NPR reports on the launch of Chandler Coding Boot Camp. According to the story, Economic Development Director Micah Miranda says the program will fill a critical need in Chandler’s software industry cluster: “We’re seeing tremendous amount of growth, and what we’re hearing from our industry partners is they need more talent and more employees.”

See the full story here.

Melissa Vito, UA's senior vice president for Student Affairs, Enrollment Management and Strategic Initiatives, explains how the University of Arizona is addressing gaps in workforce readiness demands.

Read the full story here.

The Phoenix Business Journal reported on the launch of the UA Coding Boot Camp in Gilbert. According to the article, Gilbert Mayor Jenn Daniels said: 

“I am proud that the University of Arizona has chosen Gilbert as their next program location as they invest in the future success of the state’s workforce."

Read the full story here.

Turn your language skills into an exciting new career with the Spanish-English Translation Certificate Program. This 3-course, 16-week online program is designed to train entry-level translators to meet the needs of doctors' offices, hospitals, courts, law offices, schools and other settings.

The Spanish-English Translation Certificate Program is intended for bilingual (English-Spanish) speakers with no formal training in translation who wish to improve or expand their knowledge and skills in written translation.

Because the courses are completely online, they are ideal for busy professionals who cannot attend face-to-face classes due to career and family obligations.

Legal Translation and Medical Translation classes begin May 14, 2018.

Azteca Tucson features CaPE Spanish-English Translation Course Designer, Dr. Sonia Colina, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the UA!

The Spanish-English Translation Certificate Program is a 3-course online program designed to train entry-level translators to meet the needs of doctors' offices, hospitals, courts, law offices, schools and other settings.

Students may take all three courses—Medical, Legal, and Business Translation—or just one course at a time. A UA Certificate in Translation is awarded upon successful completion of all 3 courses.

The mission of the University of Arizona Coding Boot Camp is to equip students for today’s digital landscape. Through a rigorous curriculum, students not only learn the specialized skills for front-end and back-end web development, but also the soft skills to stand out in the job market.

Meet a Coding Boot Camp Graduate

At the University or Arizona Continuing and Professional Education, we could not be more proud of the incredible accomplishments of the students in our program. Read below to learn a little bit about Jessica and her journey to becoming a web developer at the Coding Boot Camp.

“The Boot Camp gave me the ability to get a job as a front end developer with a great salary and a nice work environment that is interesting every day. During the class, I had the opportunity to practice group projects, which were great learning experiences and have benefited me in my current work.

Since I was a career changer and had been out of the office environment for a while, I am grateful to everyone on the Boot Camp staff who were encouraging and who helped me put together a good resume and portfolio. When I was interviewing for my job, they told me that most people don’t even provide work samples for them to look at. I wouldn’t have known what potential employers want to see without the support of my instructors. You could go online and get tutorials to learn how to code but, the extra support I got at the University of Arizona Coding Boot Camp was really valuable for me and helped me find and secure my dream job.”

Learn More About Coding Boot Camp

Over the course of 12 weeks, students dedicate themselves to an intensive, full-time program that requires hours of hard work both in and outside of the classroom. Coding Boot Camp participants benefit from:

• A dynamic curriculum that teaches in-demand skills such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, Express.js, React.js, Node.js, MongoDB, MySQL, and more
• Learning in a hands-on classroom environment, giving you real-world experience working in teams and maximum support from your instructors
• Career support including coaching, resume and social media profile assistance, technical interview training, and an engaged network of employer partners

New Boot Camps start quarterly in Tucson and the Phoenix metro area. Full-time and part-time options are available.

Workers in almost every industry can benefit from adding data analysis skills to their resumes. There were over 2.4 million job postings in 2015 that required data analysis skills, and most of those jobs were outside the field of data science.

In fact, by 2021, workers with data analysis skills will be twice as likely to get a job. That's why we are thrilled and excited to launch UA Data Analytics Boot Camp.

Learn Data Analytics in 24 Weeks

Data Analytics Boot Camp participants learn the concrete skills they need to turn data into actionable insights. Participants learn advanced Excel, Python, JavaScript, SQL and more in a hands-on classroom environment.

Over the course of 24 weeks, Boot Camp participants complete projects using real data sets from the worlds of finance, healthcare and government. This portfolio of professional projects, plus a wide range of career services, position Boot Camp graduates for success, whether they are changing careers or working to advance in their current careers.

LEARN MORE

It's officially the first day of spring, the desert is in bloom, and it's a beautiful day to learn something new. Spring into a new career with these upcoming classes!

Coding Boot Camps 

Coding Boot Camp teaches the foundational skills for front end and back end web development through a dynamic, hands-on curriculum. Build an impressive portfolio of projects in just 24 weeks. Classes start April 17 in Tucson and April 24 in Gilbert. 

Learn More >>>

Spanish-English Translation Certificate Program

Turn your language skills into a new legal, medical or business career with the Spanish-English Translation Certificat Program. Legal Translation and Medical Translation classes begin May 14, 2018.

Learn More >>>

Professional Development Programs for Legal Careers

If you want to start a new career in the legal field or advance your current career by building legal knowledge and skills, we have more than a dozen options to choose from:

• Advanced Legal Research & Writing Certificate Course
• Advanced Paralegal Certificate Course
• Alternative Dispute Resolution Certificate Course
• Employment Law Certificate Course
• Intellectual Property Law for Engineers
• Legal Investigation Certificate Course
• Legal Nurse Consultant Training Course
• Legal Secretary Certificate Course
• Medical Professional Legal Consultant
• Paralegal Certificate Course
• Personal Injury for Paralegals
• Software Essentials for the Law Office
• Victim Advocacy Certificate Course

Classes start April 30!

