Qualifications To Become A Web Designer

by discovery Fri Mar 18, 2011 12:04 am

Qualifications To
Become A Web Designer

To become a web designer in the UK you don't really need any formal
qualifications by law in order to set up on your own and start
designing websites for clients.

This is both a blessing and a curse to
professionals wishing to work in the web design industry. On one hand it
makes it very easy for professionally skilled individuals to join a
rewarding and potentially very lucrative industry. On the other hand the
industry is given a bad name, confused and cheapened by cowboy web
designers, who enter the industry without adequate qualifications,
skills and experience.This article outlines the qualification
that you will realistically need in order to embark on a career in web
design and obtain a role with a UK web design company.Qualifications
Needed:First of all, to become a web designer one of the
pre-requisite qualifications in the UK is to be higher educated. This
means a minimum of a Higher National diploma (HND) in a computer or
media related subject or better still, a degree from a red-brick
university. I personally hold a first class honours degree (BSc) in
computer science from the University of Sunderland, which I am certain
allowed to get me a foot in the door of one of the leading web design
companies in the Yorkshire area. Studying for such qualifications allows
you to develop an awareness of the industry and allows a lot of time
for self learning of software skills and web design techniques, which
are critical for a career as a web designer.Skills Needed:Some
(but not all) of the skills which you will need
in order to become a
web designer are:

HTML

CSS

Photoshop

SQL

ASP

PHP

Macromedia Development Packages

Flash

Of course
the skills that you need will vary depending on the area of web design
that you intend to persue. Graphically oriented web designers will need
strong graphic design skills such as adobe photoshop, fireworks and
flash. Web Designer that are more coding oriented will need a strong
command of the following skills: HTML, CSS, SQL and ASP or PHP. The
latter are usually referred to as web developers rather than web
designers.

Getting All Important Web Design Experience:The
time taken to achieve competence in web design technologies in my
opinion is 3 years this can be coupled with the time it takes to study
for a degree at a UK university. Of course formal qualifications are
only a small piece of the puzzle. It is the experience gained from your
first web design job that you will find most valuable.

From my own
experience, I learned more from my first 6 months working in the web
design industry than I did during my 3 years at university. There really
is no substitute for the experience of working with a professional web
design company and being able to ask experienced web designers for help
and advice.

Developing A Specialism:Over time it is
definately worth developing a web design specialism. For me it was the
development of search engine optimised website. It was that particular
area of web design that took my interest and the area in which I have
excelled as a website designer. Becoming a specialist in a particular
area will really raise your stock and will allow you to become and
expert in your own particular niche.

Stuart is a web
designer in Barnsley, Yorkshire, UK.Stuart specialises in
search engine friendly web
design in barnsley for businesses of all types.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stuart_Mortimer