How do I Become Angular Certified?

There has never been a ripe moment for businesses to actualize their digital transformation initiatives than in the advent of the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed digital transformation is no longer a mirage to be put off for later but a necessity and matter of life for any business. As business models continue to face radical changes in 2021 and the years after, their digital footprints today matter more than ever and have become an inextricable part of their growth and survival strategy.

Many businesses have had to reinvent the wheel to invest heavily in websites, social media, applications, and other tools that build their digital brands. As a result, the demand for strong front and back-end software development skills has and continues to rise unprecedentedly.    

Some top web development skills that businesses have come to appreciate and which help them thrive during this period include JavaScript (including popular JavaScript libraries like Angular and Vue), different APIs, HTML, CSS, DevOps, and container skills among other soft skills. Today we take a closer look at Angular. What is it, and what does it take a professional to get Angular training and certification? 

What is Angular? 

Angular is an open-source framework invented and maintained by Google. It is used widely by developers for the development of web, desktop, and mobile apps. Today, Angular happens to be one of the more established and complete frameworks with a wide range of libraries and therefore quite effective for the development of complex applications. Angular is written in Typescript, a superset of JavaScript programming language, and works well with HTML a markup language, and CSS a styling language. 

To date, Angular has had several versions and releases. Angular was initially released in 2010 and later, the first stable Angular Version 1 also known as AngularJS was released in September 2016. With every major release coming after six months, the latest release was Angular Version 12 released in May 2021.

AngularJS is a JavaScript framework used for developing the client side of applications. It is important to note that the functions of Angular and AngularJS are different and quite distinct.  

Popular high-end websites developed using Angular include Netflix, The Guardian, Upwork, and iStockPhoto. 

The key features that make Angular more effective to use compared to other frameworks include:   

  • Angular allows for cross-platform development 
  • Supports the development of single-page applications 
  • Angular supports two-way data binding that allows for the synchronization of data between model and view. 
  • Immense community and developer support 
  • Angular supports Model View Controller (MVC) architecture and hence involves lesser coding without compromising its performance. 
  • Optimized speed and performance
  • Angular features a modular architecture where similar functionalities are grouped together into buckets for easier and faster development of efficient applications
  • Angular uses HTML which is intuitive and declarative and therefore a less complex development language. 

The Angular certification path 

Angular continues to enjoy strong backing from Google and the entire Google community. Unlike Microsoft which offers long-running certifications for its technologies, Google sadly does not. This means that to get Angular certification you need to identify a credible learning institution that offers Angular training and certification and this is probably the first step and decision you will have to make before planning your learning path. 

1. Your learning and certification provider 

As we have seen, Angular does not have an official certification. This is because even though it was developed by Google, it is an open-source framework and as such does not claim ownership authority from any institution that can offer certification. The same applies to HTML, CSS, and other web-based programming languages. 

However, some credible training institutions like Simplilearn, Udemy, and others do offer training and in-house certification for Angular and other web-based technologies. It will be important to know that while certifications are a good demonstration of knowledge and skills in certain areas, the emphasis should be on gaining practical skills. Secondly, it is important to select a training institution that:  

  • Offers immersive hands-on training and productive discussions to help you gain practical skills.   
  • Gives you the privilege of asking questions and getting answers during the live sessions
  • Allows personal interaction with the tutors to get help with learning 
  • Offers a comprehensive Angular course that not only covers the building blocks of the framework including its features, TypeScript, Directives, APIs, component libraries, and directives but also covers the distinct features of various Angular versions. 
  • Offers real-world projects and case studies. 

2. Are there any prerequisites for learning Angular?

While there are no prerequisites for learning Angular for many courses, having basic JavaScript knowledge. Will help level your learning curve.  

3. Build key skills 

What skills do you intend to gain at the end of the course? If you are totally new to Angular and to the development field this question may not be easy to answer. However, a little research into the top Angular developer skills can help you plan your studies. For developers who wish to add to their skills, it is fairly easy to know which skills they are looking to gain from a training course.

The bottom line is that by the end of the course, you should have mastered Angular fundamentals and be in a position to create web applications and deploy Angular CLI, components, and other features. 

Some top skills that should help you scale your career include:  

  • Setting up and writing applications using TypeScript language 
  • Using data binding to update your screen 
  • Developing user interface using Bootstrap 
  • Splitting complex interfaces into components 
  • Writing your own directives and pipes 
  • Working with Model View Controller (MVC) architecture 
  • Writing single-page applications using Angular 
  • Service dependency injection 

4. A project portfolio to demonstrate practical skills 

There is no doubt that recruiters are keen on practical skills, certification or not. The best demonstration of skills is by building code and applications and allowing people to interact with them. GitHub is a good platform to do this as it has a huge community and support base.  

You can start by choosing a website or application idea that excites you. Code it with Angular, get your code reviewed by the GitHub community, and then head on to use it to build your application. Once completed successfully, continue practicing by creating other applications until you master using Angular.

With this knowledge, consider an internship or voluntary projects to build up your portfolio. Together with Angular certification, you will be in a good position to tackle interviews and land a good Angular developer position.   

Conclusion 

Angular is a good framework for institutions with large development teams. It is an established framework that is widely used for web, single-page, and application development. Having Angular skills will certainly open up a world of opportunities. For developers as Angular has grown to become one of the most popular web development frameworks. 

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