Commercially accredited qualifications are now, undoubtedly, taking over from the traditional academic paths into IT - so why has this come about? With fees and living expenses for university students spiralling out of control, and the industry's growing opinion that corporate based study most often has much more commercial relevance, we have seen a big surge in CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA certified training programmes that provide key skills to an employee at a much reduced cost in terms of money and time. In a nutshell, only that which is required is learned. It's not quite as straightforward as that, but the most important function is always to concentrate on the fundamentally important skill-sets (alongside some required background) - without attempting to cover a bit about every other area - in the way that academic establishments often do.

It's a bit like the TV advert: 'It does what it says on the label'. Companies need only to know what they need doing, and then match up the appropriate exam numbers as a requirement. Then they know that anyone who applies can do the necessary work.

The most important tools employed by web designers are their design environments, with Adobe Creative Suite (currently in version 4 as of '09/10) being the most commercially popular. 'Dreamweaver' is the software program that builds websites, with Flash delivering usage of animated & interactive 'graphical' content material. You might claim that 'Dreamweaver' is the Word-Processor of the Adobe Creative Suite series. Within particular rules & parameters, it lets you display text & graphics, and then through a process known as page linking you can generate basic inter-activity within the web-site. Just like other web design environments, 'Dreamweaver' creates the program-code HTML in the background ('HTML' stands for Hyper Text Markup Language). It's the language of web-browsers, & is a 'script' which essentially draws and controls the web-page you are viewing. Lay-out 'tag' languages like XML and CSS are paired with HTML. Because they are standardised, these can work on multiple-platforms to enable more stream-lined 'HTML' code and more efficient layout techniques. The idea is that the page will appear exactly the same on any browser, whether it is Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, 'Safari', 'Opera' or anything else. Subsequently the graphic-blocks you're laying & the text you're adding is being turned into 'code' behind the scenes by Dreamweaver. A thorough knowledge of these languages is essential if you're going to be a commercially-viable web designer.

It's essential to have the current Microsoft (or Cisco, CompTIA etc.) accredited exam simulation and preparation packages. Be sure that the practice exams haven't just got questions in the right areas, but also asking them in the exact format that the real exams will ask them. It completely unsettles students if the phraseology and format is completely different. Be sure to request some practice exams in order to test your comprehension at any point. Practice exams will help to boost your attitude - so you won't be quite so nervous at the actual exam.

Its vital to realise that even the best web design courses can only provide you with the techniques & processes - none of them will be able to convert you in to a bona-fide web designer. Put together as many web sites as possible as you work through your studies - the exercise will be invaluable & you'll have a portfolio to show what you can do. Your own sites should be about anything - the local music scene, horses, a writer you admire or even motor bikes. Build an inter-active website, and begin building 'traffic' towards it. Adobe qualifications are of help, but showing how you can use what you've learned says much more about you as a web-designer!