To become a proficient web designer with the right credentials for the current working environment, your must-have certification is Adobe Dreamweaver. We also advise that you become fully conversant with the entire Adobe Web Creative Suite, including Flash and Action Script, in order to facilitate Dreamweaver professionally as a web designer. This knowledge can take you on to becoming an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) or Adobe Certified Professional (ACP).

To become a proficient web designer with the right credentials for the current working environment, your must-have certification is Adobe Dreamweaver. We also advise that you become fully conversant with the entire Adobe Web Creative Suite, including Flash and Action Script, in order to facilitate Dreamweaver professionally as a web designer. This knowledge can take you on to becoming an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) or Adobe Certified Professional (ACP).

To establish yourself as a full web professional however, there is much more to consider. You'll need to study various programming essentials like HTML, PHP and database engines like MySQL. A good understanding of E-Commerce and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will also improve your CV and employability.

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.

Many training companies will provide a useful Job Placement Assistance facility, to help you get your first job. Don't get overly impressed with this service - it's easy for companies marketing departments to overplay it. At the end of the day, the still growing need for IT personnel in the United Kingdom is what will make you attractive to employers.

Having said that, it's important to have help with your CV and interview techniques though; also we would encourage any student to work on polishing up their CV as soon as they start a course - don't procrastinate and leave it for when you're ready to start work. It's possible that you won't have even got to the exam time when you will be offered your first junior support role; but this can't and won't happen if interviewers don't get sight of your CV. Generally, you'll receive better results from a specialised and independent local recruitment service than any training company's national service, because they will understand the local industry and employment needs.

Just make sure you don't invest a great deal of time on your training course, and then do nothing more and leave it in the hands of the gods to sort out your employment. Stop procrastinating and get out there. Invest as much time and energy into securing your new role as you did to gain the skills.

Any program that you're going to undertake has to build towards a fully recognised major accreditation at the end - definitely not some 'in-house' diploma - fit only for filing away and forgetting. All the major IT organisations like Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe each have nationally recognised proficiency programs. Major-league companies like these will make sure you're employable.

When did you last consider your job security? Typically, this issue only becomes a talking point when we get some bad news. However, The cold truth is that true job security is a thing of the past, for most of us. When we come across increasing skills shortages coupled with increasing demand of course, we generally locate a fresh type of market-security; driven forward by the conditions of constant growth, organisations are struggling to hire enough staff.

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.

Sometimes people assume that the tech college or university track is still the best way into IT. So why then are commercial certificates slowly and steadily replacing it? The IT sector is now aware that to cover the necessary commercial skill-sets, the right accreditation from companies such as Microsoft, CISCO, Adobe and CompTIA most often has much more specialised relevance - at a far reduced cost both money and time wise. They do this by concentrating on the skill-sets required (together with a relevant amount of background knowledge,) instead of going into the heightened depths of background 'padding' that degree courses often do (because the syllabus is so wide).

In simple terms: Commercial IT certifications let employers know exactly what you're capable of - it says what you do in the title: as an example - I am a 'Microsoft Certified Professional' in 'Planning and Maintaining a Windows 2003 Infrastructure'. Consequently an employer can identify just what their needs are and what certifications will be suitable to deal with those needs.