Looking for a high-growth job? Translators and interpreters are increasingly in-demand nationwide!

If you are English-Spanish bilingual, you can turn your language skills into a new career with a Certificate in Spanish/English Translation or Spanish/English Interpretation. 

Bill O'Brien loves water. As the owner and Principal Engineer of NextGen Engineering, he specializes in sustainable water resource and civil engineering projects. "Put me in a wadi or a barranca or an arroyo, and I'm happy," he says.

But that's not the only thing he loves about his work. He says that people who care about water also tend to care deeply about their communities. And to him, "people are what count in the engineering world, more than the projects we build." 

Training the Next Generation

NextGen Engineering's mission is two-fold: planning and implementing sustainable engineering projects and training the next generation of water resource professionals.

NextGen's training programs include an active internship program and a Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam Preparation class.

Passing the Fundamentals of Engineering exam is the first step in becoming a licensed professional engineer (PE). The 15-week FE Exam Prep course includes lectures, weekly study sessions, and practice exams to prepare participants to take the FE exam.

Everyone is Welcome

In Arizona, FE Exam applicants must have a 4-year engineering degree or 4 years of documented work experience in the field.

While many FE Exam Prep class participants have been University of Arizona College of Engineering students or recent graduates, those with non-U.S. engineering degrees or work experience are also welcome in the class.

In fact, one of the reasons Bill created the FE class was to help refugees and immigrants who were engineers in their home countries get re-certified as engineers in the U.S.

When he saw experienced engineering professionals unable to work as engineers after immigrating here, he wanted to help:

"It just breaks my heart sometimes...all the brains of a good engineer and they're pushing carts at Walmart. All that technical knowledge and experience is just being lost."

Bill's answer was to develop the FE Exam Preparation class. The FE Exam Prep class helps the next generation of engineers take an important step towards getting their engineering license, whether they have a U.S. or international engineering degree or experience.

Building Bridges, Not Walls

The seed for Bill's desire to work with refugees was planted while working in the Middle East for over a decade. While he was there, he learned to speak Arabic. He also saw first-hand what life was like for those living in refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan.

Because of his language skills and experience living and working in the Middle East, Bill says it has been a natural fit to welcome refugee families to Tucson.

Bill says that when people arrive in a new country there are very few "bridge people" to welcome them and help them navigate an unfamiliar culture. He continues: 

"When you're at the end of your life and look back... were you a bridge person or did you build walls? We definitely want to be bridge people. We want to welcome people and help them get started."

Bill and his wife are long-time volunteers in the Tucson refugee-serving community. The initial three FE Exam Prep classes were held at the Refugee Resource Center, and were co-written by Randiesia Fletcher, the Co-Founder of the Refugee Resource Center.

Learn More

Starting in July, we are excited to offer reduced prices on more than 20 continuing education programs.

You can save hundreds of dollars on these courses:

• Any Two CompTIA+ Courses
• Certified Electronic Health Records Specialist (CEHRS) Career Prep
• Cisco CCNA and CCNP
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
• CompTIA A+
• Gas Turbine Power Generation Certificate
• Grant Writing Fundamentals

And many more class prices have been reduced. So now you can learn new job skills for less!

SEE ALL SAVINGS

There is a gap between scientific information generated by researchers and the needs of society to address today’s increasingly complex environmental problems. And there has been frustration on both sides: researchers want to see the result of their efforts being used, and decision makers need relevant information to assist in planning and practice.

A unique new University of Arizona training program is designed to close that gap: Transdisciplinary Environmental Science for Society (TESS) is a three-course online program created by University of Arizona faculty Dr. Dan Ferguson, Dr. Gregg Garfin, Dr. Mónica Ramirez-Andreotta and Dr. Connie Woodhouse.

Science for All Our Sakes

Environmental issues such as climate change, resource management and environmental contamination don’t have easy solutions, says Dr. Mónica Ramirez-Andreotta:

“You can’t solve these challenges by yourself. And you can’t solve them with one discipline, and you can’t solve them with one type of stakeholder. Though it sounds simple to bring people together, it is not.”

In their own work, Drs. Ferguson, Garfin, Ramirez-Andreotta and Woodhouse saw that collaboration across academic disciplines and between science and practice was critical to successful environmental problem-solving. They also saw that bringing people together to solve problems isn’t easy, and there was little or no training available to teach people how to do so.

They designed TESS to equip participants with the practical skills they need to improve collaboration between scientific researchers, leaders, community members and others who want to address society’s increasingly complex environmental problems.

About the Program

TESS is a three-course online program. The first TESS course, Fundamentals of Transdisciplinary Research, runs from September 23-October 20, 2019. This introductory course teaches participants about:

• the role of transdisciplinary environmental research, a problem-solving approach that includes collaboration between researchers and stakeholders
• how to engage in collaborative, inclusive environmental problem-solving

Upcoming TESS courses will cover strategies for collaborative research and communication skills.

Participants who successfully complete each course will receive a digital badge and will be eligible to receive 2 continuing education units (CEUs) per course.

Fee: $500 per course (10% discount available for military and for University of Arizona faculty, staff and students).

Wondering what Arizona employers want from their tech staff? Wonder no more! We crunched the data to identify the most in-demand certifications in Arizona tech job postings.

Do you want to get certified? Check out all University of Arizona Continuing & Professional Education IT certification classes.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that there will be over half a million new jobs in the information technology (IT) field in the next seven years. In 2017, the median annual wage for IT occupations was over $84,000.

Certification is one way you can get started or move ahead in this fast-growing field. 

What is an IT Certification?

An IT certification is usually awarded after successfully completing an exam that demonstrates you have the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform a specific job or task. Many certifications are also "stackable," so you can earn more advanced certifications as your knowledge and experience increase.

Industry certification courses can help you learn new skills and prepare you to successfully take a certification exam.

Why Should I Get Certified?

There are many potential benefits to getting an IT certification, including:

• In-demand in the IT field: Many job postings require or prefer a specific certification. In fact, one Burning Glass study found that “Some fields, such as IT Networking, are completely shaped by certifications.”
• Stand out in the hiring process: A CompTIA survey of Human Resources professionals found that 91% of employers believe IT certifications play an important role in hiring and that these certifications can reliably predict that an employee will be successful in their role.
• Salary and professional growth: Certification may increase your starting salary and increase the likelihood of being promoted.

Choose Your Own Certification Adventure

Ready to get certified? Nationally-recognized and in-demand industry certifications include: Cisco CCNA and CCNP certifications, CompTIA certifications (such as A+, Network+, Security+), and Microsoft certifications. We also crunched the numbers to identify the top tech field certifications in Arizona.

University of Arizona Continuing & Professional Education offers a variety of exam prep classes that can equip you with the knowledge and skills you need for certification exam success.

Get Ready to Get Certified