So, why is it better to gain qualifications from the commercial sector rather than traditional academic qualifications taught at the state educational establishments? With an ever-increasing technical demand on resources, industry has been required to move to specific, honed-in training only available through the vendors themselves - for example companies like Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA. Often this saves time and money for the student. Patently, an appropriate quantity of closely linked detail needs to be taught, but essential specialisation in the particular job function gives a commercially educated student a distinct advantage.

What if you were an employer - and you wanted someone who could provide a specific set of skills. What's the simplest way to find the right person: Pore through a mass of different academic qualifications from hopeful applicants, asking for course details and which trade skills they've acquired, or choose a specific set of accreditations that precisely match your needs, and then choose your interviewees based around that. The interview is then more about the person and how they'll fit in - instead of long discussions on technical suitability.

The Adobe Creative Suite is the most commercially-popular design environment used by web site designers these days. These valuable applications are now (2010) on Version 4. 'Dreamweaver' is the software which builds web-sites, with Flash providing access to animated & interactive 'graphical' content. 'Dreamweaver' may be considered a rather fancy Word Processor in many ways. Graphics & text can be displayed (within known rules) & then a basic interactivity can be produced by page linking. 'Dreamweaver' (or any other web-design environment) creates HTML ('Hyper Text Markup Language') program-code in the background. It's the 'language' of web-browsers, and is a script that effectively 'draws' & controls the web page you're viewing. Layout tag languages like XML and CSS are paired with HTML. These tag languages enable more stream-lined HTML coding & more effective layout methods, that will work on multiple platforms (as they're standardised). So which-ever web browser someone uses, ('Internet Explorer', Mozilla Firefox, 'Opera' etc.) the web page will ideally appear the same. So although you place the graphic-blocks & add the text, Dreamweaver is turning this in to coding in the background. It is very important to have a thorough knowledge of these languages to be able to be a web-designer at the commercial standard.

Commencing from the viewpoint that it's good to choose the job we want to do first and foremost, before we can even mull over which training course meets that requirement, how are we supposed to find the correct route? Working through a list of IT job-titles is no use whatsoever. The vast majority of us don't even know what the neighbours do for a living - so we have no hope of understanding the ins and outs of any specific IT role. Ultimately, the right choice only comes from a meticulous examination covering many unique factors:

- Your personality can play a starring role - what kind of areas spark your interest, and what are the activities that put a frown on your face.

- Why it seems right starting in IT - it could be you're looking to conquer a long-held goal like working for yourself for example.

- Your earning needs that guide you?

- Often, trainees don't consider the level of commitment needed to attain their desired level.

- You have to appreciate the differences between all the training areas.

For the average person, dissecting these areas needs a long talk with an advisor that can investigate each area with you. And we're not only talking about the qualifications - but the commercial requirements and expectations also.

Have a conversation with any knowledgeable advisor and you'll be surprised by their many horror stories of students who've been sold completely the wrong course for them. Stick to an experienced advisor that quizzes you to find out what's right for you - not for their pay-packet! You must establish an ideal starting-point that fits you. Sometimes, the starting point of study for someone with some experience is substantially dissimilar to the student with no experience. Consider starting with a user-skills course first. Starting there can make the learning curve a less steep.

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