External qualifications

Wether or not you need extra qualifications aside from your degree (if you have one) is a bit tricky to define. I think a lot of people would like to know wether this is a worthwhile endeavour seeing as they are often not free and can actually be quite expensive depending on what it is and who it is run by so I am going to try and explain my current view point on the external Qualifications thing. First of all what exactly are we talking about here? There are all kinds of qualifications that you can sign up for and some are based purely in software others are based in specific design practices like email
design and SEO etc.




Software Training:

1. The "Adobe Suite" training certificates are probably the most widely recognised qualifications for software largely because the Adobe Suite has become an industry standard software package across design professions. They range in difficulty from the "Certified Associate (ACA)" level to the "Adobe Certified Expert (ACE)" level and the finally you can become an "Adobe Certified Instructor(ACI)". All these courses are listed here with a much more detailed explanation of what they entail; http://www.adobe.com/support/certification/ You can do certain packages individually or you can go about completing the training for an entire suite in one go, and that will of course affect the pricing but can be more productive and cheaper than doing them one by one. These will to be honest help your CV to stand out from the crowd because every single designer suggests that they are great with every single software but few of them are certified by Adobe and can prove it!

2. Lynda.com is gaining popularity from employers all the time as it offers various courses for all kinds of software in a monthly or yearly subscription plan. This is something that you can go back to time and time again and keep up to date with all the current technologies and trends so is fantastic as a training tool. As far as qualifications go this is as good as any and you can have a certificate of completion for every course that you go through. http://www.lynda.com/home/Player.aspx?lpk4=80569&playChapter=False There really isn't any software left out of the data base and the teaching style gets great reviews from student and teachers alike.

Development Training:

1. The "W3C" or the "World Wide Web Consortium", have a website from which you can learn standardised coding for the web. These are in fact free lessons that you can get at http://www.w3schools.com and then you can get certified for around 60 pounds per language you take.  I actually have one of these myself and I have to say that they definitely help you to stand out. You are probably being hired by an HR department rather than a designer at least in the initial stages so it will help you to get your foot into the building at least. The rest of course is up to you. It is probably worth mentioning though at this point that you can only learn web related languages and scripts from this site and not software programming languages like C or Java. These are for programmers rather than designers and will most probably be useless to you as a designer.

2. There are numerous "CIW" (Certified Internet Web professionals) accredited courses that you can do in web development which were invented by a community of web designers and developers during the dot com boom and have survived to this day. These certificates are not easy to obtain and they are not cheap either at around 600 pounds a course. However they are internationally recognised and they do teach job specific skills rather than just vague principles so definitely worth taking a look at. They remain popular with many employers because a large number of university teach them across the UK, Europe, and US.

Design practices.

There are numerous courses that teach general design practice and in fairness wont do you much better than having a degree. This is a pre requisite of most job adverts these days so if you are going to study a broader topic then personally I would advise that you do it in a degree and at least have that piece of paper to get you into the interview room. Im not saying that these kinds of certifications are worthless by any means because they will probably teach you the things that you were too hungover to hear about in your lectures but from an employers perspective there is too little known about the worthiness of such a course and they don't want to have to do the research. If its accolades are easily "googleable" then by all means go for it, but if nobody has taken it or heard of it then I would steer well clear and keep your pennies in your own pocket.

Long term advantages.

It would be nice to think that you could go to school and be done with it and then just walk into a job but unfortunately that is not the way the world works. There isn't just one glass ceiling either there are many! If you think about it in the world of work and most especially graphic design there are pay brackets to consider. when you are in an entry level role you can expect to earn around 14-18k per annum, then when you are in a junior role you can expect to earn between 18-21k per annum, now there is a little more scope in a mid-weight position depending on the company that you work for so you can expect to get anywhere between 21-30k per annum. Senior roles 28k plus and so on. How much of that depends on external qualifications and outside factors is really not that easy to judge but I do know that if I were presented with someone who hadn't done a days education since school (on paper at least) and someone who had actively seeked out professional development certificates and courses throughout there career, I would likely choose them for the promotion. Not because it means that they are better than those without the qualification, but because it says that they are willing to work on there mistakes and grow as much as they can. Businesses need that. (at least in my amateur entrepreneurial brain they do anyway).

Short term advantages.

I have found actually that since having taken a certificate or two and this may well just be co-incidence, that I have been getting a lot more interested parties for freelance work and a lot more interviews for jobs. I haven't actually secured any of these jobs so I cannot say that the certificates have helped me in so much as actually getting me into the company but they have got me a damn site nearer to the building and that is an achievement  it today's economy I can tell you (I probably don't need to I'm sure you already know). So i have decided therefore given the long and the short term benefits from a little upfront cash, that getting external qualifications will indeed help you and they will help you with the big players like agencies and such because they care about achieving. they care that you are a winner just like them so you might as well get cracking.

Disadvantages.

It means more studying! It also means more money and of course the time investment on top of that. Often you will have to work these kinds of courses into or around your working day and so can make your life a little bit more stressful in the short term. You will have to do the research yourself into whether the course you choose is worth this kind of investment which is again more work on your behalf. They are also not a guaranteed fix and trends with courses are much the same as with technologies. What was once the hottest thing since sliced bread can quickly become yesterdays news so you will also need to figure out the kind of longevity that any given certificate holds.

