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Do you wish you could earn an undergraduate or graduate degree online? It isn’t always possible for us to take time off of work to pursue further education and sometimes on-campus courses just don’t fit within our schedules. Whether you need more time to work at your own pace or you’re so motivated that you want to complete courses faster than usual, an online degree program might be a good option for you.

If you’re thinking about distance learning and pursuing an online degree, here are ten respectedU.S.colleges and universities offering these programs. Some examples of degree programs offered are also included below.

1. Arizona State University

• BS in Communication
• BS in Film and Media Studies
• BA in History
• BAS in Internet and Web Development
• BS in Nursing
• BS in Political Science
• Master of Engineering
• Master of Arts: Criminal Justice
• Master of Education
• Master of Business Administration

2. Boston University

• Master of Criminal Justice
• Masters of Music, Music Education
• Master of Science in Computer Information Systems
• Master of Social Work
• Doctor of Musical Arts, Music Education
• Doctor of Occupational Therapy

3. The City University of New York (CUNY)

• BA in Communication and Culture
• BS in Business
• BS in Health Information Management
• BA in Sociology

4. Drexel University

• BS in Health Services Administration
• BS in Business Administration
• BS in Communication
• BS in Psychology
• BS in Computing and Security Technology
• Online MBA
• MS in Sport Management
• MS in Hospitality Management
• MS in Information Systems
• MS in Computer Science
• MS in Electrical Engineering

5. Kent State University

• Computer Technology
• Master of Library and Information Science
• Master of Public Administration
• MA for Journalism Educators
• MS in Knowledge Management

6. Rutgers University

• Master of Library and Information Science

7. Stanford University

• Master of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Master of Chemical Engineering
• Master of Management Science and Engineering
• Master of Computer Science
• Master of Mechanical Engineering

8. UCLA

• Master of Science in Engineering

9. University of Massachusetts

• Isenberg Online MBA
• Bachelor of Business Administration
• BA Psychology
• BA Women’s Studies
• BS Hospitality and Tourism Management
• BS Information Technology
• Doctor of Nursing Practice
• Master of Education
• MS in Family Therapy
• Master of Applied Linguistics

10. Virginia Tech

• Master of Aerospace Engineering
• Master of Information Technology
• Master of Political Science
• Master of Ocean Engineering
• Master of Agricultural and Life Sciences

It’s important to note that even online degrees can sometimes have residency or campus visit requirements (although not all do). Others based around hands-on careers will often require internships to get you the hands-on experience you need. Make sure you thoroughly review the requirements of any online degree program before applying.

Have you taken online courses for college credits? Have you earned your entire degree online? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

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Back in 2005, U.S. census date estimated that there were around 12 million nontraditional students enrolling in various colleges across the country. This number has shot up drastically and many are attributing this to the collapse of the economy. When millions of Americans were laid off, they found a much harder time finding a job in an economy flooded with qualified applicants. Going back to school, for some, was the only option. Others found lucrative opportunities by getting their medical billing or Medical Assistant Certification. It wasn’t for one reason or another. There were myriad factors in play, which has prompted many schools to focus more resources on developing programs to placate the needs of the nontraditional student.

Special Accommodations

These nontraditional students make up a large portion of the community and schools, like any business, want their money and colleges are willing to do a lot to get them in the door. For example, around 60 percent of colleges and universities offer on-site day care for those parents who want to care for their child but not have to sacrifice their education to do so. Many schools also work closely with military personnel to meet their special needs. One thing is for sure, nontraditional students are getting schools to bend over backwards to accommodate their lives, and it’s working.

Online Degree Acceptance

For millions of students, going online is far easier because it reduces the requirements for people to be in a specific place and time. Online degrees have become commonplace to day but this hasn’t always been the case. There was a certain amount of stigma placed on them because they were seen as less credible but as the number of people entering the job market with online degrees increased, employers had to stop and take notice. They’re simply a way in which people can get a degree that is geared for people that have great demands placed on them in their daily life. This has in turn foster an increased focus by colleges towards increasing their online programs.

Increased Diversity

The introduction of nontraditional students into the classroom has shown colleges and universities that diversity comes in many forms. This doesn’t simply apply to race but socio-economic positions as well. They’re widening the diversity of campuses and broadening the concept in general. They are an eclectic and ambitious group that demand relevant and rigorous programs and forcing schools to look at themselves and how effective their services are.

