Learning Outcome 1 – PHP in industry

PHP was originally created in 1994 and has become one of the most widely used languages, been used on over 20 million websites, with the vast majority of employers recognising this. There are now many jobs within the Interactive Media Industry that require the knowledge and skill to code PHP. Not too long ago PHP was usually a skill associated with programmers; but it has now come to be a commonly needed skill by developers as the uses of PHP in the industry are increasing.

Using itjobswatch.co.uk statistics I have seen that the jobs requiring PHP in West Yorkshire have increased 20% in the last 6 months, with a rise in the Wakefield area of 50%. This shows there is a real demand for people with PHP skills, there are also a large number of jobs currently going in the Wakefield districts and that figure expands vastly if I were to commute a short distance.

Using the same website I found the most needed relating skill to PHP is MySQL with 62% of jobs requiring PHP; look for people with the ability to code MySQL. This shows that learning both PHP and MySQL would increases job prospects by a fair amount.

The majority of jobs looked at required some experience with the use of PHP usually around one year’s worth. This shows that self taught skills are not enough; they need backing up with experience and a portfolio of some kind. This may be hard to come by and may require some freelance work to create a portfolio with.

Jobs in the Interactive Media Industry vary from the junior roles to the senior manager roles. Someone going into the Interactive Media Industry can expect a long career span starting in a junior role and been able to work their way through different levels of jobs depending on experience. There are also many opportunities available to develop into different job roles, from designer to developer or developer to programmer.

Summary
PHP is a widely used programming language and is highly recognised and required by companies in the Interactive Media Industry. I feel learning PHP with MySQL alongside it, will enable me to have greater job prospects within the industry. They are not the only skills I would require but they do make up a large part of the required job skills I would need to work within the industry and should increases my employability chance.

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Self Managed Learning Plan

For the Self Managed Learning Plan (SMLP) I will be learning PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor). PHP will allow me to create more dynamic websites, since the language can be used for many things, from making the website more appealing with photo galleries and feedback forms, or creating more advanced features such as shopping baskets and forums.

After searching through a number of jobsites I found that the vast majority of available employers required you to know how to code PHP. Learning PHP now will give me a higher chance of gaining employment after this course.

After some research I have found that a large amount of people who learnt PHP said it was easy to pick up. So it makes me more confident that I too will be able to pick up PHP without too many problems.

It also has many similarities to other programming languages, such as C, Java and Perl. So after learning PHP I will have an opportunity to expand my knowledge into these other languages. This will increases my employment prospects if I venture into other languages.

There are many tutorial websites available online along with a number of dedicated books that I will be able to use to learn PHP.

I will also learn MySQL (Structured Query Language) alongside PHP as the two languages work together and will enable the use of databases alongside the website.

I feel learning PHP for my SMLP is the correct choice because:

• It will enable me to create more dynamic websites.
• There are many employment prospects for people with PHP skills.
• It is easy to learn.
• It has similarities with other programming languages.
• There are many tutorial resources available.

SMLP Resource List

Here is my list of resources I will use whilst learning PHP and MySQL:

1. PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide

Many reviews I read about this book said it was easily accessible by beginners and gave them a very good understanding of PHP and MySQL. This should be very useful to get me started with the languages.

2. PHP In Easy Steps

This book comes with many examples of PHP and shows the main features of the language. Many reviews say it was easy to follow and a definite for PHP beginners.

3. http://php.net/

This is the home of PHP and will come in useful with the PHP Manual section, which has a language reference and getting started section.

4. http://w3schools.com/

I have used this website before and found it very useful as it splits the tutorials down into easy to follow sections and has many examples of using the different syntax. This site also has plenty to help me along with MySQL.

5. http://tizag.com/

There seems to be plenty of information about PHP on this site, with sections that guide you gradually through learning the basics. There is also a more advanced PHP section and a tutorial on MySQL I will be able to use.

6. http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/php/php.html

This website looks very useful with many different sections on PHP and plenty of examples to try myself.

7. http://www.webmonkey.com

Another useful website which looks to gradually bring you into writing PHP from the basics with examples.

8. http://phpfreaks.com/

There are many tutorials on this website to have a go at once I get the basics of PHP out of the way. Using these should help improve and extend my PHP skills.