Overall though I think they work more in your favour than they do against you so if you are trying to jockey your way up the career ladder then professional development certificates will certainly help you in your quest to do so within your specified field.

What should a Graphic Design education consist of?

I personally have just recently graduated from a degree in graphic design having done a National Diploma in Multi-Media beforehand, but even though this is true I am still no that sure that you actually need a degree in order to be a designer. 

Most jobs will actually state that they are looking for a graduate with a 2:1 or higher otherwise you need not apply which is a little harsh I feel considering the level of work that was getting produced by some of the 2:1 students I studied with, and the level of work that I have seen produced by people with no training whatsoever. No amount of kissing up to a lecturer is going to make up for a complete lack of design talent though so even the not so wonderful 2:1 students did show potential or conceptual strengths or something! The same old catch 22 of not having enough experience to land you a job after you graduate is also going to be an issue regardless of your final grade too. I have friends for example who graduated from their degrees 2 years ahead of me, some of which graduated with first class degree's and they are only just beginning to find work that is vaguely related to what they studied. This has of course got something to do with the economy and the job market yes, but it also has a lot to do with a lack of initiative on their parts.

Now what you learn at University on a course like graphic design is far too general to leave you with a concentrated portfolio to help land what will inevitably be some kind of specialist junior position fresh out of uni. Again this is a generalisation as there are some very lucky individuals that do exactly that! I can assure you though, they are few and far between and often happen to have some form of advantage on their sides such as a mentor to guide them throughout their entire studies or influential contacts in the business to land them that crucial foot in the door. Anyway I digress, the thing that is important here is having a good idea of what side of the profession you ultimately want to land up in. This can be a really tricky thing to figure out especially having no experience in the field to measure your thoughts against and most often times this is where the degree part comes in very handy indeed. You effectively get given 3 years of design play time to figure out exactly what you are good at, what you are terrible at, and what you could reasonably swing your portfolio towards once you finally do graduate. 

Even still though many do not figure that stuff out even by the time they have graduated because the deadlines are tough and the briefs are not necessarily made up of what you wanted to try your hand at so you can still lose out in that respect. If you are clued in though by some fluke and know exactly what kind of designer you would like to be before you have studied for your degree, then you are in with a good chance of getting a job without the degree. Your portfolio after all will be what sells you not numbers on a piece of paper. It is always good to know that someone has the will power and self-discipline to finish a degree as they are not as much of a ride in the park as they get made out to be, however ultimately an employer wants to know that you are good at what you do. 

Im going to defend the degree actually for a moment as I feel that I perhaps have not done it justice. Something that doesn't get mentioned much when talking about design education is your ability to work with others. I remember when I started out on the Multi-Media course at college and at that time I was still fairly precious about any and every piece of work that I did. I always wanted good feedback and if I didn't get it I got a bit upset or despondent and then started to doubt my talents as a designer or creative. What you get whilst at university is forced to show your work to people and have them criticise it. It is something that you get used to very quickly and after a while you wonder what all the fuss was about, and not only that you are having your work criticised by like minded folk who understand the principles of design so you know that the feedback is genuine and constructive. (A little different to asking your nan if she likes the web page you made). This should not be scoffed at as a part of becoming a good designer because it is what will make you a good employee as far as a design firm is concerned. They do not want to have to fight with you on every piece of work you create and expect you to fully co-operate with them and the clients at all times even if it goes against your "design principles". Then there is the fact that you are going to get the chance to mingle with other designers and this will give you a better idea of the level you are working to so the benefits to me are more based in the social part of the degree. 

Here are some of the downsides though starting out with my favourite money! Degrees are expensive for everyone, for the rich and for the poor alike. You might be getting a student loan but its not like you wont have to pay it back and that is effectively 20 grands worth of debt you are volunteering yourself for there. Aside form that there are things to consider like computing costs, printing costs, software costs, outside training costs like internships and drawing classes, none of these are free. You will end up spending a lot of money on a degree and there really isn't much of a way around that so get used to the idea of being broke. It hardly seems worth it when you add that to the amount of time it will take you to get work that is relevant to your studies and that will most likely be an entry level job at an entry level wage. This is why I actually feel that you may well be better off doing job specific qualifications as and when you need them to suit the particular faction you lean towards. For example if you are leaning towards being a photography lead designer for a fashion magazine then get a job doing something run of the mill to pay your bills. Do an evening course in photography and volunteer one day a week at a fashion house and I wouldn't be surprised if you found yourself a quicker route into the industry that way. You might also have a lot less debt to be following you around too. Another thing is that the library is your friend! with access to the internet via your phone, in internet cafes, and in most peoples homes, there really is no excuse to not having access to information. You can find reading lists for degree courses on there websites and simply go to the library and read them yourself for nothing. this way you can give yourself a good education without spending thousands of pounds to pay the lecturers wages. Do not underestimate the power of books. I think it was Will Smith who put it across the best in saying that "the key to a good life is running and reading". If you read there is not one problem that somebody else hasn't already had so they might have a good answer for your situation too. 

Anyway in answer to the question posed in the title, a graphic design education should consist of what you need it to in order to get your foot in the door. There are too many variables when it comes to peoples lives, level of skill access to resources etc for me to make an honest judgement on what a design education "should" look like, so I am going to have to give you one of those wishy washy not really an answer type conclusions in the this post. It should be the means to an end and those ends should keep changing and growing with your career.