What qaulifications are needed to become a web designer/developer - Developers

Is html, css and php enough? Do you need other qaulifications such as GCSE's or a degree? Or is it mostly down to a good portfolio?

Official qualifications? Depends on your employer. Some will take a more traditional approach and require a degree of some sort, or equivalent; from my perspective, the best employers understand how developers come to be, and instead look for experience, involvement in the open-source community, personal projects, etc. The following post is a bit extreme, but shows some of the skills a good web-designer/developer must have - be sure to read the context of the post to know what to ignore (tl;dr - guy wants to make his own facebook, asks what he needs to learn): [url]http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1125191?p=32286668&viewfull=1#post32286668[/url]

It really depends on what you'll be doing. Designing and developing go their separate ways when it comes to big projects. What I've found is that companies seeking designers to create designs and then create the markup want a portfolio first and foremost. That will show that you're proficient with HTML and CSS, and you must have a knowledge of web standards and accessibility. JavaScript would be a plus too. Light development tasks that make use of PHP or ASP may not require a degree, but it seems that companies who want to create bigger things - especially when DBs get involved - usually want a degree and proven experience. You also ought to have a solid understanding of the server platforms they're using, such as LAMP or Windows/ASP.

I'm interning as a ruby on rails developer for a start up company right now. This is my observation in typical qualification people have in front-end web dev/design [B]Pure front-end developer[/B] Essential html, css, usage of javascript libraries such as jquery, prototype etc Good to have html5, css3, actually write programs in javascript, BS degree in computer science or software engineering [B]Pure front-end designer[/B] Essential html, css, photoshop Good to have html5, css3, usage of javascript libraries such as jquery, prototype etc, BS in computer science or software engineering or BA in design related programs [B]Front-end developer in general[/B] Essential html, css, javascript, usage of javascript libraries, usage of web frameworks (depends on company) Good to have html5, css3, strong fundamentals in programming in general, some understanding of databases, BS in computer science or software engineering The degree is not absolutely necessary, but it is often a requirement unfortunately. There's a lot of tools and technologies I have not mentioned above that would be good to have. For example, being able to use git comfortably, familiarity of emerging concepts in database like nosql, scripting/programming languages such as Sass, haml, coffeescript for css, html, javascript ... The ways in which you can improve yourself is endless.