This week A List Apart published a thought-provoking article called “Elevate Web Design at the University Level”. The following quote hit the nail on the head for me: “I’ve yet to see anyone come out of a university program knowing what they need to know in order for us to hire them”.
I’ve been thinking about this issue for over a decade. I’ve hired numerous people over the years and not one gained the skills they need from formal education. I’ve watched members of my staff get graduate degrees and listened to them express their complete frustration over how inadequate and inappropriate the curriculum was. I’ve taught graduate level classes and as an instructor, found the experience to be very frustrating.
As higher education web professionals, we are in a position to understand the issue and work with our institutions to improve it. So how do we move forward? We have started a good conversation on the uwebd site. Please add your thoughts and ideas there. (comments for this post have been turned off.)
http://cuwebd.ning.com/forum/topics/elevate-web-design-at-the