I was made redundant in December and have since then sat at home getting bored.
The job market looks pretty dead, especially HR areas where I have previous experience on.

At the back of my mind I have always thought I would like to learn to do websites etc as I really enjoy things like that, now I have time but I do not know where to start.
Maybe after I have mastered the skill it could be a little sideline to design websites for other people?

I did do a module at University on HTML design using Dreamweaver (I think) but can't really remember much.
I have had a look at evening courses but I feel the one evening a week for 12 weeks is pretty slow pace and I think I would pick up on how it all was done pretty quickly as I have used it before so not a complete beginner if that makes sense...

Would anybody have any recommendations on good books/websites on the subject or recommendations on products worth having a look at (not sure if dreamweaver is the one I should learn?)

OH used Dreamweaver on his 12 week course and has built a really good website :-D

There was a follow-on course which was more advanced too ;)  Do they have that near you? maybe that would be more suitable ?

OH was happy with the 12 week course as he worked at the same time, but it would be awfully s l o w if you weren't working :(

What about doing the ECDL?  There are drop in courses all over the country and you can go as fast as you like?

http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.5829

Of course if you've already done it, it would be pointless ;)

Hope this helps

I have looked into those 12 week courses but I think the pace is too slow especially now that I'm sitting at home getting bored!
Obviously if a suitable job opportunity comes I will be back working fulltime so can't start a "full time" course either (can't afford to go back to proper full time studying at the moment).
I understand the ECDL is a general computing course or have I understood it incorrectly?
I have been looking at "learn at home"/distance courses (I don't mind spending some money off my redundancy pay :) ) but how to know which provider is ok, seems there are loads of rubbish ones around!
Any home studiers around (even in different subjects)?
Was it worth the money and who did you study with?

I taught myself to build a website using Frontpage and I love it.  I didnt have a manual or anything, just worked it out as I went along.   I then tried using Dreamweaver which somebody recommended but I couldnt get on with it at all and went back to Frontpage.  My site isnt very technical but I have lots of comments that is very user friendly which I didnt find I could do with Dreamweaver.   www.thetortoisehouse.com

Lisa

I too use frontpage and find it very good as a starting point.  Think I would get lost with dreamweaver.  OH laughs :-(

I have also used both Dreamweaver and front page and would concur with others view, front page is pretty simple with good results and would make an excellent starting point, and build from there :)

What a great website Lisa, I'm a novice owner of a female 3.5 year old Testudo horsfieldi called Hermione. 

She was quite shy at first, took her a little while to come out of her shell :-D :-D :-D  but now she's showing her personality and is quite cheeky. 

Hi Noora,

Sorry to hear about your redundancy, but the best way to treat I think it is to make the time work for you so you end up doing as close to your ideal job as you can.

The OU do a web design course, although I beleive this is over about 6 months to a year, but is quite in depth. I've done a degree with them, adn their support is great, as is the learning material.

I have some basic web design experience, and my only caveat (I don't want to put you off though!) would be have a serious serious think about the limitations of what you can do, both now to start out, and how long you think it will take to learn the rest. With the increase of 'DIY' web design software, people who will pay to have a site built will want features that aren't available on DIY software, such as integrated merchant features, forums, interactive features etc.

For example, I have built my own site (in my profile if anyone wants a peek :-) ), for my jewellery design business, first in MS Publisher which went wrong (due to browser compatibility issues which I wasn't aware of - but a designer would need to be!), and secondly using a 'build your own' service. Both versions had/have online shoppping features, the only reason I would now want to pay someone would be for the introduction of stock management software or a better e-commerce system. Those are the kind of requests you may get.

I really don't want to put you off as I think going into business for yourself is a great move, but make sure you keep your eyes open.

Claire

Just want to echo what Claire has said, there are significant limitations as to what you can do on a DIY basis, I work as a systems architect for an IT consultancy and the web projects we work on can be very big and complicated (and very expensive).  If you want to do this sort of thing then a course like the OU one mentioned is probably a good start, I would be very wary of the 12 week evening classes in Dreamweaver etc.  A web site is much more than the front end and to do it properly you need to understand security requirements, databases, browsers, application servers, web servers etc etc.

Hi

People dont believe that tortoises have their own personalities do they but we know different :-)   If you ever need help or advice about her, feel free to shout.

Lisa

Thank you very much for all your replies.
Mainly I would like to learn around this to please myself :) and to give me something new to learn.

I am not planning to do serious "business".
When I say extra income I'm just talking about scale of helping friends/friends of friends who want to go online with their kennel for example.
Treat money for my furry babies :)...
Obviously at the moment I'm bored out of my head being out of work but when I am working like to keep busy on my spare time (evenings) and I think this could be something I can Lose myself in instead of watching tv, hanging out in Champdogs :) etc...
Obviously I would like to learn all I need to know to be competent and know the basis but I'm not aiming at doing very complicated stuff if that makes sense.

I teach ECDL and that doesn't cover web design in either part 1 or 2 and is not available at ECDL advanced level either.  CLAiT covers webpage design at level 1 and website creation at level 2 both using frontpage.  I'm sure there are a lot more qualifications out there using various packages but I can only talk from experience of teaching CLAiT and ECDL.

Have put a link in my profile to OH's website page temporarily, so you can see what he's managed to do with Dreamweaver ;)  He's still adding to it when he gets time ;)