Preparing Students for Careers in Web Design and Web Programming

What are the three most important things you can provide for your students so that they are better prepared for the marketplace?

Teach Them Modern Skills

Web design today is much less about Dreamweaver and Photoshop and more about code and programming. Forget about Flash!!

Steve jobs pretty much killed Flash!

Coding Kids To Success

Yes, web designers today must know code (HTML, CSS) and they must know at least some basic programming- the two most popular languages being JavaScript and PHP.

Many of the modern web design packages and libraries that web designers must know today (Bootstrap, jQuery, WordPress etc) require an understanding of code to be used effectively.

The days where you only need to know Dreamweaver & Photoshop to get a good job are quickly leaving us… if they haven’t gone already!

The demand, going forward, is for coders and people who have a better structural knowledge of web sites.

Strong Portfolios

80% of jobs are created by small businesses… and web design and programming is no exception.

If your students are going to get a job in the field at some point, it will likely be with a small firm. I can tell you from experience, that small companies looking to hire (full time or contractors) rarely look for diplomas.

Instead, they want a proven track record from potential hires, and so it’s important that students start building up a portfolio of projects that they can demonstrate.

The other advantage of project-based learning is that it is really the best way to begin to learn. When I was into boxing, my coach used to say that 3 rounds of sparring was worth more than 3 months of hitting pads in class.

The same goes for learning web design and programming- get students writing code and building sites! That’s why in StudioWeb, we are constantly teaching with mini projects, and several of our courses are actually project-based from the start.

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Mischook