Given today’s booming technological climate, Cosumnes River College is currently in the process of considering the creation of web design developer associate’s degree.

Currently, CRC only offers certificates in this field.

“Students can get certified here as a web designer,” web Professor Wendell Fishman said. “But we don’t have a degree yet.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of web developers is expected to grow 20 percent from now until 2022.  This is faster than the average of all other occupations.

“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand is high,” Fishman said.

“This makes sense because everything is mobile and the web isn’t going away,” he said.

The occupational demand for web designers is not going unnoticed by certain students attending CRC.

“I want to focus on designing websites,” said Hassan Shabbir, 22, a computer science major. “I know that a job in this sector is paying very well and I already have an understanding of the languages.”

The languages Shabbir is referring to are HTML5, Dreamweaver, Creative Cloud and other code writing languages necessary to properly construct a website.

“If you want to enter this occupation, the typical level of education is an associate’s degree,” Fishman said.

“To be able to work on websites for my career is something that’s very intriguing,” said Wayne Nguyen, 21, a computer science major.

“I’ve always been good at anything that has to do with a computer, but I want to get creative and make things that are original,” he said.

The necessity of an associate’s degree is what is prompting the consideration of a web design developer degree.

“It kinda makes sense that we could make this degree here,” Fishman said.

Creating a new degree to be offered at CRC is multi-step process. First, CRC must approve this degree.

After this step, approval is needed on the district level which is followed by enactment on the state level.

“If students are already interested, they can already start taking the classes,” Fishman said.

“I have quite a few students who are pursuing the certificates,” he said.

Fishman is the professor who is spearheading the movement to create the web design developer degree.

He wants to create a field of web developers that are trained at CRC and have the right tools to succeed.

“This degree would prepare students to become expert web developers, webmasters, web administrators and web programmers,” Fishman said. “Students will learn the skills that are necessary.”