knowledge of some programming essentials should come next. Consider training programmes with additional features that include these skills maybe PHP, HTML, and MySQL, in addition to E-Commerce and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) skills.

Don’t put too much store, as can often be the case, on the certification itself. Training is not an end in itself; you should be geared towards the actual job at the end of it. Stay focused on what it is you want to achieve. Students often train for a single year but end up doing the job for 20 years. Don’t make the error of choosing what sounds like a program of interest to you only to spend 20 years doing a job you don’t like!

Take time to understand how you feel about career development, earning potential, and whether you intend to be quite ambitious. It makes sense to understand what (if any) sacrifices you’ll need to make for a particular role, what particular accreditations they want you to have and where you’ll pick-up experience from. Prior to embarking on a particular training course, trainees are advised to talk through specific market needs with an experienced advisor, so as to be sure the training program covers all the bases.

Searching for your first position in IT can feel more straightforward if you’re supported with a Job Placement Assistance service. At the end of the day it’s not as hard as some people make out to find employment – as long as you’ve got the necessary skills and qualifications; the growing UK skills shortage sees to that.

CV and Interview advice and support may be available (alternatively, check out one of our sites for help). Make sure you bring your CV right up to date straight away – not after you’ve qualified! It’s not uncommon to find that junior support roles have been bagged by students who are in the process of training and haven’t even passed a single exam yet. This will at the very least get your CV into the ‚possible‘ pile and not the ’no‘ pile. The top companies to help you find a job are generally specialist locally based employment services. As they’re keen to place you to receive their commission, they’re perhaps more focused on results.

In a nutshell, if you put as much hard work into securing a position as into training, you won’t have any problems. A number of students bizarrely invest a great deal of time on their training course and then call a halt once certified and seem to expect employers to find them.

Only consider study programmes that’ll move onto industry recognised accreditations. There’s an endless list of small companies pushing minor ‚in-house‘ certificates which will prove unusable in the real world. Only nationally recognised examinations from the major players like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe and CompTIA will open the doors to employers.

How can job security really exist anymore? Here in the UK, where business constantly changes its mind on a day-to-day basis, it seems increasingly unlikely. Security can now only exist through a rapidly increasing market, fuelled by a lack of trained workers. These circumstances create the right setting for market-security – a more attractive situation all round.

The IT skills-gap across Great Britain falls in at just over twenty six percent, as reported by the 2006 e-Skills investigation. Showing that for every four jobs that are available throughout computing, we’ve only got three properly trained pro’s to perform that task. This fundamental reality reveals the urgent need for more properly trained computing professionals throughout the country. As the Information Technology market is developing at such a quick pace, there really isn’t any other area of industry worth taking into account for your new career.

Commercial qualifications are now, without a doubt, taking over from the traditional routes into the industry – but why is this the case? With a growing demand for specific technological expertise, industry has of necessity moved to specific, honed-in training that can only be obtained from the actual vendors – in other words companies like Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA. This frequently provides reductions in both cost and time. Many degrees, as a example, can often get caught up in a great deal of background study – with a syllabus that’s far too wide. Students are then prevented from getting enough specific knowledge about the core essentials.

Just as the old advertisement said: ‚It does what it says on the label‘. All an employer has to do is know what they need doing, and then match up the appropriate exam numbers as a requirement. They’ll know then that all applicants can do what they need.

(C) Jason Kendall. Go to LearningLolly.com for in-depth advice on Web Design Training Courses and Dreamweaver Training Courses.