Business Technology Certificate produces results

A guest post from our facilitator Dan Doherty.

 

When it comes to using office productivity software do find yourself doing something and think, there must be a faster way, but you haven’t the time or the knowledge to find it? Guided by the vision of instructor David Sudbury, Continuing Studies restructured its suite of MS-Office courses over the last few years from conventional feature-based courses to a comprehensive line-up of learning-centred application and procedural modules that facilitate development of knowledge, skills and values related to how to use software, and equally as important…how to learn software. This was done in response to labour market demand and through funding with Employment Skills Access (ESA), this became the Business Technology Certificate (BTC). Through this program learners “confidently use computer-based technology to perform business front-line and administration tasks.”

The secret sauce has two primary ingredients: 1) a facilitated community cohort model and 2) a focus on self-managed learning. People enter this program with a wide range of background skills and knowledge about computers, from neophytes to skilled users, for whom the technology has evolved greatly since their last use of it. Learners take responsibility for catching up on the basics or on forging out into advanced concepts, whichever meets their needs.

The program starts with a week in the classroom, where participants get to know each other’s strengths and learning needs. Once in the lab, the well-formed learning community serves as a base for advocacy and resource sharing, while instructor-led modules, learning plans, online modules and self-assessment provide the content and process structure. The two most recent cohorts were facilitated by two people passionate about learning and office productivity tools, Dan Doherty and Sabrina Shea.

A work shadow day is organized for the 6^th week. This is where the truth about their learning is revealed. Participants are assigned to an office team at RRU or in a best fit situation in the community, to observe the use of computers in daily work tasks, or to pitch in and help with something that requires knowledge of MS-Office. The general level of knowledge about MS-Office features is either narrowly focused or shallow, so BTC participants find they can offer practical assistance to the team they are embedded with. They are often surprised to find that their new learning is the solution to a sticky problem that an employee has been struggling with or working around.

These students demonstrate a high-caliber of application during their final presentations. They employ the suite of MS-Office tools at a level not achieved by many professional users, such as PowerPoint slides with dynamic visual design, embedded audio and video, and integrated links to applications where they show how they produce results in each of the MS-Office programs, then seamlessly return to the slideshow. With skills like these they are ready to work, and make an immediate contribution to their team.

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Find out more about the Business Technology Certificate.

Visit us at cstudies.royalroads.ca.