We have a school student coming into our agency for work experience shortly, so I'm putting together a programme which will introduce him to the various areas of web development, such as HTML, CSS, client-side and server-side code, databases and XML.
It is going to be difficult to cover the various different skills involved in web development in a week, and without knowing what sort of web development knowledge the student already possesses it is hard to determine what can be achieved in such a short time.
However the main goal of work experience is to give the student a flavour of what is involved in the profession, to allow them to make an informed decision on whether such a career is for them.
I've structured the programme as follows:
Day 1 - Introduction to Web Design
Day 2 - Introduction to HTML and CSS
Day 3 - Understanding web servers, web browsers and HTTP and FTP
Day 4 - Introduction to server-side and client-side programming
Day 5 - Overview of databases and XML
Within each topic I have posed questions and tasks, which will require research and learning. For each subject I have provided links to tutorials and online information.
I'm also aware that web development is very much a practical and creative skill, so I've also set a project which will run for the whole week and will allow him to put what he has learned into practice by building a simple personal portfolio website.
I have no idea whether I'm being too ambitious, but surely that will depend on the student's current knowledge and interest in the subject. I think that it can easily be tailored to each student depending on their interests.
I have uploaded a PDF of my programme entitled An Introduction to Web Development and Design for Work Experience Students and would appreciate any feedback.
