January 4, 2013

Shiny new year brings new job training programs

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Well, we seem to have made it. After briefly going over — then being pulled right back from — the dreaded "fiscal cliff" over the New Year's holiday, job seekers in Washington state and everywhere else can breathe a little easier. You can be forgiven if you feel a little residual vertigo from the seesawing rhetoric spewing from Washington, D.C., these days.

Here in the real Washington, the state Employment Security Department (ESD) confirmed yesterday that the budget bill signed by President Obama and Congress will continue the 37-week "emergency unemployment compensation" (EUC) that can be claimed by eligible job seekers who've used up their 26-week allotment of regular unemployment benefits. For more information, contact the ESD's EUC claims center at 877-558-8509.

The new year saw a couple of other positive developments regarding training programs that you may have missed during the holidays — one for local residents, the other for all comers. Perhaps they are a sign of sunnier economic days ahead.

Free Microsoft training extended and expanded — One of the most popular ESD training programs, the free Microsoft e-learning courses, has been extended once again through a new contract with course administrator Skillsoft. What was initially a temporary program in 2010 has been extended twice and will now carry on at least through 2013, providing free access to online software training programs.

This year, however, the program has been expanded to include training not only on Microsoft products but also on virtually any kind of business software, include the Adobe Suite, Apple, IBM, Intuit, SAP and many others. In addition, participants will no longer be limited to software that they already own, meaning every online course will be available to all registrants, whether they are employed or not, to be completed on their own time.

Seriously, this is a big deal. An already great program has been rescued and made even better. If you need to brush up on your computer skills, there's really no excuse to pass this up. There are no immediate plans to sunset these courses, but one can never be sure about when the next budget axe will fall. Click here for registration information.

Solar Energy International offers online courses — This training news is not free, but it could be a great opportunity for job seekers to get their feet in the door of the burgeoning solar power industry. To keep up with demand for more trained workers in the green business sector, the Paonia, Colo.-based Solar Energy International (SEI) is expanding its online classroom offerings to include all the prerequisite technical coursework that is needed for the hands-on renewable-energy workshops at SEI's campus.

According to the latest figures from the Solar Foundation's third annual National Solar Jobs Census, the U.S. solar industry underwent a 13.2 percent employment growth rate through 2012, adding more than 13,800 new jobs to manufacture, install and service photovoltaic energy systems nationwide.

All online SEI courses lead to the completion of a training path in the organization's Solar Professionals Certificate Program. SEI will launch the 2013 online training schedule on Jan. 14, offering some of the most rigorous photovoltaic curricula in the industry, which job seekers can start from the comfort of their laptops. For more information, visit SEI's course workshop page.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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career planning, e-learning, government, green jobs, Microsoft, skills, software, training