Web-developers are members of the group, and the most technically-trained. Not only will web-developers know the languages above, they will also have mastered other languages, such as 'C#', VB, PHP, 'Java', ASP.Net etc. And as most contemporary websites of any size store their information using SQL database-technology, they're likely to have got a firm grip SQL as well. The majority of e-commerce websites are not the result of a big group of web-designers who have built countless pages in a lay-out format. Instead, a place-holder 'template' will have been developed, and the contents will be 'dynamically' inserted from a database. In addition to being hugely easier to construct, manage & up-date, it also helps with the feel of the website staying constant.

Authorised exam simulation and preparation software is essential - and should definitely be supplied by your course provider. Ensure that the mock exams are not just posing the correct questions in the right areas, but are also posing them in the way the real exams will formulate them. It throws trainees if they're met with completely different formats and phraseologies. A way to build self-confidence is if you test how much you know through quizzes and simulated exams to prepare you for taking the real deal.

The design-environments used by web-designers are their most valuable tools. Adobe Creative Suite 4 is really the most commercially accepted in the market now (as of 2010). Whilst Adobe Flash gives access to animated and interactive 'graphical' content material, Dreamweaver is the software that builds web pages. You might state that 'Dreamweaver' is the Word-Processor of the Adobe CS range. It will let you place text and graphics according to specific rules and parameters, & then produce basic inter-activity through page-linking. Like other web design environments, Dreamweaver creates the program code HTML in the background (HTML stands for 'Hyper Text Markup Language'). It's the 'language' of web browsers, & is a 'script' which essentially 'draws' and controls the web page you are looking at. Matched with HTML are the layout tag 'languages' like CSS & XML. Because they are 'standardised', these tag languages will work on multiple-platforms to facilitate more stream-lined HTML coding & more effective layout techniques. The concept being that the web-page will appear exactly the same on any browser, whether it's 'Mozilla Firefox', Internet Explorer, 'Safari', Opera or whatever. Consequently although you are laying graphic blocks & adding text, behind the scenes, 'Dreamweaver' is turning this in to code. A thorough knowledge of these types of languages is critical if you're going to be a commercially viable web-designer.

A major candidate for the biggest single let-down for IT students can be attending multi-day workshops. A lot of training companies harp on about the positive points of taking part in these events, usually though, they end up as a major problem because of:

- Masses of driving back and forth from the workshops - normally 100's of miles.

- If you're working, then Monday to Friday workshops represent a difficulty in getting time off. Often you're having to deal with 2-3 days at a time as well.

- At only 20 days holiday per year, sacrificing half of them for educational days leaves us with very few opportunities for days off.

- Because of the cost involved, many trainers fill the classes up to the brim - which is not ideal (increasing the ratio of students to teachers).

- Some trainees lean towards a somewhat more suitable pace - rather than be dictated to by the rest of the class. This can create classic classroom tension.

- The cost of travel - driving backwards and forwards to the training facility plus over-night accommodation can mount up each time you attend. If we just assume five to ten classes costing around 35 pounds for an over-night room, plus forty pounds for petrol and 15 pounds for food, we arrive at 450-900 pounds of hidden costs that we now have to fund.

- Maintaining the privacy of our training is often very important to quite a lot of students. There's no need to sacrifice any job advancement, income boosts or achievement at your current job because you're getting trained in a different area. If your employer knows that you're undertaking accreditation in another area entirely, how will they regard you?

- Don't think it's unusual for people not to put a question forward that they would like answered - just due to the reason that they're with their peers.

- Working away from home - some trainees find themselves working or living somewhere else for certain parts of the programme. Workshops end up being very difficult then, unfortunately the money has already changed hands with your initial fees.

Surely it makes so much more sense to study when it suits you -- not the training company - and utilise videos of instructors with interactive virtual-lab's. You could study at home on your desktop computer or out in the garden on your laptop. Any questions that pop up, just get onto the live 24x7 support (that you should have insisted on for any technical study.) Modules and lessons can be repeated whenever it's convenient - repetition is good for memory. And there's no need to take notes - it's already laid on for you. The upshot: Reduced stress, more money in the bank, and no travelling or long journeys.

It only makes sense to consider retraining programmes which will move onto industry approved certifications. There's a plethora of minor schools suggesting minor 'in-house' certificates that are essentially useless when you start your job-search. The main industry leaders like Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco or Adobe have globally approved proficiency programmes. Major-league companies like these can make sure you stand out at interview.

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