Build The Expertise To Land Your Dream Job With An Advanced Certificate In Design
Find out how you can stand out amongst the competition and get the design job of your dreams by earning one of three brand new New York State approved advanced certificates in design offered by Touro GST.
By Davlynn Gundolff
There’s never been a more exciting time to be a designer! Today’s world has opened opportunities that were unimaginable just a few decades ago, and now designers are creating everything from websites and apps to entirely fabricated worlds in movies, video games, and virtual reality.
Of course, all this opportunity has also brought some stiff competition, with more and more candidates looking to get involved in – and help shape – this evolving industry. If you’re trying to figure out how to get your foot in the door and start building the design career of your dreams, earning a New York State approved advanced certificate could be just the boost you need to help you stand out.
An advanced certificate in design is a great way to build on your Bachelor’s degree when you’re not quite ready to commit to a full-fledged Masters program. It shows employers that you’re committed to staying on top of the latest trends and mastering the tools and technology you’ll need to succeed – and is less expensive than an advanced degree.
“Design certificates give students or career-changers a chance to try out a specific area of design to see if it’s the right path,” explains Dominika Juraszek, Web and Multi-Media Program Chair for the Touro Graduate School of Technology. “They also offer busy professionals the opportunity to revamp their knowledge or build new skills and expertise, and in some cases, their employer may even pay for it.”
To help students who are ready to take the next step toward a career in design, Touro College Graduate School of Technology recently established three brand new New York State approved Advanced Certificate programs that will build your expertise in three unique areas of design: UX/UI Design, Web and Digital Design, and 3D Modeling and Digital Design. “I chose these three areas because they’re the hottest, most in-demand design careers right now,” Dominika shares.
All three programs consist of 12 credits that will give you the knowledge, insight, and hands-on experience necessary to compete for entry level jobs in the design industry. Each one allows you to take top technology courses at a fully accredited and well-respected university where you’ll be taught by knowledgeable faculty members who are actively working in the industry and are familiar with the latest tools and trends. Plus, if you decide to pursue a Masters level design program at Touro at GST in the future, credits that you earned in the advanced certificate program can be applied toward your master’s degree.
“One of the coolest things about Touro is that you get a smaller class size and more one on one attention,” Dominika expounds. Each program is offered online or in-person, with evening classes available to make your continued education in design as simple and convenient as possible.
All three programs also include professional portfolio development to showcase your skills and talents to potential employers. Touro’s faculty will take the time to explain the history of design and teach you to think critically so that your portfolio is a real reflection of your individualized style. “It’s not an assembly line, where you just follow steps A though D,” stresses Dominika. “Students’ individual needs and interests are addressed as they create their portfolios, so they don’t all end up looking the same.”
If you’re ready to land that design job you’ve always wanted, read on to learn more about each of our advanced certificates in design and how Touro GST can help launch your career.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE NEW ADVANCED DESIGN CERTIFICATES AT TOURO GST
UX/UI Design Advanced Certificate
It seems like everyone’s talking about user experience these days, and for good reason! The fast-growing field was named as one of LinkedIn’s 2021 Jobs on the Rise, with five times more UX designers hired in 2020 than in 2019. If you’re trying to break into the field, a UX/UI Design Advanced Certificate like the one offered by Touro GST can help you gain the knowledge and skills to set yourself apart in this competitive industry.
This Touro GST UX/UI Design Advanced Certificate program takes a direct hands-on approach that puts the end user at the center of the experience, stressing the importance of aesthetics and accessibility to a successful design system. By completing this 12-credit certification course, you’ll build a solid foundation in user experience and user interface design and develop a professional portfolio of work you can use to secure a design job and begin your career.
Along with practical knowledge of how to apply basic principles of UX/UI design, you’ll also learn how to conduct customer and competitor research, create prototypes and present your ideas, and implement human-centered design thinking to enhance a wide variety of products and systems. Once you’ve completed your certificate, you’ll be ready to pursue a career as a UX or UI designer, making a real impact on how users interact with and experience everything from websites to video games to apps and more. You’ll also open the door to remote work opportunities, like:
- UX Designer: As a UX designer, you’ll create the vision for how a user will experience your product or service and map it out from start to finish with a goal of making the journey as easy and enjoyable as possible. Essentially, you’re tuning in to users’ needs and emotions to create the best possible experience, creating wireframes, conducting A/B tests, and using your expertise to make improvements. On average, UX designers can expect to earn a salary of anywhere between $90,000 and $115,000 a year.
