CIW certification (Advent).. Other courses for me?

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Hello all, my first post but been reading posts for quite a while now. Thought I would sign up as I need some advice.

I have an advisor from Advent IT training coming round tomorrow to discuss a few course options. However, I have a feeling they will be way out of my budget.

I'm pretty sure the CIW Cert. sounds right for me, but I'd love some opinions from people.

I've been designing websites since the age of 13, now 20. However, never really stopped to look at the code or take so much of that side in. At first designed using MS Word then FrontPage and then later moved onto Dreamweaver which isn't too bad as it lets me see code while I work.

I have what I think in my mind, is not too bad a portfolio. Total of around 9 HTML websites. 1 PHP (cms) site which was coded by someone else, but designed by me. 3 of the websites were made in the last year. Haven't really been focusing on getting any work recently, it has just spread through word of mouth and I didn't want to give up the offer to make a bit of cash! Also in the past have made graphics such as logos, business cards, leaflets, designed invoices etc

After reading a few posts on this site, have read alot of people are self studying. With the CIW course, would it be a case of buying the books/materials.. and then taking the test when I feel im ready?

Thankyou in advance for good advice

 

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Hi and welcome to CF!

If you are getting work based on your portfolio and word-of-mouth why do you need to splash out a lot of money on certs? You are young enough to not have forgotten how to study, so why not do it with self-study - which is what you have been doing so far.

The objectives of CIW will give you a framework for that study so you know what areas you haven't covered so far. Your penultimate para is spot on. Buy some books and take the exams when you think you are ready.

Harry.

 

I have to agree with hbroomhall... if you are already doing the work, and have most likely done a lot of self-learning to learn the code as you have, then I would think that doing self-study would be fine. You'd save yourself a lot of money for one.

Good luck either way you choose to go!

 

Thanks for the help so far.

Is this the kit that I'd be after?

http://www.ciwcertified.com/product-description/course-description.asp?itemID=14720

 

I don't think you can buy that (at that price) in the UK. Others will be able to fill in the details, but this is a common complaint.

I'd suggest looking for ordinary books rather than a complete course set.

Harry.

 

If you want to go the self-study route in the UK using CIW official materials, then this is the source for materials. However, in your position, why bother with the certification at all? If you're already getting work based on your portfolio, what do you think the cert will add? Think carefully about this before parting with your money, and I speak as someone who is doing the CIW Web Design Manager course already. In my situation it seemed to make sense at the time, but it was all moving too slowly for me, and I have built up my skill set and portfolio independantly at the same time as doing the cert. CIW will give you a good overview of web related stuff, and possibly highlight the areas you don't know about, but it won't teach you to design webpages. I don't regret signing up for it. It gave me a certain amount of confidence and motivation to learn, but if I had been as far along in the web design biz as you seem to be, I wouldn't have bothered. Good luck, whatever you decide.

 

The certification will pale in comparison to a well-crafted portfolio of designed sites. An employer's not gonna care how many letters are after you rname... they're gonna care whether you can actually do the job or not.

Welcome to the forums!

 

hi there is it my 1st post since joining the certforums, im in the same boat as masterplan
although i dont have a work history such as publishing several sites i took an NVQ course
in web design when i was 16 which give me good HTML skills but little in CSS and Java.
since then ive been playing with dreamweaver and working. i checked out some courses
for the CIW web devloper cert and found them to be quite pricy + some comments i heard
about poor service i've decided to self-study and take the exam when im ready.

 

He'll be more of a salesman than an advisor, so take what he says with a pinch of salt and don't be obliged in to signing anything.