It’s not likely that nontraditional students will replace the traditional any time soon. But the numbers are shifting in a big way. Today, and in the future, you can’t get by in the country with a high school diploma. You need some form of higher education to have a successful and fulfilling life. So it’s not likely that this trend will fade away.

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Sit still. Listen carefully. Take notes. Regurgitate it all onto a test or essay. For most of us, this was the way we were expected to learn. Desks sat in rows, and we sat still. The teacher was the one with all the knowledge and power and we listened. If not – we likely failed the class. Unfortunately for those who don’t listen and retain information well, the classic lecture is a horrible way to learn. In fact, it’s not even that great for those of us who do hear information and retain it. It boils down to the emerging science of the brain.

The Brain and Learning
There is still a great deal not known about how the brain operates, but one thing that is put to work in the educational community is the difference between short term and long term memory. In order for you to remember something in a long-term sense, it must be hung on something you already know or have experienced. This “schema” is your background knowledge on a subject. When you hear something new, it enters your short term memory. If you don’t do anything with that information or it doesn’t relate to something you already know, it will filter away in a very short amount of time.

To learn something totally new, the average person has to hear the information more than six or seven times – some people need to hear it upwards of twenty times before it makes it past the barrier between short term and long term memory. It’s unusual to find a high school teacher willing to repeat key elements of the lesson twenty times for those who are struggling to keep up. Fortunately, there are other ways to move information into your long term memory.

The Progression of Learning
The least effective way to learn something is to hear it. Reading or seeing the information isn’t much better. If there is something in your memory already that the new information can attach to it will be a lot easier to learn – perhaps you learn a new way to barbecue chicken, but you’ve barbecued hamburgers in the past so you at least understand the basics of working the grill. If you’ve never opened a grill in your life, the whole lesson on chicken will likely be lost on you.

Listening and seeing information are at the bottom of effective learning practices for most learners although combining them has been shown to help considerably. These processes use the front part of the brain that is attributed with short term memory. One way to store the information more deeply is to simply talk about it. Speech uses a middle portion of the brain that is far closer to long-term learning.

This is why collaborations and discussions are becoming such an integral part of classrooms today. You hear about something and then you talk about it in a group. However, you can have an extended discussion on the merits of chipotle sauce or traditional barbecue sauce for the chicken recipe and not feel any closer to understanding than you did during the lecture. This is because there is still a key element missing – you haven’t effectively used the information.

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Kinesthetic learning does exactly that.

What is Kinesthetic Learning?
A simple definition of kinesthetic learning, or tactile-kinesthetic learning as it is often called, is education through movement and touch. Instead of listening, reading or watching a lesson, with kinesthetic learning you actually perform the lesson. If your child keeps bringing home projects with marshmallow atom structures or a full scale historical figure drawn to be life size, he’s working in a project-based, or kinesthetic classroom. And chances are, regardless of his labeled learning style, he’s benefiting from this style of learning.

In a kinesthetic classroom, your child is likely hearing an introduction to a lesson and getting some basic facts. He is then going to work individually or more likely with a partner or small group to use the information he just learned. Toothpicks and a bag full of small colored marshmallows become a complex carbon atom. A hanging mobile sorts through the characteristics of the protagonist and antagonist in an assigned novel. What appears to be arts and crafts to the parents who sat through the lectures and tests are really opportunities for your child to build schema, or that framework where all future knowledge on the subject can be hung.

Consider the carbon atom. All of those marshmallows and toothpicks arranged by color in the right structure will stick in a child’s mind more effectively than drawing a bunch of labeled circles on the page. The children likely draw the circles initially while they copy the teacher’s notes, but today’s learners get to take the project the additional step by cementing that knowledge using marshmallows (or blocks, or jelly beans or gumdrops.) Wise teachers have a hands-on sort of project for almost all critical elements of their subject matter- perhaps making wave patterns with icing on crackers or drawing the major body systems on a life size cutout or creating a time line of all overlapping historical events.

