Author: Jeff
Newest Employee of the Month: Keeps us up and running!
Our IT department rocks and one of the reasons is people like our newest Better Learning Systems employee of the month, Scott Wallace. He treats everyone (internal or external) like a customer, with respect, follow-up, and “can do” attitude. Over the past three months Scott was there for us and our customers at very critical times and we were so fortunate for that. He comes in on weekends if need be, takes on additional responsibilities and always demonstrates our core values because he’s easy to work with, builds trust with people, and values the efforts of his peers .
One of the best experiences for me working with Scott is when he explained in simple terms what we needed to do to eliminate “points of failure” in our technical and operational support areas. I really respected how candid he was and not only expressed the problem but also recommended the right solutions. These recommendations keep our OnlineExpert.com enterprise up and running as well as our many office systems and servers.
His passion for making sure our teachers, students, and veterans have a good learning experience is clearly demonstrated by how he is always willing to take a call to help them any way he can. Could be an internet connection issue, web browser, configuration settings; he demonstrates patience and willingness at all times.
Take a minute to get to know some fun facts about Scott:
1. How many siblings do you have? Two.
2. What is your favorite movie? I can’t answer that there are too many, so I’ll give you my first favorite movie. Johnny Sokko and Giant Robot.
3. What is your favorite band? Led Zeppelin.
4. What is your favorite vacation spot? Anywhere I go together with Dawn & Izzie.
5. What was your high school’s mascot? An Alta hawk, which is a fictitious bird, btw.
6. What is the weirdest combination of foods you have eaten? Not really sure?
7. What is/was the name of your favorite pet? Bogger & Izzie.
8. What was your first car? 1970 Z-28 Camaro.
9. If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be? I would take Dawn on a Disneyland world tour, or where ever she wanted to go.
10. Would you rather sky dive, bungee jump, zip line, or parasail? We’ve been zip-lining. Parasailing I guess.
11. If you could eat dinner with anyone from the past, present, or future, who would it be and why? How could I have dinner with someone from the future? There is no possible way in our fixed number of dimensions that I could possible know who will be in existence in the future. Not two days into the future, not two seconds into the future. Ok how about my wife this weekend at the finest Disneyland restaurant in California.
As previously stated our IT department rocks and Scott Wallace is a big reason for that! Thank you again Scott and congratulations!
When Employees “Get It” Everyone Wins!
Amazing people do amazing things and that is not by accident. Have you every met someone who just “gets it”? When we do there is a saying “they get the why”.
That could not be more evident then by our newest LearnKey, Better Learning Systems employee of the month Skyler Knight, a LearnKey designer in our Cedar City, UT office. The “why” is why we do what we do, not the what and how of our products and services; its the passion of wanting to help people “fulfill their dreams through better learning systems”. That is why we do what we do.
Skyler demonstrates that through always keeping our core values front and center. Here’s what his leader had to say through his nomination:
“Skyler works every day to ensure he is meeting our core values (Ease, Value, and Trust). He is Easy to work with and we trust he will get the job done because he’s the first to finish assignments and brings so much value to our production team by always going above and beyond”.
In my own personal experience with Skyler he can also pull a fast one as he and another employee swapped places in April 1st of this year getting me to believe one of his peers was actually him! It worked and I owe him and Jordan big time the next time I am in Cedar!
For fun, here’s some more insight to Skyler:
1. How many siblings do you have? I have 3 siblings, one older sister, one older brother, and one younger sister.
2. What is your favorite movie? My current favorite movie is Abraham Lincoln Vampire Killer.
3. What is your favorite band? My current favorite band is Twenty One Pilots.
4. What is your favorite vacation spot? I don’t take too many vacations but my most recent trip was to South Korea. I would say that it is by far my favorite spot to travel to. There are so many beautiful buildings to see and a lot of beaches to admire there as well.
5. What was your high school’s mascot? My high school’s mascot was a Ram.
6. What is the weirdest combination of foods you have eaten? The weirdest combination of food I’ve ever eaten was live (still moving) octopus with sesame oil, raw fish, and salt.
7. What is/was the name of your favorite pet? The name of my favorite pet was Halo.
8. What was your first car? The first car I ever owned was a green 1995 Jeep Cherokee
9. If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be? If I could go anywhere in the world right now I would travel to Japan.
