Short-term courses can lead to dynamic futures

By Michael Corby
FCCJ Media Relations Coordinator
June 29, 2008

It’s proven that education improves your chances for enhanced employment and income opportunities throughout your life. But not everyone wants to, needs to or has time to pursue an advanced degree. You can still improve your outlook and your marketability with short-term business and professional skills courses and series, such as those available through Florida Community College at Jacksonville’s Open Campus.

Open Campus has an array of specialized “centers” and programs designed to meet employees’ and employers’ needs.

Through the Center for Computer Education, students can learn office and creative applications, many of which prepare them for Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification. The Department of Design Technology offers training for those in the fields of architecture, engineering, construction, telecommunications and visualization taught by highly qualified, industry-experienced professionals. Information Technology training can guide students into careers or job enhancement for webmasters, systems engineers, networking and security administrators and database reporting.

Open Campus is home to the Institute for Financial Studies, where students can receive expert instruction in preparation for careers in financial services, earning certificates or degrees, depending on their needs. It’s the only place in Northeast Florida where students can enroll in the Certified Financial Planner™ Certification Education Program, leading to national certification awarded by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc.

Continuing Education, a mainstay of Open Campus, offers professional development courses, as specific as payroll administration and as general as business writing, or training for supervisors, applicable in virtually any business.

In cooperation with the American Payroll Association, Open Campus offers the PayTrain College & University program for payroll professionals. Two professional development courses, PayTrain Fundamentals and PayTrain Mastery, provide desirable skills for professionals interested in advancing their careers or sitting for a certification exam, as well as help for new-hires seeking a better understanding of the industry.

“People’s impressions of us may be based solely on our written communication,” says Deborrah Hoag, a veteran writer, reporter and presenter, in explaining why virtually anyone is a candidate for the Business Writing Academy she leads. Students in her series of six courses have included people from all educational and employment levels.

Where e-mail used to be primarily for internal communication, it “now straddles internal and external communication. It creates peoples’ impressions of you, your department, your company. It needs to meet the ‘Four Cs’ of business writing,” Hoag says, alluding to one of the key lessons in the series.

Carla Beasley, an implementation manager moving into a supervisory role, and Shanna Feliciano, who is a newly appointed team leader in a dental office, are two students in Instructor John Jaroszewski’s Supervisory Leadership Series, a set of eight courses that provide skills for front-line supervisors or those who want the skills to move into supervisory positions.

“It’s not rocket science,” Jaroszewski says about the course content, “but it’s a lot of common sense.” He likens his courses to a toolbox, in which students get a handle on skills such as motivation, delegation, managing change, communication and dealing with problems.

“It’s not rocket science,” Beasley echoes, “but each class makes me think about how I am as a manager and how it affects my employees.” From each class meeting, she says she brings at least one thing into her workplace that she can use immediately.

Feliciano discovered an added benefit she didn’t expect from the skills she is applying in her workplace. “The series also teaches how to manage your life,” Feliciano says, revealing that she is successfully exercising her new skills in delegation with her children, ages six and eleven. She recommends the series not only for supervisors, but for anyone dealing with the public, or trying to understand other people and get positive results.

Costs and availability of courses and series (which may lead to the desire to pursue a degree) vary. Customized training is available for employers. For more information call 904.632.5006 or visit the Open Campus Web site.