This is the full version of an opinion piece that is featured in this month’s .NET magazine.

Something I am becoming increasingly aware of these days is the long list of educational achievements that appear on young people’s CVs.

Whilst these are impressive in their own right, I have to say that as the owner and managing director of a marketing design agency, qualifications are far from the top of my list of priorities when I’m looking to fill a vacancy within my own organisation.

I recently held a series of interviews to fill the position of Web Development Assistant at NSDesign, and I noted with interest the disparity in skillset that exists between the recent graduates and those who had gone straight from school into work.

On the whole I found the latter group to be far more competent and capable of handling the tasks that I would ordinarily task a junior web developer with, as opposed to the former group, even though they had been studying the subject full time at university for three or four years.

Like all employers, I want only the very best web designers and developers in my business to ensure smooth operations, and fundamentally to fulfil and exceed our customers’ expectations.   That is why I employ staff based on a whole variety of factors, rather than on their educational attainments alone.

As an employer, what I’m looking for is staff with the technical know-how, communication skills and initiative to do the job well. Whether a candidate has gained these skills through formal education is secondary – and young people interested in entering this industry should definitely bear this in mind.

Technical skills

First and foremost, what most employers are looking for in a web designer or developer is someone with the relevant skills to do the job properly.   A ‘typical’ day’s work for a web designer will involve anything from visual interface design, wire-framing and user experience planning to front end development and coding using the latest web design standards.   Employers want to see evidence that candidates have these skills and they are able to apply them in practice – and not just apply them, but apply them well.

When I was conducting interviews recently, I was eager to find out from recent graduates what they had been taught about at university.  From their feedback, it quickly became clear that web-design degrees focus on table-based layouts – often ignoring vital and fairly basic web design elements such as semantic mark up, standards and CSS.

By comparison, candidates with relevant work experience were well versed in these elements – they had the practical skills that I was looking for and would be able to hit the ground running.

Unlike other professions, web design doesn’t lend itself to the conventional university learning environment of classroom teaching and library textbooks.  In practice, it requires candidates to be familiar with the latest technologies, trends and software – that means practical skills-based learning, not immersing one’s self in a textbook.

One of our web designers – Paul – is university educated, having completed his Applied Graphics degree in 2005.  Paul says he gained a lot from his studies – he was taught about flash animation, 3d modelling and multimedia presentations and learned the basics of web design.  However, he admits that if he could go back in time he wouldn’t choose the same path again.

After three years working for NSDesign, Paul’s advice to others looking for a career like his is to  concentrate on building a strong portfolio to show an employer at the interview stage.  Rather than go to university, Paul thinks that the best way to learn the ins and outs of web design is through the wealth of web design tutorial websites, blogs and books on offer – these are all geared towards teaching people the principles of good design, high standards and technologies that are being used in the industry.

As an employer, I have to agree – the web provides a huge array of up-to-the-minute learning tools, and youngsters that take advantage of these and come up with the goods are by far more employable than those who have been learning about table-based layouts.

Customer service

Next up on my list of priorities for suitable candidates is an awareness of the importance of customer service standards.  I’m sure most employers will agree when I say that a business can have the best designers in the world, but if they are unable to communicate effectively with clients then that organisation is doomed to failure.  Key responsibilities for a designer include meeting with clients to discuss their requirements, deciphering briefs, and delivering training on how to operate websites, blogs and social media networks.

NSDesign’s Designer and front end developer, Matt, briefly studied graphic design at college but dropped out after a year, opting to teach himself the tools of the trade instead.    He describes himself as a bit of a jack of all trades, having gone on to work in a variety of different jobs, including retail, manufacturing and call centre jobs, learning about web design in his spare time.

Out of all of our staff, I can quite honestly say that Matt is the one that excels at customer service – much of his work involves meeting with clients to discuss their aims and objectives and to train them on WordPress and other content management systems.

At first glance, Matt’s CV may seem quite eclectic, but his experience in the world of work has been absolutely invaluable to his ability to be excellent at his job and contribute to this business.  His background has given him the confidence and business acumen he needs to do conduct his role effectively.

Rather than being a drawback, Matt’s lack of formal education is in fact his biggest selling point – he’s used his time productively to gain business experience and practical expertise that really pays off from the point of view of an employer and from our clients.

Ambition and initiative

Last, but certainly not least, what I’m looking for in a candidate is an ability to show initiative at work.  As is the case in all industries, one of the biggest pressures on employers these days is time.  The majority of my working week is spent outside the office – delivering workshops, meeting clients and following up business development opportunities, so what I need is staff who can deliver high quality websites and designs on receipt of a tight brief.