10. Would you rather sky dive, bungee jump, zip line, or parasail? I think I would rather zip line if I had to choose from the above options. Maybe someday if I gain the courage I would like to go bungee jumping or sky diving too.
11. What is the funniest saying you have heard working here? “Will you smell my yogurt?” –Chris Walser
12. If you could eat dinner with anyone from the past, present, or future, who would it be and why? I would choose to eat dinner with a philosopher from the past, perhaps Socrates. The reason being that I would like to ask him about his personal philosophies about knowledge and gain insight and wisdom from someone who is not overwhelmed by all of the distractions of our modern world.
Please join me in congratulating Skyler and reminding him how fortunate to we feel to have him as part of our team.
Regards,
Jeff Coruccini
Beau Knows LearnKey!
Need a trade show coordinated? How about a marketing white paper? Or updated course catalog and better yet- how about travel arrangements? Those are key areas of our company and we are fortunate enough to have Beau Shakespear handle those duties or shall I say “wear all those hats” with a “can do” attitude and great pride in his work. It is for that reason and the way he demonstrates our company’s core values that he is the recipient of our March 2014 Better Learning Systems employee of the month!
As our Marketing and Tradeshow Coordinator Beau has developed strong organizational skills and really taken control in communicating our key messaging for students, teachers and veterans. Our leadership team can count on Beau to be one step ahead of us at all times when it comes to key marketing and support activities. Kim Johnson, his manager, had this to say regarding his nomination:
“Over the past few months Beau coordinated a major redesign of our LearnKey.com website that has made it easier to navigate, find information that is informative and much needed. I am so proud of how he went about completing such a major task and how he has adapted with managing multiple projects, meeting deadlines at all times”.
Our core values are built around ease, value and trust. Beau exemplifies these in how easy it is to work with him, the value his contributions bring and trust he builds with the way he goes about doing his job. Way go to Beau!
As always, here’s a Q and A on some fun facts about Beau:
1. How many siblings do you have? 2 brothers, 1 sister
2. What is your favorite movie? Baby Mamma – This could be because my wife is pregnant. But you can never go wrong with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
3. What is your favorite band? Couldn’t name a favorite band. But currently I am loving Happy by Pharrell Williams.
4. What is your favorite vacation spot? Disneyland
5. What was your high school’s mascot? Cowboys
6. What is the weirdest combination of foods you have eaten? One time in Mexico I ate crickets with spice on them. They were crunchy.
7. What is/was the name of your favorite pet? Tramp my dog.
8. What was your first car? 1989 golden Astro Van.
9. If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be? Italy or Ireland
10. Would you rather sky dive, bungee jump, zip line, or parasail? I have been sky diving and zip lining. But I would go zip lining again in a heartbeat. It was so much fun.
11. What is the funniest saying you have heard working here? Some things are worth dying for, and one of those things is gluten. YOLO!
12. If you could eat dinner with anyone from the past, present, or future, who would it be and why? I would like to eat with whichever ancestor was the closest to William Shakespeare and ask them how/if I am related to William Shakespeare. Then I would finally have an answer when people ask me “Are you related to William Shakespeare?”
Please join me in congratulating Beau for this great accomplishment and thank you once more Beau for all the great work you do and how you go about doing it.
Jeff
Employee of the Month: LearnKey.com has a raving fan!
That is correct, our very own Colin Bell has been working hard to improve the user experience when navigating learnkey.com. His approach really demonstrates “less is more” as you can see from our home page and how we focus on students, educators, veterans and corporate enterprises.
This was no easy task, and for that he has been recognized as Better Learning Systems employee of the month. His hard work truly demonstrates and lives up to our core values: ease, value and trust. The site is much easier to understand, our value is in the quality of our courses with new releases up front and he trusted the input of his team members when planning the improvements. Colin had to accept a ton of feedback, sometimes not getting clear enough direction and last minute changes – he handled all of it just like a true team player.
