Hi,

 

I am finding it really hard to continue with my current career as an accountant. I really enjoy making web sites and making sure they run efficiently. I do have self taught knowledge but to actually change my career its definately not enough. I want to know what professional courses are available in web design which have a recognised qualification in the IT industry. I am really motivated to enhance my skills.

 

What i have now, education wise, is First class degree in Accounting, and i am currently studying ACCA to become a chartered accountant. Its becoming very annoying that i am learning things which i don't enjoy but i am good at.

 

Any help and suggestions will be really appreciated.

 

Thanks

To be honest, there's no recognised industry qualification in web design, in the sense that there are in the IT sector (CCNA etc). You could get a degree, but most academic courses are woefully out of date when it comes to the actual day to day skills of the trade.

 

A far better route is to practise design alongside your day job until you've built up enough of a reputation and portfolio to spread your wings.

Edited September 12, 201115 yr by Renaissance-Design
typo

Renaissance Design is spot on....

 

It's hard work at first running 2 jobs, but it's so worth it in the end!

You could get another degree, but it would be in a more broad sense rather than "Bsc Web Design". For example, I studied Product Design. I'd say it gave me a very solid grounding to then move on to web design. But you don't have to do it that way.

thanks guys

To be honest, there's no recognised industry qualification in web design, in the sense that there are in the IT sector (CCNA etc). You could get a degree, but most academic courses are woefully out of date when it comes to the actual day to day skills of the trade.

 

A far better route is to practise design alongside your day job until you've built up enough of a reputation and portfolio to spread your wings.

 

^ this.

 

I planned on running along side my 'real' job for as long as possible but then i got made redundant and the rent ran out on my London flat so i thought "Sod it, i may as well make a drastic change" Now i live in the Scottish countryside and my sole income is via the web. Sometimes things happen where you have to mix things up. At first always have something alongside web design to support you until you've either built up a large enough client base to support yourself or you feel confident enough in your ability to find and create work enough to support yourself.

 

To most people that come on here wanting to shift careers to web design/development, my first piece of advice is don't study web design, study something worthwhile like accountancy or business. However you seem to have that covered already!