ok I am bascially IT literate (i can turn it on…), but not skilled in any languages or code, was into the techy side of telecoms and reporting software 5 years ago, and sold some IT kit for a bit, but i would be starting ABSOLUTELY from scratch.

BUT I have a lot of time on my hands and the inclination, but i could use some good advise, pointers on where/how to start, a rough idea of courses i would need to take, and a vague idea of cost?

The end result being me starting to do basic work on droopal installations for a mate in a year or so.

Ahhh a post I can finally answer!

My firm ( http://www.computerminds.co.uk ) are Drupal specialists and we were the first Drupal house in the UK. We are one of the few places that offer Drupal training – but it's not cheap, and I certainly wouldn't try and sell it to an individual.

There is an excellent book out there "pro drupal development" this is the only one worth buying, but it does assume you have a reasonable amount of PHP. You can do a lot these days without having to do any "development" work, just throw a bit of time at learning views and CCK and your laughing. I think lullabots – an American firm – one of our competitors 🙂 – do some highly rated video tutorials on views and cck, might be worth a look at them (I think they are around 50 notes).

The only way to really learn though is by doing – so go and try and get yourself some websites to build (mates businesses, local charties, local MTB clubs etc) and throw yourself in at the deep end.

There is no way it will take you a year, when we hire a new guy we can get them being pretty productive and doing real chargeable work in about 3 days – like with everything though, you never stop learning …

PS – feel free to drop me any questions etc via the contact thingy – I do get horribly busy though so it might take me a while to reply 🙂

I would learn to spell first.

Instead of launching straight into Drupal, at least get a modicum of basic PHP coding under your belt (functions, if/while/do, basic string stuff) first. Otherwise you'll (a) really struggle when something doesn't work the way you expect, and (b) not be able to exploit Drupal to its full capabilities.

yeah, Drupal without PHP knowledge is OK, but to get its full potential you really need PHP. I no longer use drupal in my job, but when I did use it I loved it, a great piece of kit

fauxbyfour – thank you for your constructive pedantry

everyone else – cheers!

fauxyfour is right.

Your spelling is poor 🙁

Do you want fries with that JUPAL installation 😉