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.

BROWSE CATALOG

Looking to improve your career or start a new one? Learn why online professional development classes may be right for you.

1. Flexibility

What most of our students have in common is that they are busy, and they need flexible learning options. Whether you’re a parent, a care-giver, or a working professional (or all three!), online classes give you the freedom to learn whenever your busy schedule allows.

That’s why we offer more than 70 online classes, so our students can learn at their own pace.

Many online classes are completely self-paced and provide 12 months of access. So you can spend as much—or as little—time as you need to learn the material.

2. Convenience

For most online classes, all you need to get started is a computer with a reasonably good internet connection. Learn from your living room, a coffee shop or the library, and skip the hassles of traffic, parking and bad weather. 

Class materials are available 24/7, and most classes allow you to start any time and complete assignments on your schedule. That means you can learn what you want, when you want.

3. Learn In-Demand Skills...Fast

Our online classes are carefully selected to equip you with the skills employers want right now in fast-growing industries, including

• Project management
• Spanish-English translation
• Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA, CISA and CISM certifications
• Medical coding and billing
• Human resources
• Paralegal and other legal careers

Plus, our online classes take weeks or months—not years—to complete. 

4. Price

Taking online professional development classes can be a very cost-effective way to advance your career. Taking a single online class or a multi-class certificate program is generally much less expensive than completing a degree program.

5. It Works!

We offer noncredit certificate programs, certification exam preparation, continuing education units (CEUs) and lifelong learning opportunities, all at the level of excellence you expect from the University of Arizona.

If you're wondering how online learning stacks up against traditional classroom learning, a U.S. Department of Education report reviewed over one thousand studies of online learning. In studies that compared online learning reults to in-person classroom learning results, the researchers found that online students performed even better than traditional classroom students.

BROWSE CATALOG

What do food waste, performance reviews and managing cabinet door inventory have in common? These are just a few of the problems that University of Arizona Coding Boot Camp graduates tackled in their final projects.

What Kind of Projects Come Out of Coding Boot Camp?

At UA Coding Boot Camp, students learn the front-end and back-end coding skills to become full-stack web developers. They also have the opportunity to simulate a professional work environment by teaming up with their peers to build complex projects that solve real-world problems and boost their portfolios. 

Though several Phoenix-area Coding Boot Camps have already graduated in the last year, this was the first Tucson Coding Boot Camp class to graduate. As part of the graduation festivities, students demonstrated their projects to an enthusiastic audience of friends, family and potential employers.

The diversity and complexity of these projects is particularly impressive, given that the majority of students had little or no coding experience prior to starting Coding Boot Camp 24 weeks earlier.

Lettuce Eat

This app is designed to connect local restaurants that have excess food to nonprofits that need food donations. Restaurants can post announcements about the food they want to donate, and nonprofits can indicate that they are interested in picking up the donations.

ChowPal

This contemporary shopping app creates shopping lists by intelligently parsing snapshots of users’ receipts. It helps users develop a detailed pantry and shopping list, based on what they have actually purchased. You can read more about one ChowPal team member’s Coding Boot Camp experience here.

Momento

Momento is Spanish for “moment,” and it is also an easy and streamlined photo-sharing app. It allows multiple users to contribute to the same album, making it great for weddings and family events. It’s also a more private option than sharing photos on Facebook, Instagram or other social networks.

SkillTrade

This app connects people with skills to people who have a need for those skills. The app is geared towards informal community-based skill-sharing, rather than searching for licensed professionals such as plumbers or electricians.

Porta Door Co

This project was created by a student who works for his family’s custom cabinet-manufacturing business, Porta Door Co. The company’s inventory and order management system is functional but dated and clunky. The student designed a modern, user-friendly inventory management system to meet his family business’s needs.

Local Shopper

This application is designed to help shoppers find products that are available to purchase locally. Small businesses can upload an inventory list as a CSV file, and local shoppers can search the app for the products they want to buy. The app is particularly useful for surfacing specialty items sold by small businesses that may not have online stores or even a web presence.

Peak Performance

Peak Performance streamlines the often time-consuming employee performance management and review process. More and more, organizations are replacing traditional annual performance reviews with ongoing weekly or even daily feedback. Peak Performance offers a simple way to provide quick, actionable employee feedback.  

Congratulations, Tucson Coding Boot Camp graduates!

Learn More About UA Coding Boot Camp

The challenging UA Coding Boot Camp curriculum teaches participants the skills they need to become full-stack web developers. Students learn HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, Java, Bootstrap, Express.js, React.js, Node.js, Database Theory, Bookshelf.js, MongoDB, MySQL, Command Line, Git and more in a hands-on, collaborative classroom environment.

New Boot Camps start quarterly in Gilbert, Chandler and Tucson.

Jobs that require coding skills are growing at a much faster rate than the national average for other jobs, and Burning Glass reports that there are already 7 million job openings that require coding skills.

But not everyone is benefiting equally from this opportunity for career growth.

According to a report from Accenture and Girls Who Code, the percentage of women in computing jobs has declined over time. The report projects that women will hold only one in five U.S. computing jobs by 2025, if current trends continue.

Coding Boot Camps may be one way to reverse that trend.

Meet Abby Thoresen

Abby Thoresen was always interested in computer science. When she was a child, her father loved that she was interested in coding, and he would enroll her in computer programming classes over the summer.

