HTML & CSS Training for Veterans

Are you a veteran returning to civilian life or a member of a veteran’s family aiming to avail yourself of entitlements and benefits? This article is designed to help you navigate your options for taking advantage of these services to enter into a professional skills training program and learn the HTML & CSS skills you’ve always wanted to learn. Whether you’re looking to start a new career, learn a new skill, or pursue a new hobby, mastering HTML and CSS can be a worthwhile pursuit. 

What is HTML & CSS?

HTML and CSS are two essential tools that form the foundations of any web page. They’re often used together, but they both serve different purposes for web coding. The key differences lie in their implementation, ease of use, various features, and their structure, but both are essential to web development. 

HyperText Markup Language HTML) HyperText is a markup language that’s understood by computers, designed to describe web pages and make text more interactive. Originally invented in 1989, HTML is used for creating the primary content of a website, is supported by every single browser, and is established on pretty much every web page in existence. No licenses are required, you don’t need to pay for it, and it can be pretty easy to learn and code.

Cascade Styling Sheets (CSS) is a type of language you can use to describe the presentation of a markup language, like HTML. It effectively determines how the building blocks, as laid by HTML, are decorated and presented to the user. CSS originated in 1996 and is used for background color, styling, layout, borders, and shadowing, all the essential design features that make a webpage look smart and navigate easily. It allows you to distinguish between presentation and content by modifying the design and display of HTML elements.

If you’re interested in exploring the world of programming and web development, HTML and CSS are the ideal place to start. Mastering these tools will provide you with the appropriate foundation to learn programming languages like JavaScript, Ruby, Python, or SQL. 

What Can You Do with HTML & CSS Skills?

HTML and CSS are considered the building blocks to coding and programming, with HTML providing web page structure and CSS used to control web page styling. With HTML and CSS alone, you can build static multi-page websites, code email templates, design beautiful user interfaces, and work with other developers on larger projects. Some example projects are outlined below:

• Building landing pages or sales pages
• Creating static menus for restaurants
• Building multi-page static websites like online resumes, simple portfolio pages, or informational websites
• Becoming a volunteer Wikipedia contributor or editor
• Converting PSD files to HTML and CSS
• Creating email templates for email platforms (like Mailchimp or Hubspot, for example)
• Customizing a WordPress.com or Squarespace.com site

If you work in a creative field like marketing or design, learning HTML and CSS can provide you with a more balanced skill set and give you insight into the technical work of the colleagues that you collaborate with. If you’re looking to launch a career in programming or web development, learning HTML and CSS is the best place to start. Mastering these two fundamental tools will instill the confidence you need to tackle harder programming languages like JavaScript, SQL, and more. 

Whether you’re looking for a career change or simply pursuing a new hobby, learning HTML and CSS is a worthwhile cause. From soft skills like effective communication, problem solving, organization, and collaboration, to more technical skills like hyperlinking, page formatting, and testing and debugging, the knowledge you gain from studying HTML and CSS provides a lifetime of value. 

Support for Veterans

If you are a veteran looking for your next professional path, there are resources available to help you pursue further education. Signed into law in 1944, the GI Bill is a federal program that helps veterans and their families pay for education and training, including college and university tuition, online and part-time schooling, licensing and certification courses, vocational training and trade school, and entrepreneurship training. 

Benefits of the original GI Bill may expire depending on when the veteran was discharged from active duty, but that’s where the Forever GI Bill comes in. If you have at least 90 days of aggregate active duty service after Sept. 10, 2001 and are still on active duty, or if you are an honorably discharged veteran or were discharged with a service- connected disability after 30 days, you may be eligible for this VA-administered program.

The GI Bill and the Forever GI Bill provides qualified veterans and their eligible dependents with financial assistance for tuition and fees, housing and living expenses (if you’re in school more than half-time), and money for books and supplies. 

Noble Desktop’s in-person courses at their Manhattan location are eligible for veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33). You may even be eligible for housing benefits, but it's recommended you reach out to the VA to confirm your eligibility or for any questions about the status of your benefits.

To explore your options for VA supported programs through Noble Desktop, please visit their Veterans Support page and link to the certificate pages of the relevant courses (you don’t need to link to the Veterans Support page itself). Eligible programs from Noble Desktop that cover HTML and CSS include their Web Design Certificate, Full Stack Web Development Certificate, and their Software Engineering Certificate. You can contact Noble Desktop at hello@nobledesktop.com for more information about the programs.

