A web developer does not need to have any qualifications by law to create websites, but some companies do ask applicants to have some sort of qualifications. Many programmers are self-taught or have learnt much of the techniques by practising in their own time. As a programmer you have to constantly stay on top of your game and keep up to date with all the latest releases in terms of programming languages and technology.

You can chose to do a computer programming course at college or university which will often give you a good overview of many different programming languages such as Java Script and PHP. If you continue on to become a web developer then you may find that you only ever program in one particular language anyway so it is not always essential that you learn all of the other programming languages.

Some web developers know little in depth programming and get by, by using code already created or by using open source software such as WordPress with can be edited quite easily. If the client is looking for a website that is bespoke and has complex functionality then they will need to find a competent programmer who is experienced.