I was thoroughly impressed with one candidate I interviewed recently when he showed me his own portfolio site with various personal and mock client websites that he had worked on.  He had no formal training, but his dedication and quality of work spoke volumes, and he was the one I ended up hiring.  I could see from the quality of work he showed me that he was ambitious and that he loved this kind of work.  Nothing beats that – showing that you are willing to go the extra mile really speaks volumes at the interview stage.

The same goes for one of our web developers Martin.  He started out in the web industry after teaching himself about the trade through books, tutorials and web forums.  Entirely self-taught, Martin has now been at NSDesign for five years.  Now that he has established his career in web design, he has decided to embark on an Open University course to obtain a BSc degree in Information Technology.

I’ve always admired Martin’s ambition and enthusiasm for his work, and his desire go back to university now speaks volumes about his dedication.  It is interesting because Martin has gone full circle – only now, after teaching himself about web design and succeeding in establishing himself as a web developer, does he feel it is important to provide solid educational foundations for his learning.

Whilst I’m confident that Martin can give his job 110% without a formal education, this recent move demonstrates his commitment to his career – from an employer point of view there is nothing better than that.

Facebook could be one of the next major tech companies to proclaim its support for Next Gen Skill’s campaign to modernise ICT teaching in schools.

The social media giant is expected to announce its backing for Next Gen Skills, an industry campaign to promote the skills needed for hi-tech growth in the UK.

Next Gen Skills also aims to develop computer science courses for schools that are relevant to industry.

The news will be welcomed by SMEs, who often complain that school-leavers and graduates are not equipped with the real-life skills in areas such as web design to help them drive their businesses forward. A modernised ICT education should help to change this situation, equipping businesses with the workforce they need to compete in the 21st century marketplace.

Next Gen Skills was created following the Livingstone-Hope ‘Next Gen’ review, which recommended that computer science be introduced into the national curriculum as an essential discipline.

Companies that have already proclaimed their support for Next Gen Skills include Google, Microsoft, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Talk Talk, Sega and the Guardian Media Group.

Alex Hope, joint author of the Next Gen review, asked for organisations across the industry to lend their support to the campaign in order to help force a new curriculum.

“We want them to join us and to highlight the issue, to get that message across to government and to take the opportunities they have to publicise this initiative and keep the dialogue in this domain. Only by doing that can we see change.”

So a thin but energetic Steve Jobs came off his sick bed on Wednesday to launch Apple’s “blockbuster” new product iPad 2.

The up-graded but thinner and lighter version of the device now sports 2 cameras, a faster processor and comes in a choice of white or black. If you pay extra you can add a clever looking cover which doubles as a stand.

I was invited on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss it (click here to listen) and as is the case EVERY time I mention the iPad someone responds with “I’m not sure I see the point in it”.

There’s clearly demand for tablets – more than 15 million iPads have been sold since April – and Motorola, HP, Blackberry and Samsung are all launching rival products with Sony rumoured to be planning its debut before the end of the year.

But many consumers can’t justify the expense or don’t know what they’d use it for. I’ll be honest with you, that’s how I feel. I haven’t discovered that killer application that would turn the device from something I admire (and sometimes even lust after a little bit!) to something essential that I’m prepared to buy.

It’s been interesting to read the recent press coverage about Cedars School of Excellence in Greenock, which has given an iPad to every pupil.

Tabloid coverage has stirred things up and suggests an embarrassment of riches in this privately funded school at a time when the public sector is making painful cuts. Opinion is divided. Some people are appalled, they see iPads as glorified toys, think the pupils are spoiled and claim education’s gone mad.

Others look enviously while moaning about woeful IT provison in state run schools and ask if you can afford to send your child to a school with better equipment, then why not?

For an in depth account of how it’s being used used at Cedars School this article  is worth a read.

I’ve got two problems with all this.

First, in my opinion, the iPad is the wrong tool to be giving out in classrooms.

I can see the value in teachers not having to worry about handouts and books and pupils being able to e-mail homework so it can be marked while the teacher nips up to Glasgow on the train in the evening (although I can’t imagine my wife EVER doing that if her pupils had iPads!).

I’m against them being handed out to every pupil because I think they actually LIMIT children’s imaginations.

Watch the video to find out what I mean…

There is a huge debate to be had about IT provision in schools (actually I’d prefer action rather than more talking) but focussing on whether pupils should have iPads won’t help.

