If you fancy a career in web design, you will need to study Adobe Dreamweaver. In order to use Dreamweaver professionally as a web designer, a full understanding of the full Adobe Web Creative Suite (which includes Flash and Action Script) is in our opinion essential. Having such skills means, you have the choice to become either an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) or Adobe Certified Professional (ACP).

Having knowledge of how to design a website is just the start. Driving traffic, maintaining content and some programming skills are the next things. Think about training programmes that also contain modules to include these skills for example HTML, PHP and database engines like MySQL, in addition to E-Commerce and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

Now, why should we consider qualifications from the commercial sector instead of traditional academic qualifications gained through schools and Further Education colleges? As demand increases for knowledge about more and more complex technology, industry has moved to specialist courses that the vendors themselves supply - that is companies such as Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA. Frequently this is at a far reduced cost both money and time wise. Clearly, a certain quantity of relevant additional knowledge must be covered, but essential specialisation in the areas needed gives a vendor trained person a huge edge.

Put yourself in the employer's position - and you needed to take on someone with a very particular skill-set. What's the simplest way to find the right person: Wade your way through a mass of different academic qualifications from several applicants, trying to establish what they know and what vocational skills they've mastered, or pick out specific commercial accreditations that exactly fulfil your criteria, and make your short-list from that. You'll then be able to concentrate on getting a feel for the person at interview - rather than establishing whether they can do a specific task.

Looking at the myriad of choice out there, is it any wonder that most potential trainees have no idea which career they could be successful with. How can we possibly grasp the day-to-day realities of any IT job when we've never done it? We normally haven't met someone who works in that sector anyway. Generally, the way to deal with this problem properly lies in a full talk over a variety of topics:

* Your personality can play a major role - what kind of areas spark your interest, and what are the areas that really turn you off.

* Is it your desire to accomplish a closely held objective - like working for yourself in the near future?

* How important is salary to you - is an increase your main motivator, or is day-to-day enjoyment a little higher on the priority-scale?

* Some students don't fully understand the amount of work required to attain their desired level.

* It makes sense to understand the differences across each individual training area.

The bottom line is, your only chance of covering these is from a meeting with an advisor or professional who knows the industry well enough to provide solid advice.

Remember: a training program or an accreditation is not the ultimate goal; the job or career you're training for is. Far too many training organisations completely prioritise the course or the qualification. You may train for one year and then end up doing the job for 20 years. Ensure you avoid the fatal error of taking what may be an 'interesting' course only to spend 20 years doing an unrewarding career!

Make sure you investigate your feelings on earning potential, career development, and how ambitious you are. You need to know what will be expected of you, which certifications they want you to have and how to develop your experience. It's good advice for all students to talk with an experienced industry advisor before following a particular study path. This helps to ensure it contains the commercially required skills for the chosen career.

Traditional teaching in classrooms, with books and manuals, is usually pretty hard going. If all this is ringing some familiar bells, dig around for more practical courses that are multimedia based. Learning psychology studies show that long term memory is improved when we use all our senses, and we get practically involved in what we're studying.

Interactive full motion video involving demonstration and virtual lab's will beat books every time. And they're a lot more fun to do. It's wise to view a small selection of training examples before you sign on the dotted line. The minimum you should expect would be instructor demonstrations, video tutorials and a variety of audio-visual and interactive sections.

It's usually bad advice to choose training that is only available online. With highly variable reliability and quality from your average broadband company, you should always obtain CD or DVD ROM based materials.

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