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REGION: More folks looking to boost job skills
Local community colleges see bump in quick certification classes
By PAUL SISSON - Staff Writer | ∞
Lead instructor at Mira Costa College's Business Office Technology Program, Kathy Striebel works with students at the business lab on campus last week. (Photo by Bill Wechter - Staff Photographer) 
MiraCosta College instructor Kathy Van Pelt, right, works with student Charity Casillas at the business lab on campus last week. (Photo by Bill Wechter - Staff Photographer) 
MiraCosta College student Melanie Wilson works on document formatting at the business lab on campus last week. (Photo by Bill Wechter - Staff Photographer) OCEANSIDE ---- Local community colleges are bracing for an influx of students looking for a quick way to strengthen their job skills or pursue new careers.
Officials at MiraCosta and Palomar community colleges say they have already seen significant enrollment bumps for the ongoing fall semester and expect even more interest as layoffs continue to prompt North County residents to look for new skills to put on their resumes.
The quickest to add new skills is with a raft of one-semester courses that can provide proficiency certificates in a range of entry-level jobs.
MiraCosta has already seen a 21.6 percent spike in enrollments in 14 of its one-semester certification courses, which range from assistant teacher to virtual assistant.
The courses, which are offered through the school's Business Office Technology Program, are self-paced and students do most of their course work online. Enrollees also must drop by the office's computer lab to demonstrate their skills and can also receive help from on-site instructors.
Though the recently jobless might seem like the lab's most regular visitors, Kathy Striebel, a professor for the program, said she has seen an increase in the number of employed middle managers taking classes through the office this year.
"Many of the middle managers are suddenly now responsible for editing all of their own documents and doing their own reports. It's a situation where they would have had an assistant to do all of that work before, but now that person is gone, and they need to update their skills," Striebel said.
Another class of employee, Striebel said, is one that is looking to bolster their chance of keeping his or her job as layoffs loom.
"I think the main market we're seeing, other than the middle managers, are people who are trying to make themselves the most employable person in their office," Striebel said.
Melanie Wilson fit that model, to a degree. A mother of two who is returning to the work force just as employment options narrow, Wilson said she was recently hired to do office work for Carlsbad attorney Lien Tram.
Though she said she can handle the work at the one-person law office, Wilson said she is trying to make her typing and office skills more efficient so she can get more done in less time.
She said she appreciated the flexibility of the office technology classes.
"Having a job and two kids at home, being able to get online and work or come in to this lab is very helpful," Wilson said last week as she typed on a computer in MiraCosta's technology lab.
Nearby, Kathy Webb of Oceanside practiced document formatting as part of her quest to rejoin the work force after many years of choosing not to work.
"I decided I needed to update my skills," Webb said. "Going back isn't nearly as intimidating now that I have some classes under my belt."
Striebel said MiraCosta's office technology lab is a single-room attempt to give workers roughly the same environment they would find if hired at a local company.
"We try to simulate what a student is going to find when they go out to work," she said.
Though many of the students who have come to the business office so far have been employed, Striebel said she expects her office to see an increase in recently-laid-off workers in the spring semester.
Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.
MiraCosta College one-semester certification courses
Assistant Teacher
Automotive Alignment, Brakes and Suspension
Automotive Quick Service Assistant
Billing, Cost and Accounting Assistant
Data Entry
E-Commerce
Front Office Operations
General Office Skills
Income Tax Preparer
Medical Transcription
Microsoft Certified Office User
Property Management
Virtual Assistant
For more information visit: miracosta.edu/BOT
Palomar College single-semester courses*
Bookkeeping Fundamentals
Machine Woodworking/Furniture
Construction Inspection
Diesel Mechanics --- basic hydraulics
Office Information Systems --- keyboarding
Welding
Antique furniture restoration
Auto Body Repair
Computer Repair
Computer Science and Information Systems --- Help Desk fundamentals
QuickBooks
Software Applications
Upholstery
Noncredit courses
Cake Decorating
Floral Design
Medical Billing
Bartending
Casino Dealer
Personal Fitness Trainer
For more information visit palomar.edu
* Not all courses feature one-semester certification
Source: MiraCosta and Palomar colleges.
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jvc wrote on Nov 25, 2008 3:16 PM:Why don't we just provide jobs and let the jobless gain skills on the job while making money! As it stands now, we are training at these schools for jobs that might not exist! These schools are just exploiting the jobless and making themselves the profiteers of our economic problems! Give America back its dignity by putting it to work and not beholden to academic institutional elites who are more than ready to profit from our societal problems!
Ironically, another great American problem is that our academic institutions are a dismal failure!