There’s a massive job to be done with infrastructure. Better broadband speed is essential. Crippling security controls that means English teachers can’t show scenes of Romeo and Juliet on YouTube is another issue. The GLOW system which gives every pupil and teacher an e-mail address and allows for on-line sharing of resources is great but lacks storage capacity, gets clogged up and grinds to a halt if it’s being run on PCs that only scraped through the Millennium Bug compliance test.

There’s a lack of joined up thinking and that’s causing increasing frustration. There are many people within education who see IT as an expensive nuisance. I believe there’s a risk technology could get squeezed out of the curriculum, just at the time Scotland desperately needs to develop these skills.

Literacy, Health and Well Being and Numeracy are the 3 big areas the new Curriculum for Excellence revolves around. Are technology and creative industries going to have to make do with a wobbly table at a careers fair once a year?

Scotland has a vibrant digital sector which is doing well against the odds. To get to the next level we need young people to come out of high school buzzing with ideas and excitement. Companies like NS Design and many others are ready and willing to get involved and work with local authorities who want to increase what their schools offer in this area and make best use of the resources available.

My message to young people today would be this: Forget about the iPad. Develop your imagination and concentrate on how technology can solve people’s problems.

And to parents, teachers, politicians and everyone in the industry, I’d say “Give them all the encouragement and support you can”.

Last week I had the pleasure of giving a guest lecture to some students from the School of Computing and Creative Technologies (CCT) at the University of Abertay in Dundee.

The focus of the talk was on the highs and lows of setting up and running your own business, drawing on experiences and “lessons learned” since founding NSDesign over 10 years ago.

All in all – a really good afternoon, for me, and also (from the great feedback) for the students also..  always inspiring to see them asking some good questions, many of them tied to the current economic issues we’re all facing today.  And of course – always nice when a few of them ask for jobs!

So thanks to everyone who attended, and for the many that have since follwed me on twitter.

On Monday I attended the latest “Digital Future Debate“, one of a number of seminars looking at IT, Innovation and Entrepreneurial skills in young people, and its potential positive impact on Scottish businesses. 

Focusing on Education, the event gathered together a wide number of relevant parties including educators, policy makers, business owners and (most importantly!) young people.  Panel members included among others, Sunday Herald business editor - Colin Donald, Raymond O’Hare (Regional Director of Microsoft Scotland), Kirk Ramsay (Chief Executive of the Science Centre), Joe Wilson (SQA Business Manager) and David Kelly (one of our web hosting clients!)..

In summary, the event generated a lot of good discussion, including debate on the “graduate skills gap” topic that I recently blogged on, with a representative from University of the West of Scotland claiming to be fully aware of the “relevancy” issues surrounding the teaching of ICT and Technology within Education Institutions, and confirming their plans to change it with some rather radical (and greatly welcomed) different approaches to traditional teaching.  Colin Donaldson introduced the sessions with the question “Does business do enough to help education produce people with the required skills?”  I’d argue that the issue is the inverse…  Having knocked on a few educational doors over the years to see how we (as a small company operating on the “front line”) can help guide coursework etc, it’s clear that many in the traditional eductional world want to go it alone.

With regard technology in schools (primary and secondary), it was generally believed that even today, it’s the kids that are teaching the teachers, but there was some disagreement on whether online tools such as blogs, wikis, facebook and bebo, instant messaging etc were appropriate for the classroom.  Personally I welcome them – the kids are already using them outside school, and as Joe Wilson pointed out, by using a combination of all these online apps they are effectively building their own “personal learning environments”, in which the potential to “learn” is often far greater than in the traditional classroom environment.

All in all – it was actually quite positive, with the future of education and it’s digital input looking promising, but as with all of these focus groups and debates, we now need to act rather than keep talking a good game-plan.

Following on from my earlier blog post about universities not teaching relevant web design skills, Opera and Yahoo apparently feel the same, and have come together to launch the Web Standards Curriculum.

It’s an entire standards-based web design course – free online to anyone, and covers HTML, CSS, Javascript and more. 

Well done to those concerned for taking the time to develop what is a great starting point for not only students (who can supplement their “formal” education, and teach themselves the right skills), but also teachers and businesses as well – able to use the resource to improve their current methods etc.  Let’s hope the universities and schools catch up quickly.

Having recently interviewed a number of Graduates for a Web Development assistant position, my concerns over the formal teaching of web design in our Colleges and Universities have not exactly been alleviated.

While I’d fully expect to see some sort of “skills gap” between those candidates straight from university, and those with a little real-world experience, it is the size of that gap that continues to worry me.

