If your dream is to become a great web designer with relevant qualifications for the job market today, you'll need to study Adobe Dreamweaver. The whole Adobe Web Creative Suite should additionally be understood comprehensively. This will introduce you to Flash and Action Script, amongst others, and will prepare you for the Adobe Certified Professional or an Adobe Certified Expert certification.

The construction of a website only scratches the surface of the skill set required though - in order to drive traffic, update content, and work on dynamic sites that are database driven, you'll be required to have further programming skills, namely ones like HTML and PHP, and database engines like MySQL. In addition, you should have a good understanding of E-Commerce and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

So many training providers are all about the certification, and completely miss the reasons for getting there - which is of course employment. Your focus should start with the end in mind - too many people focus on the journey. It's possible, in some situations, to thoroughly enjoy one year of training and then find yourself trapped for decades in a tiresome job role, simply because you did it without the correct research at the outset.

It's well worth a long chat to see the expectations of your industry. What accreditations you'll need and how you'll go about getting some commercial experience. It's definitely worth spending time setting guidelines as to how far you wish to build your skill-set as it will often force you to choose a particular set of accreditations. Seek out help from a skilled advisor that appreciates the market you're interested in, and who can give you 'A day in the life of' synopsis of of what you'll be doing with each working day. It's sensible to understand whether or not this is right for you well before you commence your studies. There's little reason in kicking off your training and then discover you're on the wrong course.

Of all the important things to consider, one of the most essential is always full 24x7 support with trained professional instructors and mentors. Too many companies will only offer a basic 9am till 6pm support period (maybe later on certain days) with very little availability over the weekend. Many only provide email support (too slow), and telephone support is usually to a call-centre that will chat nicely with you for 5 minutes to ask what the issue is and then simply send an email to an instructor - who'll call back sometime over the next 1-3 days, at a suitable time to them. This is no good if you're stuck with a particular problem and only have a specific time you can study.

The best training colleges utilise an online 24x7 package utilising a variety of support centres over many time-zones. You get an easy to use environment which seamlessly selects the best facility available any time of the day or night: Support when you need it. Never ever take second best with the quality of your support. Many IT hopefuls that give up, are in that situation because of support (or the lack of).

Consider only training programmes which grow into commercially acknowledged accreditations. There are loads of small colleges suggesting unknown 'in-house' certificates which will prove unusable when it comes to finding a job. Only nationally recognised certification from the top companies like Microsoft, CompTIA, Adobe and Cisco will open the doors to employers.

With so much choice, does it really shock us that nearly all career changers have no idea which career they should even pursue. How can we possibly grasp the tasks faced daily in an IT career if we've never been there? Most likely we don't even know anybody who does that actual job anyway. The key to answering this problem properly comes from a deep talk over some important points:

* Your hobbies and interests - these often define what things will give you the most reward.

* Do you hope to pull off a key aim - for instance, becoming self-employed in the near future?

* How highly do you rate salary - is an increase your main motivator, or is enjoying your job a little higher on your list of priorities?

* Understanding what typical work roles and sectors are - plus how they're different to each other.

* The level of commitment and effort you'll have available to set aside for your training.

For most of us, getting to the bottom of so much data tends to require the help of a professional who has direct industry experience. And not just the accreditations - you also need to understand the commercial requirements and expectations also.

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