Parents Supporting Kinesthetic Learning
Kinesthetic learning provides a framework for children to learn more complex knowledge over time. By doing something with information, they are able to process and store it more effectively. Hearing about changing your oil or making chicken is no substitute for actually getting under the hood of a car or barbeque grill. If you’re uncomfortable with the amount of crafts and projects that seem to be coming out of your child’s class, rest assured that the information and learning is there – even if it doesn’t look the same as what you remember from your time in school. In fact, many educational researchers have even gone so far to say that kinesthetic learning is indeed the best way for children to learn.

If you want to support your child’s learning in a kinesthetic way, get her involved in special camps and projects at home where she is exposed to new and different things. Special exhibits in museums cater to children’s desire to touch and physically change things as they experiment. Visit museums, shows, gardens and animal centers or zoos to see and learn. Everything your child is learning or experiencing as she visits and experiments on these family outings will enter her long-term memory as powerful schema. These extensive frameworks of experiences will be critical to expanding her learning indefinitely going forward in her formal education.

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As a teacher working with at-risk students, I love the advantages of kinesthetic learning. In fact, my students thrive on being hand’s on, and it’s not just because they’ve struggled in a traditional classroom previously. My group of at-risk students are those who meet certain criteria that make them more likely to not succeed in the traditional sense.

My students have everything from ADHD and bipolar disorders to homelessness, teenage pregnancies, criminal backgrounds and substance abuse issues. These are not students who sit well in a quiet row taking notes when it comes time to learn about Julius Caesar. They are the embodiment of all of our frustrations in school – they love to challenge the teachers and they have no intention of doing any extra work on their own. It’s all on me to get the information to stick in their minds the majority of the time.

The Hands-on Teacher Toolbox

Having this tough crowd means teachers like me can’t use the time-tested (if boring and marginally effective) methods so heavily favored by most secondary teachers. The old lecture/notes/test framework is out for me, but I still have to get the same amount of information into the minds of my students without using lectures they won’t listen to, homework they won’t do or independent study they’ll just talk through. Teaching outside the traditional teacher box means you need an entirely new bag of tricks, and among my many different techniques, using kinesthetic learning is by far the most effective.

Why?

Generally, because kids today want to be entertained. Their entire experience is comprised of stimulation – games, television, music, computers, lifestyles. They have to literally shut themselves down to come to school, and for many, especially mine, they simply can’t. These are very bright students who often struggle with tedium and boredom more than anything else. Kinesthetic learning works by letting the students get engaged in the learning process and by almost forcing learning on the unsuspecting student. The best way for a stubborn child to learn is when they don’t actually realize they are learning.

The Shift to Hands-On Classrooms

There has been a great deal of discussion in the educational community about brain-based learning and kinesthetic learning, which for all intensive purposes overlap very heavily. Yet even though everyone knows this is a good thing, it just isn’t used in many classrooms. Having worked with teachers of all ability levels – some good and some bad – it’s clear to me why kinesthetic learning doesn’t happen nearly as much as it should.

Teachers don’t know how to run a hands-on classroom. When I was working toward my first round of teaching certifications, I was taught the then-proper way to do a lesson plan. It went something like this: Introduce lesson, teach lesson, guided practice, independent practice, review, assess. While solid enough to be nicely flexible to those of us who like to experiment, most teachers adhere to this method like a religion. They were told to preach and assess and by-golly, they do! Many teachers, especially those who have not worked with the later forms of lesson planning and collaborative learning simply don’t realize this is an almost antiquated format if taken too literally.

Teachers aren’t able to let go enough to try. I’ve taught in a few different ways and even tried lecture and hard discipline once upon a time. It didn’t suit my style, but it was far easier to stand at the front of the room, talk about the subject, have the students take notes, and then assign the work for them to do. It’s straightforward, and running a tight ship means you have control of all behavior all of the time. While structure is certainly worthwhile, you have to let go a bit to let students experiment with the lessons and make a mess playing around the concepts and ideas rather than taking neat notes or pretending to take neat notes.

Teachers don’t believe it works. Unfortunately, there are more than a few teachers who simply don’t think letting students do projects and apply information is beneficial to learning. These teachers often struggle with the general concept of project-based learning and feel like projects are a waste of valuable lecture time.