Floyd wrote on Nov 25, 2008 4:36 PM:Palomar College has a campus in Escondido that offers a lot of really good computer classes. If you'd like to master the Office programs (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations) or find out how easy it is to create a web page with a text editor, these classes are great! A three-unit class will cost $60 + unavoidable fees (another $20) + parking (another $30) + the textbook (another $50 - $100). Compare that to non-public institutions that charge $1500 per class (plus fees, etc.)! If money is a problem, you can take the exact same course through the Regional Occupation Program (ROP) and pay only for parking and textbook (space in ROP is limited, but worth the effort). Can't go in the daytime? Many classes have a second section offered at night, on weekends, and over the Internet (which means you can log in when you want to for classwork, just so long as you remember to keep at it). Really, it's one of the best values available from government today. http://www.palomar.edu
To Floyd wrote on Nov 25, 2008 6:27 PM:The problem with what you outline is that the skills these people will obtain are ultimately useless.
Master Office ... gee ... that's a tough one.
Create a web page via text editor. Sure, not the toughest thing in the world ... now find someone to pay you for the elementary website that can be created that way. Technology has far surpassed that whole 'text based site thing' long ago.
Community colleges really need to step up the pace when it comes to computer related classes if they really want to compete/contribute in a persons desire to improve/prepare themselves for the technology based workplace that exists today.
Both of my kids have taken computer arts classes at the college and they both ran circles around their instructors just based on what they've learned by doing it themselves at home. That's hardly an education worth paying for.
Just Chillin wrote on Nov 26, 2008 9:56 AM:To JVC:
I've seen you comment on many different stories regarding MiraCosta, and every time there are negative comments and hostility involved. Why are you so angry all the time? I say "Live and Let Live". I'd also like to know how you can prove that "we are training at these schools for jobs that might not exist".
Elite wrote on Nov 26, 2008 10:07 AM:Does JVC know anything about community college instructors? I think they earn about $30,000 a year. That's not exactly elite.
jvc wrote on Nov 26, 2008 1:14 PM:Yes, it is elite when a faculty can force the resignation of a president
for doing nothing more than investigating theft by one of their own!
Whoa wrote on Nov 26, 2008 2:01 PM:When the former president left, she in no way was forced to resign; in fact, she laughed all the way to the bank. She's just a good actress. And she did many nasty things in addition to the immoral way in which she went about investigating an alleged theft.
JVC Lets Be Thankful... wrote on Nov 26, 2008 2:10 PM:...for what we have; stop the anger and the finger pointing. Life is too short to keep rehashing the past. In these unstable times, there are so many people who are much worse off than we are: we should be thankful and appreciative, not angry. What's done is done - it's time to move on.
jvc wrote on Nov 26, 2008 3:12 PM:You should have been thankful to have a president of the talents of a Richart!
What are you talking about? I am thankful that I am motivated for seeking justice for all, not anger!
jvc wrote on Nov 26, 2008 4:12 PM:Anger is wasted energy! Human nature has the potential to do too much good to waste on anger! In man's history
of finding the meaning to our existence,
I have concluded that the ultimate use of the human brain that no other animal shares is to use it in the service to humankind!
Oh JVC wrote on Nov 26, 2008 5:03 PM:If I didn't know any better I'd think JVC is Vickie herself. You're obviously a very passionate person, so why not take the energy being wasted on bashing Miracosta and put it toward something positive. It would benefit others and maybe you would not be so bitter.
jvc wrote on Nov 26, 2008 5:50 PM:Are we so morally bankrupted that it is hard to believe one could be motivated by benevolence?
jvc wrote on Nov 27, 2008 8:36 AM:Your assertion that our academic institutions are beyond scrutiny is offensive!
John wrote on Nov 30, 2008 5:18 PM:When will you let your allegiance to Richart go, JVC? She was the worst thing that ever happened to MiraCosta. And now you hang out and post negative comments about MiraCosta every chance you get, regardless of topic. Everyone started ignoring you a long time ago. Get a life!
jvc wrote on Nov 30, 2008 7:51 PM:My allegiance has not been toward Richart at all but to MCC and justice, the justice you should have fought for for almost three years of turmoil under a dysfunctional faculty! How could any of us have a life without justice? Please read this weeks Forum as it seems others are also showing concern about the sincerity of the dysfunctional MCC faculty!
jvc wrote on Nov 30, 2008 8:46 PM:It is hoped it could be said that the problems at MCC is just about a dysfunctional faculty that are motivated by self-interest but the problems are much greater when it is now known that the community college system is a failure and these schools
for the most part have very poor instruction and that knowledge in general continues to be treated as an esoteric entity which makes these schools a hoax of educational opportunity!
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