I’d like to stress that all our recently graduated candidates were bright, intelligent and talented individuals, all with (or about to get) good degrees – they are not at fault – but I fear the institutions teaching them, and preparing them for a career in web design are letting them down.  

One or two actually hinted at being fully aware that what, and how they were taught was not “recent”, and that they knew they’d need to learn new skills immediately.  We had 1 guy interview who was entirely self taught, and said the only reason he did his university course was to get the bit of paper that  confirmed he could do it.  He then went on to say that he was actually worried that during the 3 years formal education he might actually “un-learn” all his good habits with the bad habits he was being shown.  By bad habits he was referring to things like table-based layouts, ignorance of semantic markup, and lack of standards or css.  All quite worrying stuff…

I recently did a lecture to the School of Computing and Creative Technologies within the University of Abertay, Dundee, to an audience of Computer Arts and Web Design Students.  At the time I was really encouraged by the enthusiasm and feedback from the lecture hall, which later spilled out into the café – the majority were genuinely interested, asked some great questions, and left me with a positive outlook on web design (and technology) education.  So clearly the passion is there, I just hope it’s backed up by the teaching of relevant skills. 

Personally – if I were a student considering my options for web design and development at University or College, I’d be damn keen to interview them – not the other way around.  Challenge their bold statements on their websites about “web standards” and “advanced web authoring” and get down to the detail about what you’re actually going to teach me.  Show me a <TABLE> and I’m gone.

Last Sunday’s Glasgow Herald included a nice article and review on the recent “Digital Future Debate” where a load of technologists, educators, politicians and entrepreneurs all met up to discuss a strategy for Scotland moving technology forward for the good of the nation and it’s economy.

Firstly – I’m genuinely sorry I didn’t attend myself – I was invited but other commitments meant I couldn’t attend.  That said – it does sound like much of the discussions centred around some “not so new” ideas.

To summarise (you can read the whole article here), the debate focussed on 3 themes – Infrastructure, Innovation and Education.  The main Infrastructure discussion appears to have been the issue of getting the country’s broadband improved above the current 8 megabits per second maximum, with much condemning of the former Scottish Executive for not investing in a lightning fast fibre-optic network at the start of 2007.  BT’s role was under under examination, with their “8mb is fast enough for what we need now” attitude generally slated for the lack of future vision, and understanding of the potential that a truely high-speed bandwidth infrastructure might provide (the next Google or YouTube based in Scotland?).  From a web-hosting perspective, the days of “unlimited hosting” and “all you can eat bandwidth” might actually become reality (don’t get me started on the webhosts that currently offer this!!) if such a network became available.  Like everything – from an enduser point of view, it’ll come down to cost.

Innovation was an interesting one… with points such as “can every schoolkid get a laptop” and the notion of creating “digital tsars” charged with promoting and championing the nation to embrace hi-tech.  The later is an idea that personally I think has great potential.  There’s a few good initiatives currently happenning in Scottish Schools to help promote science and technology, the focus (quite rightly) being on demonstrating the actual practical implementations of learning the various curricular subjects, and seeing what they mean to the “real world”.  One example of this is the “Technology Challenge” that NSDesign hope to be involved with this year.

 This leads into the final topic of Education, where the best quote of the day must surely have come from Steve Leach (bigmouthmedia)-

“Typical entrepreneurs are people with high drive and low compliance. That makes them difficult to live with, but it also makes them top-quality business people, and the schools we have today are looking for the complete opposite,” he said. “They look for high conformance and low drive, and this is creating a nation of robots who walk in, do what they’re told and move on. I think we need to address that as a fundamental issue and look at ways in which we can reclassify classroom troublemakers as the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.”

This concept again ties in with some really great work already being done in Scotland, looking at education from a different angle, focussing on a skills-based learning system and equipping the people of Scotland with the capabilities to face the challenges of 21st century life.  The Urban Learning Space (which I’ve had the pleasure of being involved with) is one such initiative that I hope continues to pioneer in this area.

So – once we sort out Infrastructure, Innovation and Education – then Scotland will be in a position to become a world-leading hi-tech country where no one can stop us!!  If only it was that easy.  All good and valid points were brought up, but nothing (I fear) truely new, and as one “commenter” has already posted on the Sunday Herald website – “quite frankly, I hear this in EVERY country I visit”.  Don’t get me wrong – there is a clearly a need for such forums, and gatherings of the “people that matter” – it’s apparent that anything which can help this country adopt a more “joined-up thinking” approach is vital – but perhaps it’s now a time for less thinking, and for just getting on with the “doing”.