I'd stay away from any college run web design courses. They tend to be 5 years behind the industry and teach old, outdated methods. In my last job I turned away so many CVs from enthusiastic college students who were just not qualified for a role in webdesign in the real world, despite what their college lecturers told them. The web is an always changing, organic medium so the need to stay on top of industry standards means that sometimes, you just have to learn how things are done off your own back by de-constructing other peoples work and seeing how they achieved their results.
Many of todays web designers are in the industry because they were the kids back in the mid-late 90's cutting and pasting code into their Geocities pages, finding out what works and what dosen't. Learning by doing is definatley the way to go when it comes to the web.
If you're serious about a career change, go for a design course that covers the basics; design history, Typography, page layout, etc. Then take what you've learnt and see what you can apply to the web. As a webdesigner, you'll benefit in the long run. I'd even suggest that you go down the route of a marketing course. I find myself applying the marketing knowledge I was taught in Uni on an almost daily basis.
|