Happy learning!

If you're interested in changing careers, these University of Arizona programs can help you upgrade your skill-set and find a fulfilling job in the tech industry.

1. Get an IT Certification

IT certifications are awarded by a certifying body, often a specific company or an industry association. Certification generally involves taking an exam (or multiple exams) to demonstrate knowledge and skills in a particular area.

An entry-level certification can open the door to a new tech career. For example, the COMPTIA A+ certification is a requirement for a sizable percentage of entry-level IT help desk jobs, according to Burning Glass.

Many of these credentials are also “stackable,” and IT professionals acquire additional certifications as they increase their skills and experience in the field. These additional credentials can often result in career advancement and increased salaries.

There are many different certifications and career paths for IT professionals. A few well-known ones are:

• COMPTIA is one of the most well-known IT certification programs. Popular and in-demand certifications include IT Fundamentals, A+, Network+ and Security+.
• Cisco certifications revolve around Cisco networking and communication technologies, with certifications such as Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) demonstrating increasing levels of skill in those areas.
• Microsoft offers a variety of certifications on its applications, as well as its server technologies and developer tools. For example, the Microsoft MCSE Data Management and Analytics certification qualifies workers for a variety of database analyst, database designer, and business intelligence analyst jobs.
• ISACA focuses on IT governance, risk assessement and security management. It offers several professional certifications, including Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Certified Information Security Manager (CISM).

Certification exams are typically rigorous, so many people choose to take a certification exam preparation course to increase their likelihood of passing the exam.

Browse IT Certifications

2. Learn to Code

Indeed just ranked full stack developer as the second-best job in the country. But what exactly is a full-stack developer?

Web developers design and build websites. Front-end web development includes anything that a website user sees and interacts with: things like the colors, fonts, graphics, menus, sliders and the website’s overall layout and design. Back-end development focuses on the technical underpinnings of the site, such as the server, database, and applications that power the front end of the website.

A good analogy we once heard is that a back-end developer builds a house, and a front-end developer does the interior design. A full-stack web developer can do both.

Our Coding Boot Camps teach front-end and back-end technology skills to equip participants with the skills they need to become a full-stack web developer.

Not sure web development is the career for you? The same skills you need to become a web developer are in high demand in a wide variety of other industries. Burning Glass estimated that there are 7 million job openings that require coding skills, and half of programming jobs are in industries outside of technology.

Explore Boot Camps

Once upon a time, a person could enter the workforce with education and job skills that would stay relevant far into the future, maybe even resulting in a lifetime of work with just a single company.

Times have changed. On average, people starting a career today will hold 11 different jobs within their lifetime, and these jobs may or may not be in the same field. The rapid changes in technology and innovation make today’s skills quickly obsolete. Those who aren’t keeping up are falling behind.  

It is an unsettling situation, not just for individual employees, but also for employers interested in maintaining a competitive edge.

Fortunately, there is a solution.

Relevant and timely training provides the means for staff to expand their skills and knowledge and address deficits in operations and performance.

As obvious as it seems that learning new skills can help employees do their jobs more effectively, employers often need to be convinced to invest in this approach.

If you’ve identified a prime training opportunity and you’d like your employer to pay for it, here are a few recommendations on how to make your case that training is a worthy investment for your company:

1. Describe the Need. What is changing in your profession or industry? What effects of this change have you observed or experienced in your work? How would training address this? 

2. Offer a Training Solution. Gather complete information about the training you are interested in, including the cost, curriculum, learning outcomes, schedule and duration, any travel expenses that might apply, and registration deadlines. Many training organizations (including UA Continuing & Professional Education) offer a variety of discounts, so be sure to highlight discounts that may be available.

3. Provide a Comparative Analysis. Take the time to do a little research and provide comparative information about other training alternatives. Why is this particular training the best option? Describe the alternatives you considered and the factors that informed your conclusion.

4. Spell Out the Return on Investment (ROI). If you participate in the training, what value does it have to the company? Spend time teasing this out and be specific. Possible benefits to the company may include:

• Training can be applied immediately, resulting in improvements such as increased efficiency, productivity and capacity.
• Offer to share new knowledge and skills with your team or co-workers, which would extend the benefit of the training to others in the organization.
• Emphasize that gaining new skills often opens up new possibilities and ways of thinking, which has the potential to lead to new services, processes or products.
• Training often provides an opportunity to learn from other key players in the industry, which can keep the company up-to-date on the latest technology and/or industry trends.

5. Make Your Case. Once you have your information and formulated your ROI list, it’s time to get in front of your boss. Time is precious, and schedules are frequently jam-packed, so try a two-pronged approach rather than relying solely on email. Send your proposal via email, but also request a face-to-face meeting where you can discuss it in more depth.   

A note for employers who may be reading this: Your employee is probably too nice to say it, but the cold hard truth is that companies will pay, one way or the other. They can invest now in employee training that keeps skills and knowledge current and competitive. Or they can pay later through incurring costs associated with fixing deficits and problems or through losing employees who are frustrated at the lack of career development opportunities.

Bottom line: training is cheaper.

Rebecca Cook is the Senior Director, UA Continuing & Professional Education.

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