But as an adult, Abby worried about working in a predominantly male industry. As she says:

“I would walk into a new contract job and I was the only female…The team I would work with would be all male, and they were the coders. After doing this for several contract jobs, I said to myself, I want to be a coder but I’m a woman. How would I fit in? Would I be treated differently?”

Pursuing a Dream

Abby says that her father was a major influence in her decision to go to coding boot camp. In addition to enrolling her in computer programming classes, Abby says her father always encouraged her to pursue her goals and dreams.

Abby had read about coding boot camps in a Wall Street Journal article and saw an opportunity to turn her dream of a coding career into reality. When Abby learned that there was a coding boot camp starting in Tucson, she says she “immediately applied.” Now just a few weeks away from completing UA’s Coding Boot Camp, Abby says that it has been “an amazing experience that I recommend to any woman who wants to be in this industry.”

Abby’s father passed in December 2016 from brain cancer. Abby’s boot camp meets in the same UA medical building where her father spent his final days. She says she is humbled and grateful to be having this experience in the place she spent time with her father.

“Be Fearless”

For women who might worry about being one of the few women in a high-tech role, Abby's advice is to “go after your dream, your goal and be fearless. You’ll be surprised and realize how strong you are as a woman, once you become a part of this industry." She also notes that employers want to increase the number of women in tech roles, so now is a great time for women to pursue a coding career.

Once you make the leap and enroll in a coding boot camp, Abby says you should be “humble and honest.” In return, she says, “you’ll emerge as a woman coder with a lot of knowledge and strong communication skills.”

Abby will graduate from UA Coding Boot Camp on April 21.

About UA Coding Boot Camp

The rigorous 24-week UA Coding Boot Camp teaches participants the skills they need to become a full-stack web developer. Students learn HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, Java, Bootstrap, Express.js, React.js, Node.js, Database Theory, Bookshelf.js, MongoDB, MySQL, Command Line, Git and more in a hands-on, collaborative classroom environment.

Are you looking for a way to start a new career or advance in your current career? There are more jobs in the health care industry than in any other sector, and that number is expected to grow in coming years.

Here are four training programs that can help new or experienced medical professionals gain the skills they need to find a job they love.

Build on Your Health Care Experience

If you’re an experienced worker in the health care field, these training programs are designed to build on your current skills and experience.

Spanish-English Medical Translator

In 2016, the average salary for translators in Arizona was $48,000. A certificate in Spanish-English Translation prepares bilingual workers to launch a new career in medical, legal or business translation. Medical Translation is particularly useful for practicing health care workers with no formal translation education who want to leverage their medical experience to start a new career as a translator.

Medical Legal Consultant

Calling all nurses! Building on your medical education and experience, the Legal Nurse Consultant course provides RNs and PAs with the fundamental skills necessary to advise law firms, health care providers, insurance companies, and governmental agencies regarding medical issues and to appear in court as expert witnesses. The course teaches legal concepts related to the health care industry, as well as the role a legal nurse consultant might play in litigation. New classes start every six weeks.

Or…Launch a New Health Care Career

These training programs prepare you to start a new career in the fast-growing field of health care.

Medical Coding and Billing

It is a medical coding professional’s job to translate what happens in a doctor’s office or hospital visit into a system of alphanumeric codes. Medical practices use these codes to track things like a patient’s diagnosis, treatment plan, and prescriptions. Those codes are then used in the billing process. Through the Medical Billing program, you will gain the skills you need to enter this rapidly-growing field.

Medical Records and Health Information Technician

The average salary for an Arizona Medical Records and Health Information Technician is over $41,000 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS projects jobs in this field will grow nearly twice as much as the national average through 2026.

With the move to electronic medical records and other computer-based health information systems, medical offices and health care agencies need administrative professionals who can navigate these complex systems. The Certified Electronic Health Records Specialist Career Prep course provides a comprehensive education in all aspects of electronic health records, including implementing and managing electronic systems, troubleshooting, entering and retrieving patient information, maintaining patient confidentiality, and other topics.

Learn Online, Anywhere, Any Time

Our health care career prep courses are all online, meaning you can learn when you want, when you want. With 24/7 access to class materials, online classes are perfect for busy professionals, parents and others whose work or family obligations make it challenging to attend scheduled in-person classes.

We’re proud to announce the launch of a live, online Coding Boot Camp, designed to fit into the lives of busy adults and working professionals. This 24-week program teaches you the skills to become a full-stack web developer in a convenient live online format.

How Live Online Classes Work

Students can attend these live classes virtually, from any location. Classes are held online in real-time, allowing students to tap into an immersive classroom environment remotely, benefit from collaboration with peers, and receive extensive on-demand support.

This format also allows you to maintain your current job by attending class just three days a week—from the comfort of your home, or any location. Classes meet weekday evenings and Saturdays.

What You Will Learn

The Coding Boot Camp curriculum is based on the most in-demand technologies in the Arizona job market, including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, Express.js, React.js, Node.js, Database Theory, Bookshelf.js, MongoDB, MySQL, Command Line, Git, and more.

Graduates earn a Certificate of Completion from UA Continuing and Professional Education, plus they develop a robust portfolio of web applications to showcase their skills to potential employers.

Live Online Coding Boot Camp Schedule

Live Online Coding Boot Camp runs from September 22, 2018 - March 23, 2019. Classes meet Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30–9:30 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.