Teachers don’t like catering to wayward students. For some teachers, the problem is not with their instruction that has worked so well for decades, but the students. Students today aren’t as disciplined or dependable as they used to be and catering to those students by entertaining them is akin to blasphemy. School is not designed to be entertainment – it’s education and the students should be working harder. End of story.

Unfortunately, many of these teachers don’t take into account how many more students today are staying in school when they would otherwise be dropping out. While some of us try to keep students from falling between the cracks of the educational system, these teachers do all they can to force the students out who don’t fit their particular educational model.

The Future of Kinesthetic Learning

Despite those who are adamantly opposed, like all things in education, there is a gradual shift underway. The classroom is moving from the staid lecture model to the more collaborative, project-based method of learning. This is true not only in the high school classrooms, but in many college classes as well. While it’s impossible to turn a 300-student lecture into project fun, many of the smaller classes at the university level are becoming increasingly hands-on to appeal to the modern learners and indeed the new (and improved!) workforce that is being cultivated as creative thinkers who like to get their hands dirty – both figuratively and literally.

Many job postings require a cover letter to accompany the resume. Even if it does not, it is an excellent way to grab the attention of the hiring manager by including information that cannot be fully explained on your resume.

However, if not written well, the cover letter can hurt your job hunt more than it helps. Follow these tips when constructing your cover letter to be sure it makes your application stand out for the right reasons.

Personalize the Cover Letter
Address your cover letter to the hiring manager. With a little detective work, you can easily find out the name of the human resources director or department manager. Customize the letter to them by using their name instead of a generic “To Whom It May Concern” to show you have done your homework.

Customize Every Cover Letter
While you can use a standard template and incorporate the same information into each letter, the cover letter should be tailored to every job opening. Be sure to address the title of the job you are applying for and where you learned of the position in the opening paragraph. This is the place to name drop if you learned of the position through networking from a colleague of the hiring manager.

When reviewing your qualities, address how you fit the qualifications listed in the job posting. If possible, use the same wording as the job posting. If your resume and cover letter are scanned by a computer first for compatibility, the qualifications list will likely be major keywords in the computer scan. Using these keywords can ensure that your cover letter and resume pass this initial screen and make it to a real person.

Do Not Regurgitate Your Resume
Use the cover letter as a way to expand on the information included in your resume by providing examples that demonstrate your achievements. For example, if your resume states that you increased sales by 300% in six months at your current employer and sales ability is a qualification for the new job, describe your process. Explain you were able to achieve this level of sales by developing a new in-person sales technique that you later taught to the entire sales force.

Create a Strong Closing Paragraph
Many job seekers make the mistake of leaving the ball in the court of the hiring manager. A strong candidate will indicate in the closing paragraph a time and date when follow-up will occur to further discuss the position and inquire if additional information is needed. This shows the hiring manager you are serious about the position and willing to go the extra mile. It also indicates you have not blanketed your resume to every open position in the area.

Proofread Well
Have a colleague proof the cover letter for you for grammatical and spelling errors. Do not rely solely on your word processing program to catch these mistakes. A typo in the cover letter can quickly send your application to the nearest trash can.

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“What’s the benefit of college if I’m already making real money?” A question tossed out often on webmaster forums and gathering places of young entrepreneurs, it strikes at the core of one of the most entertaining debates in the online world – do young entrepreneurs need college educations? What’s the value of class time for those who are already earning more than their degreed counterparts? Not surprisingly, the answer has less to do with money in the near future and more to do with future value.

Who Needs College?

A generation or two ago, a college degree was sought by roughly a fourth of the United States graduates. Today, 70 percent of high school graduates are attending a college or university. This significant rise has been fueled by a reduced number of entry-level careers  available without a degree and more career fields requiring a college degree where they once did not. A retail assistant manager, for example, requires a college degree today where twenty years ago, the position was awarded solely on management ability and experience.

To meet demand, universities are springing up everywhere offering more degrees than ever before and more companies are requiring one  as an entry for employment – even if the job doesn’t even remotely match the degree plan. The quality is questionable for some of these degrees as well with the rush to get students out the doors with diploma, any diploma,  in hand.

Entrepreneurs and Degrees

Entrepreneurs have never needed a degree to make money per se. There is money to be made online and a piece of paper with a university seal is not going to make earning conversions and commissions any easier necessarily. Outside of your current earnings, however, a college degree can make your professional life much easier and – dare we say it – better.