Why Learn HTML & CSS

There are many reasons to learn HTML and CSS. From a professional perspective, learning HTML and CSS is the first step for anyone that wants a career in coding or web development, providing the fundamental transferable skills necessary for learning more complex languages. Many professional roles require knowledge of HTML & CSS, including Web Developers, Visual Designers, and Front End Web Developers. 

Whether you’re upskilling or reskilling, pursuing ongoing professional education will always serve you well in your career. There are reasons to learn HTML and CSS that are unrelated to professional success, however. Learning technical skills can improve your problem-solving skills, memory, confidence, and concentration skills. Learning a new skill can make you a more well-rounded person, both professionally and personally. 

HTML and CSS can also improve your creative skills. While HTML and CSS are considered more technical skills, they do have their place in design. Both are primarily focused on how a web page looks, so learning these languages will help you improve your design skills. CSS in particular allows you to manipulate the colors, fonts, sizing, and spacing of content, so knowledge of these two tools will be useful for creating mockups of websites, apps, or other user experiences.

Additionally, HTML and CSS can help with emails, social media posts, and more. You can use both to design emails that are more visually appealing and to style social media buttons, create responsive social media icons, and structure a Facebook login page. If you love to customize your social media accounts, mastering HTML and CSS can help. 

Why Choose a Skills Bootcamp?

Bootcamps are typically held live either in-person or virtually and allow for in-the-moment discourse with an expert instructor. If you’re struggling with a particular subject, you can ask questions and receive feedback instantly. Additionally, live bootcamps offer a level of accountability that many students say they need to succeed. Scheduled class times and assignment due dates motivate you to stay on track. 

These courses tend to be shorter (a few hours to a few days) and cost less than a certificate program, in part due to how they primarily focus on one skill or tool, as opposed to an entire subject (like programming or web development). Noble Desktop’s HTML Email Bootcamp focuses on teaching you how to code custom-designed emails that adapt to different screen sizes. Held live online, you’ll learn how to code emails with custom designed layouts and graphics to engage with your customer base. You’ll also master using HTML and CSS to code emails, and how the coding techniques differ from coding web pages.

Learn HTML & CSS at Noble Desktop

Live HTML and CSS courses are an ideal learning method for those entirely new to the field. Live online classes are great for those who prefer a solitary learning environment with minimal distractions. They allow you to learn from the comfort of your own home (or wherever you choose), providing more flexibility. Additionally, if you live in an area with limited (or no) in-person options, online classes open up more opportunities for you. 

Live classes allow you to work with other students, make new friends, and receive feedback and input from your instructor in the moment. These classes also provide a higher level of accountability and are a superb choice for those who struggle to keep themselves motivated or on task. They are, of course, less flexible than an online class, but often their advantages outweigh this one disadvantage. 

A great place to start would be Intro to HTML & CSS, a hands-on course that will teach you the basics of both of these fundamental tools. You’ll hand code a webpage from scratch using HTML, learning how to format paragraphs, headings, and lists. You’ll also learn how to create links, add images, and modify tags with attributes. By the end of class, you’ll be familiar with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), including tag selectors, class selectors, and the class attribute.

Noble Desktop’s HTML Email Certificate will help you gain skills to create responsive emails with personality. Boasting small class sizes led by expert instructors, you’ll learn HTML and CSS coding, including how to code effective and cross-mail-client compatible emails and optimize emails for desktop, webmail, and mobile users. By the end of this program, you’ll be able to code emails that display properly in various email apps for your business or clients.

Their Web Development with HTML & CSS will teach you how to develop websites with HTML and CSS, the coding languages used to create web pages. Using HTML, you’ll learn how to create webpages with text, images, and more. Then you’ll use CSS to style the content, create centered page layouts, add background images, style navigation, and make the page responsive so it adapts to various screen sizes using media queries. Finally, you’ll upload files to FTP to make your site go live.

If you’re looking to go a little deeper, you could try the Front End Web Development Certificate. You’ll learn HTML to mark up web pages, CSS for styling, JavaScript to add interactivity and animation, and Git to track code changes and collaborate with other developers. Ideal for those new to coding, you’ll develop the skills to create responsive websites optimized for any size screen (mobile, tablet, and desktop). Additionally, you’ll learn how to use WordPress, the world's leading content management system, to create customizable websites and edit content without the need to be a programming expert.