I'm off to college next year doing a Web & Games Development course to hopefully further my knowledge in web design/development. I was hoping if you could provide some information as to what the industry is like at the moment, what your experiences with it have been, and have you got some tips - as to what i should know, things i should look at etc.
I can speak for the Web Development side of things. If you really are looking for a job if you learn HTML, CSS, PHP, and some javascript you can pretty get a job anywhere. At least that's been my experience for things with my lack of PHP knowledge I have pretty much given up much higher paying jobs or at least more work because I don't know PHP well enough.
Web Development can be really fun but also the worst possible thing ever. I think anyone that has done any sort of web work can attest to the demon that is cross browser testing. It's not as bad as it used to be most computers now are pretty up to date and if they have IE8-9 then it's not a huge problem. But there can still be some things that just can piss you off because its a stupid CSS style that once browser displays differently than all of the others.
I've worked in-house for 2 marketing firms where I used to live and working in-house is pretty fun. It brings a nice social aspect to things and if you aren't the lead developer than you can usually get help on the spot instead of waitin for a reply on stackoverflow. I am not working freelance which is super interesting. I am doing contract work for a firned of mine which gives me 20 hours a week which is nice. It also gives me time to do full fledged freelance work which means a lot of networking with people and maybe taking jobs you don't want take necessarily so you can pay the bills. Once you get better and you have more reputation you can start turning stuff down to pick projects you only feel good about which is a huge plus. It just might take you a littl while to get there.
I can't think of a whole lot more. If you have any other questions I will do my best to answer them.