The internet contains more resources than a human can use in a lifetime.  And for people looking to pursue a career in programming, or just looking to test if a programming career is worth pursuing, there are lots of beginners’ courses available.  In fact,  there are many free online programming courses available in the internet.  Just a short search will give you a plethora of information that will guide you in your decision whether a career as a web programmer is for you or not.

Online Programming Courses for Beginners

In your search, you will come across a website that offers two courses — one for Beginner C Programming and another for Beginner Web Development.  The website contains in excess of 60 free lessons and 60 video tutorials on C programming and web development.  What makes this ideal website for the beginner? The two subjects they offer are perfect for anyone wishing to work with computers.

C Programming is regarded as the basis for most programming languages, making knowledge of its workings a solid foundation for a programming career.  When you master C programming, you can create applications and games for computers, mobile devices, etc.  With the popularity of applications for every sort of smart device, as long as you have the skills, you will not have to look very far for work.

Web development is another hot course.  Everyone wants to have their websites for almost every reason under the sun.  While it is quite easy to make basic webs, those who have to compete for attention need experts to make their own webs stand out from the rest.  Their courses offer to teach creating web applications as well as websites.  Good web programmers are in high demand, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

More Courses Offered For Free

Another website offers more courses for free.  It offers Visual Basic.NET, C#.NET, Beginners’ PHP, Web Design, and Java for Beginners.  These languages are very often used in web programming.

They even have a course called Beginner’s Computing that leads to a BTEC in Information Technology with core units in Communication and Employability Skills for IT and Computer Systems.  A BTEC (Business and Technology Education Council) is a UK qualification equivalent to their A level. It is meant to impart skills required to make a person employable.  In addition to the core units, there are more than 50 other units to choose from including Information Systems, Advanced Database Skills, IT Systems Analysis and Design, Principles of Software Design and Development, Computer Animation, Digital Graphics and Computers, etc.

There are 3 levels of BTEC awarded: the BTEC National Award for IT, the BTEC National Certificate, and the BTEC National Diploma.  The BTEC National Award for IT requires six (6) units to complete and is equivalent to an A level.  It takes about one year to finish this course.  You have to complete twelve (12) units for the BTEC National Certificate.  It is equivalent to two (2) A levels and takes about two years of study to complete.  The highest BTEC qualification is the BTEC National Diploma which is equivalent to three A levels.  You have to pass eighteen units to complete this course.

There are also new National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) information technology courses available.  These are:

1. NVQ Level One in Information Technology – User:  Teaches basic computer skills in one mandatory unit worth 15 points and you can select other units that make up the 25 more to complete 40 units.

2. NVQ Level Two in Information Technology – User:  Same as level one except you are required to take units that add up to 100 points with the mandatory units being worth 25 points.

3. NVQ Level One to Three in Information Technology – Practitioner:  This is the highest level and you need to pass the other two first.  In addition, you will need to pass 40 more units.  This leads to competency at the helpdesk level.

There are also short courses in popular word processing, worksheets such as MS-Word and MS-Excel.

With the wide selection of free online programming courses available, you can make the most of the units earned and use it if you want to pursue a career in IT further by going to a university. The good news is you don’t need a large capital outlay to get started in programming.  You may want to give it a try, it’s free anyway!