hi,
Does anyone know (or have experience of) a good Web Design course in London?
I’m looking for quality courses in London.
The course would preferably be suited for those in full time employment who could attend part time.
any suggestions anyone?
Thanks
You haven’t told if you know something about web design already. If you do, try taking some part time/weekend internships to have on-the-job training that’s much more effective than classroom coaching.
Thanks Alex, we’ll look into these options
Things move too quickly for such academic organisations to keep up with the curriculum. It’s mainly old fashioned practices which require delays to be put on knowledge before it reaches the classroom (so it has to be tested over and over). As such I would highly discourage anyone take a classroom based course from an academic institution because it’s almost a guarantee that what they learn will be outdated. One solution you could possibly go with is that a number of well respected web designers in the industry run sessions to teach practical skills in web design in small groups… there’s no qualification at the end of it but the knowledge is going to be of a premium quality (but it’s very expensive). Here’s one that’s run in my region (there should be ones in yours too): http://workshopsfortheweb.com/
PS: SitePoint amongst other places run web based courses on learning web design in a way your friend might find appealing, they currently have a CSS Live, JavaScript Live and PHP Live course (which is video and lesson based), and Lynda.com has some fantastic step-by-step videos, that plus this websites membership and tutorial based scheme (http://membership.thinkvitamin.com/) you might find that online could do him better value than the classroom!
Thanks for your replies
you would be much better off buying yourself a good book and learning as you go
I agree that the above is the case - however, the person in question is not motivated in that way and would benefit greatly from receiving guided tuition on these subjects
There is NO recognised web design course that I am aware of which has received enough accreditation by the web design and development community at large to even consider it a factor in the employment scheme of things.
Is the above really true? I can see how this may be the case, but nonetheless there must be somewhere that can give a good grounding in basic web technologies. A short course in London somewhere?
I agree that many of the courses we have found so far seem ‘watered down’… However the following do look promising:
http://www.transmedia.co.uk/courses.php?apps=CAT043
http://www.mediatraining.ltd.uk/courses/detail.asp?CourseAbbrev=html-intro&CourseID=408
http://training.gbdirect.co.uk/courses/web/web_site_design_using_html_and_xhtml_standards.html
http://www.lsce.co.uk/web_design_courses/web_design_photoshop_flash_courses.aspx
Personally, I do agree that the only real way to learn these subjects is by reading, following tutorials and just ‘diving in’ to the subject.
It does take a somewhat tenacious individual to follow all the strands necessary - to go through a series of seemingly dead ends solving ‘errors’ while learning the logic of things (not to mention computer woes such as blue screens!)
However, as mentioned we are in a situation where we need to find a course that can kick-start a colleague’s understanding of web design/development.
It is true that material does become dated quite quickly & that any course needs to keep up, but there must be some places that deal with the fundamentals well with a good repuation -surely ?
any testimonials anyone?
Internship’s are usually only offered if you are already well trained with web design but simply want to get some experience under your belt (no business will take on people who require lots of hand holding), it’s certainly not a replacement to training or classroom coaching. When you’re in school you get opportunities for work experience, that’s what an internship is (learning some skills while you work), proclaiming that it’s more effective than being in a classroom is downright wrong. 
Whilst ‘Web Design’ courses are full of sh!t no matter where you go, the same cannot be said for graphic design courses.
visio, it’s dead easy to gain the technical skills of web design yourself. The industry stands as a testimony to that. Every man and his dog knows a web designer - they’re common as muck. So put the technical side of web design aside for the time being.
What makes the difference between web designs with aesthetic appeal and most of the cr4p out there is formal training in graphic design. My suggestion is to check out top quality portfolio websites of London based graphic designers and look for where they got their training. If you see a college in common to a few recent graduates, make some enquries…
ashokcis, I hope you’re joking. This extract is from the prospectus for their “Web Design” course as denoted on their website:
This introductory course using HTML and MS FrontPage is for people who want to gain experience in the basic principles required to create and maintain a series of web pages and achieve a recognised qualification.
Microsoft Frontpage is a (now dead) visual editor which is notorious in the industry for producing substandard, unmaintainable hideous code. The content of the course (found elsewhere - which they teach) is around 20 years old and no longer relevant. Even worse, they proclaim their certificate as a recognised qualification, Nothing short of a degree in computer science (or an equivalent subject) will get you much notice as most web specific “courses” are pretty poor in the quality of what they teach (that and so many applicants have a University degree or a strong portfolio of work). There is NO recognised web design course that I am aware of which has received enough accreditation by the web design and development community at large to even consider it a factor in the employment scheme of things. For the amount of money they charge and the details of the course I’ve managed to wrangle out of their website it’s probably one of the worst examples of web design in education I’ve come across (and that includes the CIW certification scheme). So I would highly discourage anyone from paying for something that substandard.
PS: Perhaps the reason why they have high success rates is because the material is so dated and watered down that it’s like getting a certificate for turning up.
metho: It’s not just limited to graphics, taking a non-relative course which has implications to the web design industry can be just as helpful as ones which directly relate too it (as not everyone is graphically inclined). Courses in Psychology, Sociology, Art, Statistics, Law, Business, Media, Marketing or Languages have implications (large ones) in the way we produce websites and the knowledge can be of exceptional use. I’m saying this as a Health and Social care + Psychology college graduate who’s primary freelance role is consulting on matters like accessibility, usability and UX design (much of which got started whilst studying).
If you want to do any part time course in Web designing than I would like to suggest you one college “Uxbridge College” .
Uxbridge College is one of the most successful college in the country with success rates amongst the highest in London.
You can study part time in “Web Design” and the timings are Wednesday in week.
You can also visit their website: http://www.uxbridgecollege.ac.uk
Honestly, most of those courses are a waste of time, no-one in the industry recognises any web design orientated course (even the CIW course has plenty of critics - myself included) as the standards move too quickly for them to be guaranteed as up-to-date. Rather than blowing £500 on a course, you would be much better off buying yourself a good book and learning as you go (along with supplementing your knowledge with web tutorials and reading good design blogs).
also - does anyone have any expericence with
in particular, we are looking at the following
?
thanks