Today, I told someone not to go to school. This is not my typical advise. I think school is great and education is very important. However, on the other hand, I think that people place too much dependence on school. It is quite possible to learn something without taking a class to learn it; the possibility of self-teaching doesn't enter the mind often enough.
If you want to learn something, go buy a book about the subject first. There a few benefits to this. The first is cost; it's way cheaper to buy a book than take a college class. Second is time; you can read a book in a week or take a class over several months. The third thing is interest; after reading the first chapter of a book, you may decide that you are not interested in the subject or that the subject was not what you though it would be. Last is style; in most cases, there are several books on the subject; and each book is written in a different style or point-of-view — find your match.
The specifics of my advice to this person lean on all of the above. They felt that the web is going to be one of the areas that does well in 2009; and felt that they should take some web development classes. I explained that by the time that they finished basic classes on the subject that 2009 would be over... and possibly 2010 would pass them by. I also explained that the web is built on a great deal of technology that is available freely and open-source; and that they could get the knowledge and tools for free on the internet. Lastly, I explained that the web market right now is all about experience and the best way to learn was get your hands dirty... by building something now.
School is cool, but it's not the only way.