Entering the world of IT and pursuing a high-tech career is all about technical training and hands-on experience. If you have neither, you may want to consider continuing education towards a certificate program. This will not replace the immediate benefits you would gain with a 4-year degree in Computer Science, but is a good place to start if you're looking for a formal education to facilitate a career change, achieve a promotion, or enter into a new field.
There are many technical training and certificate programs offered across the United States and abroad. You may want to research what's available in your area, and find a program that fits your educational needs and time constraints. Some programs can be completed online, some specialize in specific fields, and some offer are a true college experience. Most will require you to complete "core" and elective classes with a passing grade to be applied toward the certificate, which can be completed in 9 to 18 months.
Before you begin a technical certificate program, make sure you understand the time commitment involved. As with any learning program, you must be willing to study and spend time doing class exercises. Whether you choose to attend classes online or in person, you must be prepared to invest both time and effort.
The rest of this article examines the Certificate Program in Internet Programming, currently offered through the University of California Extension program. Not all certificate programs are the same, but this one is representative of the core requirements needed to become certified as an internet programmer.
The following was taken directly from the course catalog describing the purpose of the Certificate Program in Internet Programming -- "The Internet Programming Certificate is intended to make the student proficient in the use of the services provided by the Internet and World Wide Web, as well as the interfaces to these services. This program is directed toward those wishing to write programs that interact and interface with the Internet."
Requirements
To obtain the Certificate in Internet Programming, participants must complete a total of 21 units, as follows:
- 3 required core courses, totaling 9 units
- 12 units of elective courses
Prerequisites
Knowledge of how to program in a high-level programming language is necessary, and can be obtained by taking one of several courses which are designed to satisfy this prerequisite. A general understanding of the Internet and the World Wide Web is necessary and can be obtained by taking an introductory class.
Core Courses (all 3 required)
- Internet Programming Technologies
- Internet Programming Tasks
- Internet Programming Tools
- CGI Server Programming
- Database Access from Web Applications
- Developing Web Applications Using XML and Java
- E-Commerce Architecture on the Internet
- HTML and Interactive WWW Application Design
- Introduction to Programming in Java/Introductory Java Programming/Java
- Programming/JavaScripting
- Learning XML and XSLT/XML Development
- Microsoft Active Server Pages
- PL/SQL/WebDB
- PalmPilot Programming
- Visual Basic Programming
- Perl Programming I/II
While obtaining the Internet Programming Certificate, individuals may opt to obtain certificates with emphasis annotated on the certificate itself. The elective courses are grouped in concentrated sequences, as follows:
- Developing Individual Web Applications HTML/XML/Java/JavaScripting/Python/CGI
- Developing Web Sites in Support of E-Commerce
Architecture/Java/Security/CGI/Database Access/PLSQL/XML/XSLT - Developing Web Sites to Support Transactions
CGI/Security/Perl/ASP/Java Servlets
More information may be obtained regarding this specific Certificate Program from the UCSC Extension web site.
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