As part of PPD 3 (Personal Professional Development) I was asked to create a self managed learning plan and teach myself a new skill that would be valuable when working within the industry.
Before I started this assignment I already had in mind that I wanted to learn PHP (Hypertext Processor). The main reason for this is from working at Horbury Design where I am currently on a work placement trying to gain experience in the web design industry. I am able to gained an insight into what area’s of expertise the client requests, a large number of clients request a content management system and to create this requires the use of PHP.
After looking at some local job vacancies it confirmed my initial thoughts were correct and that PHP would be a good skill to learn as a lot of employers listed it in there required skills brief.
“Skills: Drupal CMS , PHP5, xHTML, CSS , Javascript , Zend Framework , MYSQL, Usability/Accessibility”
Looking at these adverts also highlighted some other skills that could be useful in the future. The job adverts pointed out that other skills such as jQuery and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) were highly sort after within the industry.
With this in mind I decided to focus on the following 3 skills:
- PHP
- jQuery
- CSS
PHP
PHP is a server-side scripting language that can be embedded into HTML documents and is used for a wide verity of things from gathering information from a contact form and placing it into a database to creating full web-site login systems. At the time of writing the current version of PHP is version 5.3.3.
If I was to choose this as my self managed learning plan I would use all of or if not one of the following resources to learn this new skill:
- The book – How to build your own database driven web site.
- The following web-sites - w3schools, php.net and beginnersphp.
CSS
CSS was listed as a required skill on every job advert that I looked at, although I can currently code in CSS2.1 there has recently been an updated version released which is CSS3. CSS3 includes many new features such as rounded corners, multiple backgrounds and opacity just to name a few. Although at the moment it is only supported by a few browsers in the future I believe it will be widely used throughout the web industry making it a valuable skill to have.
“Skills needed – PHP – MYSQL – HTML/CSS – ASP OR ASP.NET – SEO – Photoshop – Illustrator – flash
- Willingness to work in a Windows environment – Solid grasp of Microsoft Office: Outlook, Word, Excel
- Experience working with CMS solutions – Quick learner”
If I was to choose this as my self managed learning plan I would use all of or if not one of the following online sources due to no books being available at this time:
jQuery
jQuery was a skill that I found was required by some of the job adverts I looked at, jQuery is a type of code that is used to add extra functionality and features to a web-site making it more user-friendly.
“Looking for a junior web designer that can be nurtured and grow in to the studio role. Someone one that is eager to muck in, prove themselves and learn.
- 6 months to 12 months experience
- CSS3 and HTML 4/5
- Web 2.0 design
- JQuery + Flash + Cifr”
The current version of jQuery at the time of writing is 1.4.2 and has been used on many things from lightbox’s enabling a user to enlarge images to the centre of the screen with just one click to highlighting text box’s you are currently typing in.
After looking at various jQuery plugins I can see that it is something that could be incorporated into a web-site to make it more user-friendly whilst giving the user a better experience overall. If I was to choose jQuery as the skill I wanted to learn for my self managed learning plan I would use all of or if not one of the following resources:
- The book – Learning jQuery.
- The following web-sites – jquery.com, blog.themeforest.net
Conclusion
From looking at all 3 skills in more detail I decided that PHP would be the one I would most like to learn. This is due to the fact that many clients now want a web-site they can update themselves using a content management system. Because of this most employers request the knowledge of PHP in the job description so learning this new skill will give me a greater chance of gaining employment.
Word count: 743