Money Made – Money Lost

A university degree is a key to most salaried jobs today, especially those in a computer related field. If you’re content at home making enough to pay the bills plus some you might not be thinking of a worst-case scenario. The reality is unfortunately that most entrepreneurs see as many financial downs as they do ups.  For many marketers, a college degree is a large part of a fall-back plan. It’s hard to imagine it when commission checks are coming in, but it’s as easy to lose money as it is to make money online.

If you fall down far enough, you’ll need money immediately, and you’ll likely earn it with the sort of job that likes its employees to have a degree of some kind. If you don’t have the sacred piece of paper, you might struggle to get in the door when you could easily do the job of three of their current employees. There are jobs out there you might be able to earn without having a degree, but if your fallback plan is to do a bit of SEO for local companies, for example, those companies will like to see your years of experience coupled with a bit of formal education. It’s simply an acceptable professional standard.

Credit: CarbonNYC

Something Learned, Something Gained

If you’re making more money that you ever dreamed of, taking time out of your busy workday to consider coursework seems more  hassle than reward. However, there are courses and degree plans that will give you information and instruction not available without the world of pure academia. Even online universities can’t replace the element of learning that comes from classrooms full of spirited discussions about finance and business case studies. There is no substitute for getting your hands dirty with science and engineering experiments.

Entrepreneurs exist in every facet of industry – especially ones specific to certain  industries. If you like the feeling of owning your own business and calling all the shots, learning from experts in a field will give you new information, new contacts, new ideas and new opportunities to build with over time – fuel for success long-term.

Your Timing Couldn’t Be Better

If you’re considering dropping out of a college program or have yet to start, one  you’re wasting the best years for education. Coursework for four years may seem insufferable now, but it will be much worse if you’re trying to make up time later when you don’t have money to burn.

Earning a university degree while you’re young is ideal. You’ll have the basic requirement for most standard careers if you need to change paths down the road. Your time now is virtually uncommitted outside of your own ventures – this is certainly not the case once your reach an age that family is a factor. Best of all, committing yourself to university coursework on even a part-time basis will give you endless opportunities to network, brainstorm and start new ventures based on the information and skills you’re learning.

There are many eloquent arguments out there for entrepreneurs to skip a university education if they aren’t inclined to take the plunge now. These arguments are right that the internet is a leveling ground letting us all compete on equal footing. However this is true only at certain levels in certain fields.  There will likely come a time in your career that you don’t want to stay there – you’ll be ready to move to a more professional niche. And in most cases, to move on you’ll need a diploma and the connections and skills that come with it as your ticket in.

For more than eight years, I’ve taught troubled students. And unlike many teachers, I prefer these troubled teens and actively seek out teaching positions where I have a chance to interact with at-risk students. Working with such a diverse group of young people – many of whom would have dropped out of school if it were not for alternative high schools such as the one I work in now – has shown me exactly how effective kinesthetic learning can be.

Learning by Doing – How Simple Is That?

Experts don’t get to be outstanding by listening to lecture. They don’t become brilliant scientists or psychologists by listening to someone drone on about certain practices and theories and then taking notes on the subject matter. Experts in every field became experts by doing something with information after they hear it. From World Cup soccer players to the top customer service employee at the local McDonalds, every expert is a model of kinesthetic learning.

The premise behind kinesthetic learning is to gain knowledge through movement and action. At one end of the spectrum are the notes on jet propulsion. At the other end is the bottle rocket experiment where you have to calculate the propulsion based on any number of variables. While the typical learner can get information both ways, the information he sees and hears will never impact him the same way that the experiment will. Science has always lent itself to kinesthetic learning models, but all subject matter can be taught with a healthy bit of movement and activity.

Today’s (Improved?) Learner

Credit: United States Army

The student arriving in a classroom today is a far cry from the students of a generation ago. Taking it back another generation – to the roots of many teachers who are now retiring – the differences in learners is phenomenal. Although there are significant differences in the students themselves, the biological basics of the generations are the same. Children haven’t become different people or been born with a healthy dose of lazy. There are more identified conditions, some with causes, some without, to contend with in the classroom, but we know far more about the ways students learn today than we did a generation or two ago. Not only do we know that kinesthetic learning models are better for students, we know why.

