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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
It doesn’t matter if you have graduated with a degree in web design or plan to work off experience and merit—certifications can help boost your knowledge and clout.
Of course, getting a degree from a top school will help you have the experience and skillsets you need in the workforce, but at some point, the information you learn will become outdated. And, some people can’t afford college or have decided it just isn’t for them. No matter what path you take to become a web designer, continuing education is the best way to stay on top of the industry.
But not every web design certification serves the same purpose—and some offer no real value.
You want to find the top web design certifications that are worth adding to your resume. This list of the best web design certification courses will help bolster your marketing, design, and web development skills. You can choose courses that help you update your knowledge of the web design industry or supplement your education with related topics that go hand-in-hand.
Most certifications require some study or prior experience. Many have video courses or reading material that take hours to complete before finishing with a quiz to show comprehension. Some exams and courses cost money to attend.
Before earning a certification as a Google Certified Developer, you might need to learn the topics. The courses at Google Developers Training are free and great for web developers.
HubSpot Academy offers several free opportunities for professionals to learn about web topics important to many marketing and sales teams. While these certifications don’t focus as heavily on web design, they are a part of the process for building strong sites. These certifications must be renewed yearly and include:
Although the courses aren’t difficult, there is a lot of detailed information included. Each HubSpot certification requires passing a long quiz with a high accuracy rate.
From analytics to business profiles, Google Skillshop offers a number of free training and certification options. These are geared toward marketers, but if you want to offer insight into that aspect of your web design capabilities, these can make great supplemental courses:
If you want to understand more about numbers and what they are saying, a little analytics never hurts! The courses at the Google Analytics Academy are free and can be a great supplemental niche skill for any web developer. These don’t offer certifications or badges, but they do give a number of insightful courses that you can include on a resume or professional profile.
Google has a lot going on, but the Google Developers Certification is a bit different from the rest. In this hub, you can test to qualify as a listed developer certified by Google. It’s not a course—it’s an exam designed to test your proficiencies as a way to provide credentials to your clients. Each certification is applied for and tested separately:
Without a doubt, Adobe makes some of the most-used tools in the design industry. Adobe offers certifications to show expertise with their different products. Each exam costs $180, so these can add up quickly, but becoming an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) will help prove proficiency to your clients.
From free workshops to limited-time courses, it’s worth checking out what General Assembly has to offer. The courses range from basic to advanced, and not everything is free. While many courses are online, there are in-person classes available at one of the 20 General Assembly campuses. Experts teach these in-depth courses, so expect to pay if you want to do more than scope the site for free opportunities. A class like Design Thinking Bootcamp might cost $250 while completing a full-time online course on Front-End Web Development will take 13 weeks and cost just under $4000. The costs are upfront and payment plans are available.
If you are looking to learn more about web design and development on a budget, freeCodeCamp has a lot of courses, videos, interactive lessons, articles, and more. Open-source software projects on the site allow learners to contribute to a tool that will be used by nonprofits. Certification can be achieved in six areas, but each one requires 300 hours to complete and assigns five required projects. Earning all certifications will take around 1800 hours and boosts the certifications to a Full Stack Development Program Certificate.
If you feel PHP skills are important to your career, then you can prove your proficiencies with a credentialed test. Zend doesn’t have a course to complete, but there are instructor-led training opportunities and a study guide you can purchase. An intensive test with a fee of $195 is required to gain credentials as a Zend Certified PHP Engineer. The test covers language syntax, web features, object-oriented programming techniques, security, data types, and more. Since PHP skills are in high demand, the Zend certification can offer something to your resume that helps it stand out from the crowd.
Microsoft Learn provides resources for developers and exams that show your skills are endorsed by Microsoft. You have to pay to take each certification (around $165), but to prepare for the exam you can pay to learn from an instructor-led course, or you can go at your own pace for free. Other certifications in the Microsoft Learning space for Developers include:
If you are looking for more information and training without the shiny certifications, Codeacademy is a great place to browse. There are tons of free resources here, including hands-on tasks and step-by-step coding instructions. Some of the courses are designed for kids and some teach at a professional level. Languages include C++, CSS, PHP, Python, HTML, JavaScript, and more. You can get up to 180 hours of content with a free account or up to 1800 for $19.99 a month with a pro account.
There are many places to gain insight and learn more about web design and development. For every course you take or certification you achieve, you can add another line to your professional profile and resume. These can really help you pop up in keyword searches done by employers, giving you a better chance to catch eyes and land the job! It might be a great idea to start with the free courses and certifications before considering the paid certifications (unless you know your potential employer holds a higher view of a certain certification).
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