This week: Headless, creating Gutenberg blocks, the need for closer scrutiny, WooCommerce snippets, and much more…
Courtney Robertson is an Open Source Web Design and Developer Advocate at GoDaddy Pro who is a team representative on the WordPress Training Team. She has been using WordPress since 2.3 and contributing since 2009. When not working, you can find her playing a 7 string electric violin, 3D printing, or in her large vegetable garden.
Do you remember what it was like to learn WordPress, or web development in general? Did you have a teacher or mentor to give you pointers in your learning journey, or did you plot your own pathway? What was it like when you had a beginner’s mind? What are you learning now, and what comes next?
As a professional trained school teacher with extensive experience in preparing youth and adults to progress from the technical school classroom to the job market, my mind never drifts far from the learning journey at all stages of career development. There is a direct connection between how and what we learn and the job opportunities available to us.
Yet there seems to be a bottleneck of qualified talent for the positions available. When I speak with those hiring in WordPress, it is a challenge to find those that have the full set of skills needed for the roles available. Hiring managers have shared their hiring rubric or matrix with me. When I seek out training programs in WordPress, or more broadly in web development, none are providing an adequate pathway.
Many of us have been in the WordPress-space for many years by now and found our own way along. However, those who are just getting started don’t know what they don’t know yet. We figured out how and what to learn, but others didn’t. As our industry matures, navigating the ongoing learning and professional development is also still evolving.
How can we onboard new talent, grow ourselves, and increase the opportunity globally for a diverse workforce? I believe in open-sourcing our training opportunities and the Training Team wants to know more.
The Training Team is researching how you have and continue to learn WordPress. Where do you go for training? How do you keep learning? Do you prefer text, video, audio, projects, or other learning styles? What additional considerations do you have?
Whether you are an employer/employee, part of the gig economy as an individual, or seeking help with your own website, the WordPress Jobs board is a go-to place. This site is vetted by members of the WordPress community and focuses on many types of job roles that use WordPress.
Are you just getting started with Full Site Editing, or ready to expand your skills as a developer? Check out the courses on LearnWP. You’ll find courses to help you use the Block Editor, create a low-code theme, and start building your own blocks.
Believe it or not, years ago I was rather opposed to certifications. What changed? Without an official learning pathway outlined by the WordPress project, training institutions didn’t adequately cover the skills needed for participants to be job-ready. What is the value of WordPress certifications? What kinds of certifications and job roles should be included? What concerns do you have? We’re listening.
Yoshiya Hinosawa explains how to use Deno and Fresh to get into Headless WordPress. This approach is a bit different from frameworks like NextJS or Gatsby because it does not require building resources.
Tom McFarlin has just published the third part of his guide on how to create blocks in Gutenberg.
Eric Karkovack points out that the world of WordPress needs a little more control. This is especially true for companies that bend the rules and pollute the admin panel with ads.
LearnDash is taking cutting-edge e-learning methodology and infusing it into WordPress. Trusted to power the learning programs for major universities, small to mid-size companies, startups, entrepreneurs, and bloggers worldwide.
Alex Dudeney has created a list of very useful snippets for WooCommerce. I highly recommend it – it’s a really great source of knowledge.
At WP Tavern we can listen to Nathan Wrigley’s interview with Fränk Klein about what new opportunities Gutenberg and Full Site Editing opens up for developers.
A list of changes that affected the speed of WordPress 6.1 appeared on the Yoast blog.
Anders Norén has just published another theme. This time it is called Oaknut and it is used to create a site similar to Linktree.
Alex Denning showed how their tool, Falcon AI, can be used to find the right keywords.
Bonnie Martin explains what gamification is, how it works, and what the benefits are.
Unfortunately, WordFest Live 2022 will not take place as planned – instead it will take place on December 16.
We encourage you to complete a survey created by MainWP regarding website maintenance.