Students are easily distracted – Call it what you will, and you have plenty of acronyms to choose from. Today’s students are simply more preoccupied. Studies have shown that even television programs have sped up, flashing from one scene to another more quickly than they did a generation ago to keep the child’s brain engaged. When you compare fast-action television and video games to the far slower pace of school, it’s easy to see where it might be considered drudgery by the students who are trapped without any form of escape.

Students expect entertainment – Adults may gripe about students expecting to be entertained and not knowing the value of a solid education they have to work for, but if you think about it, we all expect to be entertained constantly throughout the day. Thanks to the same media formats students use, we all can watch movies, listen to music, update our walls or profiles and chat with friends over instant messengers or text even when we’re supposed to be working. If we ask students to forgo these elements of their lifestyles, it’s expected that teachers will need to work hard to keep student attention levels high. Teachers can cajole with entertainment much more easily than they can force through threat and punishment.

Learning is more deeply rooted with kinesthetic learning –Not only does project-based learning get students up and moving, it also cements the learning in their minds. With the huge amount of information available to us today, getting the important things to stick in the mind of the learner means that information must be highlighted and special. Taking those notes and turning them into a project or experiment is a sure-fire way to do exactly that.

Kinesthetic learning teaches students to think – Hearing or reading something can give you something to think about, but even the best of us will most often just glean what we need and regurgitate it onto a test without rolling over the implications in our mind. A kinesthetic lesson on the same thing forces students to not only use information they read or heard, but it also makes them think about what is happening. Considering jobs are constantly being invented that we’ve never heard before, teaching students to think rather than recite or repeat is a far better life lesson looking into an indiscriminate future.

The Ideal Learning Experience

The impact of kinesthetic learning on teenagers and children can branch out to affect us all. If teenagers learning about acceleration better by practicinge the formulas by racing cars down the school hallway, or improve their Shakespearean language by making their own parodies to perform in front of the class, what does this say about how adults should be learning?

Is it enough to read about new material or listen to a lecture before taking a test? Some college degrees, especially online degrees, are based now exclusively on reading and listening to lecture – is that enough to ensure that an adult knows the subject matter? And more importantly, does kinesthetic learning through classrooms or their own experiences give others an expertise that you’re lacking?  Finally, when will a more effective learning model replace the outdated practices still used in educational systems today?

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You must have seen several ads about how to get “free” money for your small business. Is there really free money available for your businesses?

While the government does offer grant money, it is not easy to qualify or receive as some may lead you to believe.  There are hundreds of scams out there that entice small business owners with the promise of free money, for a small fee.

These scams work by guaranteeing that you will get a small business grant or you will get all your money back.  They charge you a fee of about $50 for a packet with information on how to write your grant proposal and a list of organizations that can provide the grant you are looking for.  Unassuming business owners pay this fee and receive information with a list of organizations that don’t give any business grants.  When you try and get your money back, you find that the guarantee was just a hog wash.

Does that mean there are no small business grants?

There are, but are rare, and the information you need to find and apply for the legitimate grants is available “free” of charge. For businesses that qualify, there is a possibility of getting free grants from the county, state and city governments.  There are also some private corporations and foundations offering these grants.

Grants for Technology Startups

Businesses that stand the best chance of getting grants are technology startups. As long as they match the extremely stringent requirements, the federal government’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology (STTR) programs are there to help. They award more than $2 billion in grant funding each year.

Small Technology Focused Businesses

Many state and city governments offer grants for small businesses that focus on technology. In Ohio, TechColumbus offers grants to help entrepreneurs test their ideas and see if they can actually run a business. In Philadelphia, The Ben Franklin Partnership and in Gardiner, Maine, the Maine Technology Institute are just a few of the many organizations that help local tech companies out.

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Non-Tech Businesses

Small Business Certifications – Non-tech businesses may not find it as easy as tech-focused businesses to get a grant. But it is still possible if you do the needful. The first thing to do is to check if the business qualifies for special small business certifications, such as minority-owned, woman-owned, veteran-owned business or disadvantaged business. The state and federal governments usually give preference to such business owners.

