Sunday, November 28, 2010

The School of Continuing Education at Centennial College Supports An Adult Environment

Part-time, evening, weekend, online and alternative format courses are all a part of ensuring that everyone can obtain an education through Centennial College's School of Continuing Education. The School's programs are designed to help adult learners improve their skills, further their education, pursue a variety of interests and enable them to embrace new possibilities. And these program options are clearly on the right track when you consider, for example, that continuing education was deemed by researches more of a necessity and less of an option in today's workplace. Therefore, employees are encouraged to participate in continuing education courses to simply keep up with their areas of expertise. In addition part-time, evening, weekend and online classes may also suit parents with small children, those who must continue to work while attending school, those who may not be able to afford to travel to campus, and many others.


Every year, 22,000 School of Continuing Education learners take advantage of Centennial College's 160 programs that feature more than 1,200 courses and have a 97 per cent learner satisfaction.

Part of the reason for the satisfaction statistic is the fact that continuing education options provide a mature environment and an understanding of the needs of adult learners by experienced faculty. In addition, continuing education provides effective instructor to student ratio and an optimal classroom size enabling competent peer interaction.

Registration for a continuing education option starts with asking yourself: Do I have the necessary course prerequisites? To register for certain courses or programs, you must meet specific, identified prerequisites or requirements prior to registration.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you have the necessary prerequisites. Without the necessary course requirements, you may be asked to withdraw, with the risk of academic and/or financial penalty. Also, please be advised that within certain programs there may be qualification requirements and costs for external accreditations, designations, certifications or recognitions. These are set by the granting bodies and not by Centennial College. In order to qualify for any of those external accreditations, designations, certification or recognition, students and graduates will need to follow the processes and meet the applicable requirements listed on the websites and materials of those external bodies. You'll be able to find more information about this when you apply online for the Continuing Education program of your choice.

As previously mentioned, you may choose to study through the School of Education's Distance Learning or on campus. Should you think that a physical classroom is a better fit for you, Centennial College has four campus locations. All campuses are centrally located and easily accessible by public transit. Classrooms are fully equipped with tools and labs to ensure that hands-on practice is obtained. Meanwhile, Distance Learning, designed with flexibility in mind, is a form of instructor-led study enabling students to work through course material and assignments in their own time and space, with 24- hour access to the online classroom.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Continuing Education For Mfts - Expectations

Year after year, there are always several licensees that have questions on their continuing education obligations. Deciphering what is required can be a daunting task at times.

The expectations of each state will vary and can change at any time. Each licensee must keep themselves educated on their state's latest CE requirements. Every state posts the up-to-date version of their rules and regulations on their website. This is a good source to check during each renewal cycle to see if there have been any changes.

The MFT continuing education requirements for each state can be met from a number of online providers. These online providers may not be approved in all states for MFTs. Verify that the provider to be used has the appropriate approval to offer MFT continuing education courses in your state. The approvals received and provider numbers issued should be displayed on the online provider's website.

Here are some suggestions on ways to keep yourself informed regarding your CE requirements:

--Document your state board's phone number, website address, mailing address, fax number, etc.

--Ask to be added to your state board's mailing list for any newsletters or other communication methods of updates.

--Identify a CE provider that gives access to the various state board's websites via links. The same provider might have links to the websites of the national boards from which they have been approved as well. The CEU provider should have a page dedicated to these links. Unfortunately, not all providers have this information. The ones that do are providing a valuable resource.

--Begin the process early. Start months before your license expires. This will provide enough cushion to conclude your CE according to the most recent regulations provided by your board. You can also use the extra time to select courses that will challenge you beyond your current abilities, and not just settle for courses you are already comfortable with. There is no reason to put yourself into panic mode because you waited to long to get started. Think and plan ahead.

Friday, November 12, 2010

The Benefits Of Online Continuing Education

Today's working professionals can increase their credibility and find opportunities to advance their careers through online continuing education. These courses are flexible and do not require the completion of an entire degree program. Many continuing ed courses can be taken individually and are more focused on gaining personal knowledge than earning an actual degree.

What is continuing education about?

To stay competitive or advance in a particular industry or the job market as a whole, it's important for working professionals to have knowledge of the most up-to-date developments and practices in their field. These courses will teach students these new developments, as well as other essential skills like how to make the best use of new technology at work. Continuing education can build on your existing degree, or provide a foundation to build upon if you plan to earn an advanced degree in the future.

Why online?

Online learning is the perfect format for continuing education classes, because it allows working professionals to enroll without disrupting their lives or jobs. Full-time employees with careers and families benefit from the flexibility and convenience offered by online continuing education. Many people do not have the financial resources to take time off work for education, but online courses can be completed in the evenings, on weekends, or even during a lunch break.

A wide range ofonline continuing education courses are offered by colleges, universities, and other online education providers. Enrolling in these courses can help you advance your career and earn a higher salary, and some courses can even be applied toward the completion of a graduate-level degree. Many companies will offer tuition reimbursement to employees who continue learning for the overall betterment of their career. Learning online can help you save time and money by allowing you to maintain a current job while you gain new skills and knowledge.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

How To Balance Work And Continuing Your Education With Online Training

Online training has opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for those who want to balance work and continuing their education. With online training courses becoming more competitive and opening up new opportunities for employment, there aren't many good excuses for opting out of a continuing education. Of course, the one stumbling block that so many of us hit is the element of time.

Working full time and using online training as a vehicle for further your education is often a unique challenge that requires some amount of creative thinking. Usually, the problem isn't really about time. It's about being able to set priorities and learning how to restructure the time that's allotted. Moving the online training courses to the top of the list helps to make it easier to restructure those priorities.

Online training courses give you the flexibility to create a schedule that is going to suit your needs and allow you the freedom to choose your education over certain other aspects of life. If you are unable to put down the remote or get off your social network page you're going to have a much harder time finding the time that you're looking for.

There are plenty of people who have learned to happily live out of their dryer for a few months instead of insisting that their sweat pants are folded and neatly tucked away. There are others who have found that hiring someone to watch the kids, walk the dog, or do light housekeeping has opened up the time they needed to devote to their education. Some people complete their online training by taking a few vacation days when they need to. It's all about balance.

It's not that we all need to become comfortable living around dirty dishes and unkempt clothing, but there are many little chores that can easily be delegated to someone else in the household. If there isn't anyone else in the household, a neighborhood student will be more than happy to take on a job for less than you would pay a professional but with the responsibility capabilities required to show up and do the job they were hired for. Online training courses are about being able to manage time well enough to meet the very basic requirements of time management.

The greatest time wasters are usually the ones that we enjoy the most. While it's important to have down time, how you spend that down time could be eating into your daily opportunities. Try cutting the cable altogether. See how much more time you have when TV is no longer an option. Remove video game systems from the entertainment center and focus your email correspondence to 30 minutes once per day instead of randomly throughout the morning and evening. Of course, there are those time eating games on social networks that are making a big splash, and are now shown to be the number one time waster of all. Online training is much easier to accomplish when we are not distracted by all of the potential fun we could be having.