5 Courses Web Developers Must Take To Sharpen Their Skills
Maren Hogan
CEO of Red Branch Media, a full-service marketing and advertising agency. Speaker, writer, advisor, and #HRTech Investor
Web development is an ever-changing industry, meaning technologies and languages that were popular a year or two ago may not be as prevalent today. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Software and web Developers have a 21% and 13% (respectively) job growth outlook through 2028. With this kind of growth, many professionals looking for a career change will be flocking to the field. Do you want to learn a new skill or sharpen your current skills as a web developer? Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned developer, the following courses are sure to enhance your skillset in web design and development.
HUBSPOT CMS FOR DEVELOPERS CERTIFICATION
As a HubSpot certified partner, this is the best place to start for those wanting to learn the new tools HubSpot offers developers and designers. This is an all-encompassing course designed to help web developers learn how to build and manage websites on the HubSpot CMS. You’ll learn how to use the CMS tools to create a wide variety of assets, and how to maximize your effectiveness with these tools to streamline your process and increase your productivity. You’ll also learn a thing or two about building blog templates and email templates in this course.
THE WEB DEVELOPER BOOTCAMP
If you were only going to take one course on web development, this is the one. This course is all-encompassing and teaches a variety of imperative topics that will jumpstart your web development skillset.
A Few Things You’ll Learn:
- Make REAL web applications using cutting-edge technologies
- Create a blog application from scratch using Express, MongoDB, and Semantic UI
- Create a complicated Yelp-like application from scratch
- Write your own browser-based game
- Create static HTML and CSS portfolio sites and landing pages
- Think like a developer. Become an expert at Googling code questions!
- Create complex HTML forms with validations
- Use Bootstrap to create good-looking responsive layouts
- Use JavaScript variables, conditionals, loops, functions, arrays, and objects
- Write Javascript functions, and understand scope and higher-order functions
- Create full-stack web applications from scratch
- Manipulate the DOM with vanilla JS and jQuery
- Make a beautiful, responsive photographer’s portfolio page
- Create a beautiful, responsive landing page for a startup
- Create a beautiful animated todo list application
TEAM TREEHOUSE
While Team Treehouse isn’t a specific course, it is a great platform to start your journey when learning new web development or design technologies and tools. One of the greatest features of Team Treehouse is their tracks, which provide a compilation of related courses for you to complete all in one place. For example, if you’re new to programming, the Start Your Coding Journey track is a great place to start. If there’s a specific topic you’d like to learn more about, Team Treehouse offers a library containing a variety of specific courses. For Front End Development, I recommend the Front End Web Development track. Team Treehouse offers a 7-day free trial, with plans starting at $25/month.
FREECODECAMP.ORG
A list covering courses for web developers and designers would be incomplete without the inclusion of freeCodeCamp. This is arguably the best free platform to learn both front-end and back-end web development. freeCodeCamp is a nonprofit community that helps you learn to code by building self-paced projects. Their courses include the following technologies and languages:
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- React.js
- Node.js
- mongoDB
Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a designer looking to add some programming skills to your toolbox, freeCodeCamp offers courses designed to help you hone your skills – and they’re all free.
CODECADEMY
Codecademy is another one of those platforms that isn’t a specific course but is a great source of knowledge when learning new web development or design technologies. Similarly to Team Treehouse, Codecademy offers three subsets of courses: Career Paths, Skill Paths, and Courses. Career Paths guide you through exactly what you need to learn to build a solid foundation for a career in tech. Skill Paths provide a short roadmap to help you master a new job-ready skill. Courses teach you a specific language or technology through interactive lessons. Codecademy does offer a free plan with interactive courses and lessons, but their Pro plan gives you a deep dive into all that the platform has to offer. Learn more about their pricing structure here.
Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned developer, these courses are essential to take your web design or development skills to the next level.
This article was originally published on the Red Branch Media blog by Kaleb Vik.