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MS Access is the bottom of the DB food chain. It works, but it's terrible for anything beyond a small (40ish) user base. It's probably worth learning if you intend to work at smaller companies, like startups and "shops." The vast majority of 'corporate' or 'enterprise' level companies use MS SQL or Oracle DB. Postgre SQL and mySQL are gaining ground, but don't even approach the user base of Oracle or MS SQL.
I think a "novice skillset" should include knowledge of all the core relational database concepts, including SQL commands, ADD, UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE, etc., with good knowledge of how joins work. These commends, with minor syntactical difference, will apply to any real database system you're asked to use, especially if you have general relational DB concepts down.
Likewise, a "novice skillset" should include PHP/Perl/Apache knowledge if you anticipate web-centered corporations. C# or Java would be nice for OO knowledge, and both have large following. The largest 'home and professional' software vendor (MS) is using C# almost exclusively, and the largest enterprise software company in the world (Oracle) is using Java exclusively. Become familiar with objects and control statements in both languages, at the very least.
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"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel
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