Economic Development Agencies – You can then look at the economic development agencies or similar agencies in your local area.  Many of these agencies offer government-sponsored grants in an attempt to help with the expansion of existing businesses, help new businesses get started, train employees etc. For example, workforce training grants are offered by the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council for businesses in the counties.

Get Grant Information – The next step would be to sign up at Grants.gov and get information related to different kinds of federal grants.  It may not be easy to qualify directly, but it is certainly possible to get a part of the funding with a little innovative thinking and some networking.

Workforce Training Grants – Workforce training grants are a great source of funds. Many states have these grants and you can check out for grants within your state.  You will also be able to get more information through community colleges or workforce investment board.  Some states fund more than $10 or $20 million which helps hundreds of companies.

Foundation Grants – You can also look at foundation grants at the Foundation Center that provides you information on U.S. based foundations, public charities that give grants as well as corporate giving programs. While grants from these places are meant for non-profit organizations, you can make use of them intelligently by creating a non-profit front for your small business.  You can attach a non-profit section to your existing services or products business.  For example, a children’s theatre company can have a non-profit section that teaches after-school acting classes.

Irrespective of the grant you apply for, you must understand that the cash is usually meant for funding specific products or projects, not for companies.  If you are looking for free money, you must also be ready to fit into the requirements by making changes to your business structure as needed.

Apart from that, businesses that do obtain grants cannot spend the money as they please.  They will have to abide by the strict rules and regulations concerning how the money can be spent and the percentage of money that can be used for specific purposes. These requirements will have to be complied with.

Are you fascinated by a topic and you want to know more about it? Is the thought of attending a prestigious university appealing, but not realistic for you? The Internet and Open Courseware are making top notch educational opportunities available to the public on the Internet through free online courses from top universities and organizations.

You won’t earn course credits or a degree with these free online courses, but they’ll allow you to expand your mind by reading, listening to, and watching some of the best minds in various fields. Whether you’re interested in learning more about business and marketing, history, foreign languages, science, or the arts, you’re bound to find something you’ll love from these places offering free online courses.

1. Yale University

Credit: Yale University

Wouldn’t you love to sit in on a Yale lecture? Now you can with their Open Yale program, which offers several free online courses in topics ranging from The Old Testament to Biomedical Engineering.

There aren’t a lot of available courses online from Yale, but the quality more than makes up for the lack of quantity. This is one of several top universities that not only offers written course materials but also full videos of the course lectures or downloadable .mp3 audio versions so you can listen to the lectures from just about anywhere.

2. MIT

Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT’s OpenCourseware is without a doubt the biggest collection of free online courses from a prestigious university. Their list of offerings is huge to put it mildly. Interested in architectural design? They’ve got it. Want to learn about globalization? They’ve got that too. How about nonlinear dynamics or even toy product design? Oh yeah, you’re covered. Is there anything you can’t learn about with MIT’s OpenCourseware? Maybe, but I can’t find it.

The courses available online through MIT don’t follow a single format, so know that they’ll vary. Some courses will feature lecture notes. Some will include exams and solutions. Others will include multimedia elements like video lectures. In most, if not all, courses you’ll be told what texts the on-campus students used in the class, so you can purchase the textbook to follow along with the course if you’d like to.

3. U.S. Small Business Administration

Credit: U.S. Small Business Administration

The SBA may not be a university, but they offer some of the best free online business courses available on the Web. Whether you’re already a business owner or just thinking about becoming one, let them teach you how to write a business plan, market your business, understand basic accounting principles, and more with interactive online courses.

I’m personally a huge fan of their business planning resources, and recommend them to all prospective entrepreneurs or freelancers. You can even learn about things like international business and crime prevention. What’s not to love?

4. The Open University

Credit: The Open University

This UK university offers a pretty wide range of free online courses and learning materials through their OpenLearn program. What I love about OpenLearn is that they tell you up front in the course listings how long a course should take you to complete (18 hours for a climate change course and 8 hours for a social marketing course for example).

Each “study unit” in the OpenLearn program features its own discussion forum, allowing you to interact with other people following the same courses or sharing your interest areas.

5. UC Berkeley

Credit: UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley might not be the biggest compared to MIT’s huge offering of free online course materials, but you could argue they’re the best. What I love about UC Berkeley is that they offer all of their free online course materials in webcast form. You can find audio and / or video lectures, allowing you to feel like you’re right in the actual classroom or lecture hall (without worrying about being called on!).

