The Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) worth doing?

creative_pink

New Member
Hi :)

I'm a graduate Graphic Designer from London, I'm finding it quite difficult in successfully finding myself a job within in the industry even though I have relevant experience. So I have been doing research in how to further my skills in order to make myself stand out and also learn something which I have a great interest in which is Web Design and Development. I have found this short course with an Adobe credited company called Certitec based in Covent Garden, London. They have a 5 day web building master class which on successful completion I would receive an ACA (Adobe Certificate Associate).

Dreamweaver + Adobe Certified - 5 day | Dreamweaver Training - Certitec | Adobe Authorised Training Centre

Once I complete this, there is another short course for 2 days called Dreamweaver Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) which definitely looks like something I could really find greatly useful in my career.

Dreamweaver Adobe Certified Expert - 2 day | Dreamweaver Training - Certitec | Adobe Authorised Training Centre

Although I'm really enthusiastic about my findings and ready to book time off work to pursue the ACA and later the ACE, I want to find out if its actually worth doing? So if anyone has actually done these courses I would be really appreciative if you could help me out before I make my final decision. Or even if your someone with in the industry who could lend some helpful advice!

Thanks for reading :icon_hug:
 
Can honestly say I've never heard of them, but any extra courses / education that make you better and more attractive to an employer can't hurt can it?
 
I'd stay well clear, you don't want a course telling you how to use Dreamweaver, you want a course telling you how to write clean, semantic markup and good CSS. Dreamweaver doesn't do any of that, unless you write it by hand. Using the WYSIWYG produces bad code and employers would laugh you out of the building (at least good ones would).

Save your money, buy some books and learn it that way. My biggest concern would be if you said "oh I'm certified to use Dreamweaver" and the agency used Coda or Sublime, then what? Plus, I don't know about anyone else but I've never heard of them! If I was you I'd sign up with Treehouse - you'll learn loads from people who actually know what they're on about!

hope this helps
 
Don't know how they apply to the web design field but, yes, Adobe Certified Expert is very well known. Whether it truly helps to get jobs...couldn't tell you. My gut feeling is while it proves you understand the software very well it says nothing about your design ability (in my opinion of course). I suppose you could argue if you are that good with the packages then you must have a designer in you but put it this way, is every single car licence owner a careful, safe driver?
 
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