If you're thinking of being a web designer, then it's critical to study Adobe Dreamweaver. The whole Adobe Web Creative Suite should additionally be understood in-depth. This will introduce you to Flash and Action Script, (and more), and could lead on to the Adobe Certified Professional or an Adobe Certified Expert qualification.

Constructing a website is merely a fraction of what you'll need - to maintain content, create traffic, and work with dynamic database-driven sites, you'll need to bolt on further programming skills, such as HTML and PHP, and database engines like MySQL. In addition, you should have an excellent grasp of E-Commerce and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

You have to be sure that all your qualifications are current and also valid commercially - don't bother with programmes which lead to some in-house certificate (which is as useless as if you'd printed it yourself). To an employer, only the big-boys such as Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe (as an example) give enough bang for your buck. Nothing else makes the grade.

Now, why should we consider commercial qualifications rather than the usual academic qualifications gained through the state educational establishments? As demand increases for knowledge about more and more complex technology, industry has moved to the specialised core-skills learning that can only be obtained from the actual vendors - that is companies such as CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA. Often this saves time and money for the student. University courses, for instance, clog up the training with a great deal of loosely associated study - and much too wide a syllabus. This prevents a student from learning the core essentials in sufficient depth.

Just as the old advertisement said: 'It does what it says on the label'. Employers simply need to know what areas need to be serviced, and then match up the appropriate exam numbers as a requirement. They'll know then that all applicants can do what they need.

Far too many companies focus completely on the certification process, and avoid focusing on what it's all actually about - getting yourself a new job or career. Always begin with where you want to get to - don't make the journey more important than where you want to get to. It's a terrible situation, but thousands of new students kick-off study that often sounds amazing in the sales literature, but which provides a job that doesn't satisfy. Try talking to typical college leavers and you'll see where we're coming from.

Prioritise understanding what expectations industry may have of you. What exams they will want you to have and in what way you can gain some industry experience. It's definitely worth spending time assessing how far you wish to build your skill-set as often it can control your selection of exams. Have a conversation with an industry professional that has a commercial understanding of the realities faced in the industry, and is able to give you a detailed run-down of what tasks are going to make up a typical day for you. Getting to the bottom of all this long before you start on any retraining program will save you both time and money.

Considering how a program is 'delivered' to you is usually ignored by most students. In what way are your training elements sectioned? And in what sequence and how fast does each element come? You may think that it makes sense (with a typical time scale of 1-3 years to achieve full certification,) for a training company to release the training stage by stage, until you've passed all the exams. But: Sometimes the steps or stages prescribed by the provider doesn't suit you. You may find it a stretch to finalise all the elements at the speed required?

An ideal situation would be to have all the learning modules sent to you right at the start; the entire thing! Thus avoiding any future problems that could impede your progress.