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Wesite Design Course -Cork? Maybe Dublin?

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  • 13-12-2009 2:04am
    #1
    Aoifebm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13 ✭


    Hi!
    Im really interested in becoming a web designer but im unsure of where to start. I have a Degree in Marketing so i know a bit about E-Business and design from a business point of view.
    What Im looking for is a course that will teach me everything about web design to the point where I can become employed as a web designer.
    The only courses I can find are short term or online. Does anybody know where I can find a course which is certified and for at least one year full time. Im living in Cork but am willing to go anywhere in Ireland.
    Any advice on this or general tips on how to get into this field of work would be appreciated.
    Thank you!
    Tagged:


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    #2
    Pixelcraft
    Registered Users Posts: 742 ✭✭✭Pixelcraft


    Hi Aoife, by all means do a course as an introduction, but I'm afraid it won't be sufficient for a job in the industry. You'll have to self study almost all of the relevant skills. Web design education is dire, outdated and useless for an actual position.


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    #3
    p
    Registered Users Posts: 2,119 ✭✭✭p


    Aoifebm wrote: »
    What Im looking for is a course that will teach me everything about web design to the point where I can become employed as a web designer.
    Such a course does not exist in Ireland, and to be honest, such a course doesn't really exist for any career. It will just help you a long the way.

    The closest course would be the BA in Interactive mediau up the north:
    http://prospectus.ulster.ac.uk/course/?id=6788

    Here's some previous posts on this subject.
    http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=63020394&postcount=10


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    #4
    cormee
    Registered Users Posts: 1,801 ✭✭✭cormee


    Aoifebm wrote: »
    Hi!
    Im really interested in becoming a web designer but im unsure of where to start. I have a Degree in Marketing so i know a bit about E-Business and design from a business point of view.
    What Im looking for is a course that will teach me everything about web design to the point where I can become employed as a web designer.
    The only courses I can find are short term or online. Does anybody know where I can find a course which is certified and for at least one year full time. Im living in Cork but am willing to go anywhere in Ireland.
    Any advice on this or general tips on how to get into this field of work would be appreciated.
    Thank you!

    99% of the time employers will be looking out for ability and experience, a qualification does help to a certain degree but not so much as what I mentioned above.

    If you're really interested in it get experience - if needs be work for free - and get a portfolio of sites under your belt. Try using cutting edge technologies, install free scripts on your sites, tinker around with them, edit their style sheets, learn server technologies, FTP, .htaccess etc. if you do have an aptitude/interest in it you'll enjoy it if not you'll get bored very quickly. As the others said there aren't many courses in the subject worth doing, most of the short courses aren't worth a damn, they simply print out a few tutorials and stand over you while you do them.


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    #5
    ScumLord
    Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    The problem is web standards and technology is moving and changing so fast by the time you'd have finished the year long course it would almost be on the way out. You just need to self educate, I've found the missing manual series of books to be fairly good for beginners. All you need is the fundamentals in web design after that it's all practise and trial and error.


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    #6
    Aoifebm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13 ✭Aoifebm


    Thanks so much for the advice. I see that Fas does a web design course and also work placement programmes but dunno if they're worthwhile. I have seen a few courses on multimedia etc. but I really dont want to go back to college for anything more that a year. Just wondering if i should scrap the idea cause i wouldnt be up there with those media grads who know everything about computers and software etc.


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    #7
    Dave!
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    Aoifebm wrote: »
    Thanks so much for the advice. I see that Fas does a web design course and also work placement programmes but dunno if they're worthwhile. I have seen a few courses on multimedia etc. but I really dont want to go back to college for anything more that a year. Just wondering if i should scrap the idea cause i wouldnt be up there with those media grads who know everything about computers and software etc.
    Don't bother with the FÁS course, it looks really basic and pointless

    Start with tutorials on the internet

    Learn XHTML and CSS for starters.

    http://www.w3schools.com/html/
    http://www.w3schools.com/css/

    Just work on those and practise and build a few basic websites until you're proficient. Then move onto the next subject :)

    I wouldn't go scrapping the idea just cos there's gonna be people better than you out there. It'll take you several years of dedication to get good at it, and longer still to get REALLY good, but it's quite rewarding in the end.

    I'm assuming you have other skills/qualifications too? Keep at it with whatever job you have at the moment, and set aside time regularly to work on the website stuff.


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    #8
    Buttercake
    Registered Users Posts: 539 ✭✭✭Buttercake


    The FAS courses are a laugh and waste of time, they date from 2004 like the rest of the country when it comes to Website design education or training

    Hypermedia in Dublin do some ok courses, but its like the lads say, you need to practice and learn, it will take a long time to become proficient and remember EVERY element of putting together a website correctly

    Start learning html, ftping, hosting, domains, email all the basics, there are loads of free resources out there

    i remember using angelfire back in the day :)


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    #9
    Axwell
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 10,461 Mod ✭✭✭✭Axwell


    The best thing to do as some of the others have said is to learn yourself and try pick up as much as you can if you really want to get into web design. The courses out there are very basic and in most cases dated so you wouldnt be able to do one that would fast track you after a year into a job.

    Start off by messing around on your own and give yourself a project to do and see how you get on maybe making a website on a hobby of yours or something similar.

    Have a looks at www.w3schools.com and www.lynda.com for some online tutorials.
    You can use something like notepad++ or one of the other open source editors for working with code.
    Get coreftp or filezilla for an ftp program.
    Check out wordpress which is a blogging platform but can be used as a great CMS also.

    You can buy a domain and hosting so you can mess with something thats live and see how you get on or download something like LAMP which will let you run the same setup on your own machine.

    Basically give it a go on your own and see how you get on, if you feel its for you then there is so much out there to learn and you will always be finding new stuff. Plenty of tutorials online and some good books.

    P usually has a list of good books that you could look at so he might throw some of them up as suggestions.


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