Front-end web development is all about presenting data in a consumable format on the web, enabling user interaction. Today the technologies associated with front-end development are in constant transformation. So, in order to become a front-end developer, it’s important to upskill as per the new trends, tools, and techniques.
Front-end development involves far more than just the presentation aspects of the page being developed. It also includes a seamless presentation of the data across devices, browsers, screen sizes, resolutions, etc. Apart from this, the front-end developer needs to be aware of which tools can be used for testing usability, functions, performance, responsiveness, etc., of the front-end development products that are built
This article will help guide you in choosing from the most popular online certificate programs offered on the market. All of these courses provide you with an online certificate on completion of the lessons and projects.
The importance of building a checklist of tools to learn from - before you choose a course
It is vital to choose a course that guides you in the latest and most popular languages, technologies, and tools. Hence, before you take the plunge to invest time into a student program to receive your certification, it would be a good idea to do as much research as possible - check out their website, reach out to an admission counsellor, etc. Make sure that the course is offering a comprehensive program for skills and tools that best suits your needs.
To help you get started, here is a concise list of front-end development tools to refer to while you compare the wide range of courses offered on the market:
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Programming languages - HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, etc.
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Development tools/libraries – Sublime Text, jQuery, Angular.js, The Polymer Project, Bit and Bit.dev, WebStorm, Foundation, etc.
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Frameworks – React, Angular, Vue.js, jQuery, Ember.js, Backbone.js, Semantic-UI, Foundation, Svelte, etc.
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Test automation tools – TestProject, Microfocus UFT, IBM RFT, etc.
5 Popular Online Certification Courses in Front-End Development
The following are some of the best online certificate programs in the area of front-end development that have proven to provide in-depth coverage of the latest technologies in their curriculum:
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PG Certification in Front-End Development - from IIIT Bangalore, Upgrad
This 7-month course is offered by the renowned university IIIT Bangalore, with their faculty training the students. The program begins with a Preparatory Course of two weeks – which serves as a bridge course. Following this, there are lessons covering Experiential Learning and OOP + Software Engineering. Once this base has been established, they move on to lessons in User Interfaces, User Experience, and Design and Software development. The final capstone project is of 4 weeks duration and helps students assess what they have learned during the period of the course.
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Professional Certificate in W3C as Front-End Web Developer – EdX
As of November 2020, this program is designed by the world-wide consortium, and supported by Microsoft, Intel. The 7-month program is based on the W3C web standard technologies. The program covers the basics in CSS and HTML5. It also introduces you to JavaScript, HTML5 app & game coding essentials as well as best practices.
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Front End Web Developer Nanodegree program - Udacity
This program by Udacity is a 4-month nano degree program which helps guide students in constructing responsive websites using CSS, Flexbox, and CSS Grid. Parallelly, students will be guided on how to develop interactive websites and User Interface apps using JavaScript, and HTML. Also, the course details how to connect a web application to back-end server data using JavaScript. Details on Webpack, performance improvement using Service Worker, etc., also will be provided. Five projects will be built by students which will help to build confidence in applying the skills learned in a real-life business scenario.
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Web Development and Coding Specialization - University of Michigan
This 6-month course offered by the University of Michigan and powered by Coursera, guides students in designing and creating websites. Eventually, at the end of the course, one would be able to build interactive web pages using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. The capstone project helps students build real-time projects.
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Front End Web Development Certificate - Harvard
This program offered by Harvard helps students learn the fundamentals of front-end web development and foundational programming languages such as HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, Javascript, etc. It also provides information on building tools, like GitHub, and Sublime Text.
Conclusion
Always ensure that the online certificate course will help you gain both theoretical knowledge as well as guide you through real-life industry projects, assignments, and case studies. And if the program encourages collaborating with peers on projects, it will be an added plus. Also, receiving guidance from an experienced industry mentor will provide a tremendous amount of in-depth, practical information during your certification process.
We are lucky to be in an era in which we can pursue programs providing online courses with certification from the comfort of our homes and at our own pace. Eventually, holding a certificate of completion from reputed institutes such as those mentioned in this article, will be a feather in your cap!
