To Shanna — computers

I’ll jump in with a few ideas…

Certification is mostly needed when you want to work for a larger company. They will often use certification as a filter for applicants. As someone who was in a hiring role at a medium-size organization I can tell you that we never cared about certification because it was meaningless as a measure of an applicant’s real-life skill and experience. The same was usually true for college degrees.

Now as a self-employed person, I would recommend finding ways to give him knowledge and experience in more than just the technical things. Web and programming are his passions so he will naturally learn in those areas. But if you can expose him to concepts in business and marketing he will be way ahead of others in his field.

On a practical level, try and find ways for him to gain real-world experience. That could be through running his own Web sites reflecting his interests, through a mentor or apprentice relationship, or it could be as simple as volunteering to do some work for others. Perhaps a non-profit organization or church could use some Web help. Or maybe you could start a family business and all learn together. In any case, it’s never too early to start the habit of building a portfolio of projects.

By the way, most of our CM Organizer and Bookfinder programming work is done by a small business run by a talented guy who was homeschooled and then apprenticed in his trade. (See our About Us page for more info.)

I just remembered I should have told you about a website my son is using to learn web design. Check out http://w3schools.com/ and it is all free!!!!

I just re-read what Doug wrote and what he says is very true about certifications to some extent.

My husband maintains a medium size network for his company and is the only engineer employed by the company. He has only a couple of certifications but really ALL he has learned is from practical experience and on the job training and trouble-shooting.

But, with that said if your son desires consult with companies or own his own business then certifications can help to let others know that you at least took the time and energy to learn about the products you are supporting and using.