I would like to learn how to code better and I would like to help OSS development. Can these be put together? Is there a way to learn better programming by helping OSS projects? I have never held a programming job and have only worked on small projects for my personal use. Is there a path that can make me useful enough to contribute and learn from these projects?
My limited experience is mostly web dev, php/mysql, html/css. My goal, as it stands, is to learn more about database administration. But I am willing to follow opportunities elsewhere.
I'm assuming there is no shortage of work to be done in OSS. But is there work for beginners? Any insights are welcome.