- UI Designer: While UX designers focus on the user’s experience, UI designers focus on the user’s interactions, streamlining each screen and element to improve how someone actually navigates through a website, app, or video game. They focus on technical features like buttons and icons, how users scroll, and how information is presented to make the experience simple, consistent, intuitive, and natural. Salaries can vary based on industry, but the average UI Designer makes around $93,000 annually.
Web and Digital Design Advanced Certificate
Named the 6th Best Job in Technology by US News and World Reports, web design and development is an exciting and interactive world where the opportunities are just beginning to unfold. If you’re eager to dive in and lend your talents to designing websites, app, and other technology, an advanced certificate in Web and Digital Design will give you a mastery of the key concepts, strategies, and tools you need to succeed.
The advance certificate program offered by Touro GST places a heavy emphasis on SASS and the scripting languages needed to design websites from scratch, including Hypertext Markup Language (HTML5), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS3), Bootstrap 4 Library, JavaScript and the Lean UX process. You’ll also to apply basic concepts and current practices of front-end interactive Web design like interface development, asset creation, prototyping and wireframing, user testing, and other foundational elements.
Throughout the program, you’ll put your knowledge into practice by creating functional and responsive interactive projects that will not only validate your design capabilities but will also provide you with work samples that you can present to potential employers to showcase your skills. After receiving your advanced certificate in Web and Digital Design, you’ll full be prepared to work in a startup or corporate setting or find a work-from-home job in a high demand design role like a digital designer or front end web development, among other positions.
- Digital designer: As a digital designer, you’ll be responsible for the writing the code that creates the look and feel of a website, app, game, or other interface. That includes everything from developing the graphics and integrating video and sound to creating prototypes and using programming languages to bring your – or your client’s – vision to life. This fast-growing field is expected to add nearly 18,000 jobs by 2030, and depending on the industry in which you work, you can earn anywhere from $77,000 to $124,000 annually.
- Front end web developer: While there’s a lot of overlap between web developers and designers, web developers take responsibility for the technical features of websites and other digital projects. They often work alongside designers to create a layout and then execute elements like graphics or a checkout tool, writing code in languages like JavaScript HTML. The average salary for a front end web developer is around $81,000 a year, with some earning as much as $171,000 annually.
3D Modeling and Digital Animation Advanced Certificate
When you think of animation, you might jump straight to movies, but according to Indeed, digital animators are in high demand across a wide range of industries – including engineering, architecture, and forensic science. The opportunities are expansive, and earning your advanced certificate is an excellent way to level up your knowledge and make yourself a preferred candidate for potential employers.
The Touro GST Advanced Certificate in 3D Modeling and Digital animation covers all the principles you’ll need to master to work as a modeler or animator, including lighting, texturing, 3D environments, props, rigging, and character modeling. You’ll also work with the most up-to-date version of Autodesk Maya and gain hands-on experience using tools for poly modeling, 3D lighting and camera effects, displacement and bump maps, and texture projections, along with an introduction to NURBS.
After you’ve developed a thorough understanding of 3D animation and modeling and can use the basic and midlevel functions of current animation software, you’ll put your skill to the test by creating a basic character that is textured, rigged, and animation-ready. This final project will double as portfolio piece you can share with potential employers to demonstrate your qualification for entry level animation roles and remote job opportunities like Digital Animator and 3D Modeler.
- Digital Animator: As a digital animator, you’ll use computer software to bring your designs and drawings to life to create anything from animated movies to video games to entertaining educational materials for apps and websites. As the need for digital animation expands well beyond movies from studios like Disney/Pixar and DreamWorks, the field is expected to grow by 16% between now and 2030. The salary depends largely on the industry in which you work, but on average, digital animators make around $78,000 annually.
- 3D Modeler: Bringing together a combination of strong technical and critical thinking skills, 3D modelers use software and computer tools to create visual representations. These 3D models can include everything from characters and sets for the movie and entertainment industry to holographic images that help medical students gain a better understanding of anatomy and surgery. The average 3D modeler makes around $54,000 a year – and with more experience and credentials, you could earn up to $109,000 annually.
With three distinctive options, Touro GST has a New York State approved advanced certificate program that can help you break into a rewarding career in design – without having to earn your Master’s degree. If you’d like to learn more or apply, contact Touro GST today!