UC Berkeley also does something other universities don’t — they offer webcasts of current semester courses. In other words, you can take a course right along with current students earning a degree with the school. Their webcast list lets you know the course schedule so you never miss a lecture. When you first visit the link above, the course list might look small. But don’t let that fool you! You’ll only be looking at the current semester’s webcast list. Check out the drop-down menu near the upper right of the screen, and you can pull up free online courses from past semesters as well (from as far back as 2001!).

No, you won’t earn a degree with these free online courses, but they offer an amazing wealth of knowledge. There’s no excuse not to learn anymore — not money, not admissions essays, nothing at all. Check out some of these free online courses and webcasts, and learn something new today. And when your friends or colleagues ask where you picked up that awesome little nugget of wisdom, just say “Oh, just [insert prestigious university here]. No biggie!”

The economy in the United States is causing great concern for everyday citizens around the world. While top level executives are walking away with millions from failed companies, investors and employees are facing hard facts about their investments, their careers and their future. When you find yourself under the axe, your career aspects are bleaker across the board and if you’re not prepared for the possibility of lay-offs, you can be a tight spot both in the short-term and long-term.

Jobs and Recessions

There is little doubt there is a huge correlation between jobs and the economy. When the economy dips, companies trim the fat on their budgets. Often, this means non profitable departments are cut along with nonessential personnel. Contractors, freelancers and others might find themselves out of work for one company where they were duplicates of actual employees who must now shoulder more work for the same salary. Freelance individuals might find also themselves with more work as companies opt to outsource work to contractors rather than pay employee benefits and salaries.

In a recession, many jobs will be lost and the jobs that remain will become more cumbersome. Some fields will remain the same or even grow, such as the medical industry, virtually undisturbed by the economic conditions. Your plan for a bad economy should reflect your career track, your skills and your initiative.

Jobseeker Qualifications

When you find yourself worrying about the economy or the well being of your particularly employer, remember that the best employees are usually the first to jump ship. Employees with contacts and skills that make them desirable in the industry are often sought after by competitors with firmer standing, and when the first sniff of trouble arrives, these employees are gone to the highest bidder.

To be one of the more desirable employees snatched up by competitors or just easy to hire for a company in a different sector, you should have:

• Clear and necessary skills
• Experience in a particular field
• Documented education and certifications
• Contacts within the industry

You should always be working to network and build contacts within the industry you choose to work in, as well as competing and complementing industries. These contacts can come in handy when you need to find a position now. The remainder of the qualifications are earned rather than created. This is where education comes into play.

Benefits of Education

While education can’t give you workforce experience, it can give you opportunities to start work in an entirely new career without the benefit of experience. If you recognize a need in your area for cable technicians, a few certifications classes can get you qualified to lay cable. While this is quite a switch from many office style careers, you don’t hear of cable technicians getting laid off. Skilled labor is hard to come by in a great economy, so it’s usually one of the best places to start your education in a bad one. You can learn a basic skill in a matter of weeks and use that skill to secure yourself a job. As you continue to learn and add skills to your initial one, you’ll be well on your way to a formal certificate or degree as well as a career in an area where you are sorely needed and unlikely to ever be asked to leave.

Education can give you an almost immediate skill as well as starting you on a new track. While you might learn a spot of welding to get you into a particular company, you can add more technical skills and management courses to your degree over time. When you finish your degree, the economy will likely have improved and you will have survived with a new career and now have a huge number of options as to how you want to use your new degree and extremely valuable experience in a particular field.

Seeking Opportunities

The most critical aspect to finding a job in a failing economy is going where the jobs are. This might mean physically moving to a new city or state, or it might mean doing research to determine what needs there are in your community for skilled and trained employees. Find an opportunity that interests you and immediately get to work earning the entry-level qualifications or adding to your current qualifications to be sure you are the most desirable applicant for the job.

In a bad economy, jobs won’t come to you – you must find them. For those who have used education to their advantage, this can be as simple as letting a few contacts know what skills and abilities you have and waiting for a conversation to start regarding a move to that company using your new skills as a catalyst for change.