Here’s what one of the nominating leaders had to say about Colin:
“We would like to acknowledge Colin this month for his outstanding work in updating and streamlining our website LearnKey.com. With his attention to detail he has created a cleaner and more user friendly website. Colin has been a trusted team player who ensures that we are representing our brand in a professional manner. We are truly grateful to have him as a part of our LearnKey family.”
A perfect example of someone putting passion around his work.
We’d like to share with you some fun questions and answers so you can get to know Colin too:
Continue reading “Employee of the Month: LearnKey.com has a raving fan!”
Newest Employee of the Month: Outstanding, Amazing, Invaluable and more!
“Outstanding”, “Amazing”, “Invaluable” – Those were the words used to describe Rikki McKim, our newest LearnKey employee of the month.
Rikki is a customer service champion known for a keen sense of how to “connect” with students, teachers and learners so she can help them use our LearnKey education courseware and OnlineExpert Learning Management System for the best experience. Anyone who has ever spent time with Rikki quickly understands why we feel so fortunate to have her as part of our team. She truly cares about our customers and values their commitment to us as a learning provider.
Here’s what her leader had to say:
“I value her knowledge and her ability to dig in and understand our systems better. Her customer service skills are outstanding. Rikki is extremely easy to work with and truly cares about her coworkers and our customers”.
There is a saying “happy employees create happy customers” and this is living proof that it works!
Learn some fun facts about Rikki:
Continue reading “Newest Employee of the Month: Outstanding, Amazing, Invaluable and more!”
LearnKey’s Newest EOM: Making a difference one Veteran at a time!
One of the greatest things our employees do everyday is focus on how they can make a positive difference in the learning experience. In our Salt Lake City office where we shoot the courses with our experts, our production crew is making sure the objectives are covered and we cover the right topics. In Cedar City where we produce the courses tying in video, technical writing and graphic design ,once again its about how can we drive the best learning experience making our courses easy to understand.
Then there is our LearnKey veteran services team that is working hard to help every veteran who goes through our program to counsel and support them making sure they stay on track and meet all their milestones.
This is where our newest Better Learning Systems/LearnKey employee of the month Corin Saunders works hard to “make a difference” – not only for our veteran students, but also working to improve our systems and processes we use each and every day.
Following her nomination, here is what here manager had to say:
“Corin joined the Veteran Services team in April of this year, and from day one she has had a huge impact on the team and the students that we support. She has truly immersed herself into the position and become an expert in all of the multi-platform education programs that we provide. In the interviewing process, Corin made it clear that she loves to help people and feel that she is making a difference. That is very apparent in her work with over 100 Veterans with whom she communicates on a regular basis. She dispenses just the right amount of compassion and tough love to help our students to make the most of their time with LearnKey and gain the certifications they need to advance their careers”.
We are so fortunate to have Corin as part of our team, and for fun, let us share a little bit of insight to her personally by way of these questions:
Continue reading “LearnKey’s Newest EOM: Making a difference one Veteran at a time!”
CEO Open Letter: “Vet to Tech” Program helping U.S. Veterans get Job Ready
Just over two years ago I took over the role as CEO of LearnKey, Inc, a trusted educator for over 26 years. Our educational courseware has helped over a million students to acquire professional development education, career ready skills, and industry recognized IT certifications for career development, new job preparation and or advancement.
Looking back, one of the greatest experiences and most exciting things to see has been the creation of our LearnKey Veteran Services team – a three year old dedicated group of support and career counselors within the company who currently support over 100 U.S. veterans transitioning from the military who are ready to work in entry and advanced IT Technical Support positions. Most of these veterans started gaining IT experience in the service, and are now completing six to eight months of online education and achieving globally recognized IT certifications from CompTIA, Cisco, Microsoft, ISC², Mile2, and more. Most of them will have at least one (if not multiple) certifications in the coming weeks and they will be looking for employment opportunities.
We are not a recruiting company, and want no fee – just the opportunity to help these great job candidates, who served our country and are job ready, find rewarding IT career pathways in U.S. companies.
Help us find our returning veterans career paths – If you own, lead, or work for a company interested in interviewing these veterans and quality tech support candidates, please contact Brian Tremelling, LearnKey Veteran Services Program Manager (btremelling@learnkey.com) directly. Additionally, hiring veterans can allow employers to take advantage of tax incentives (when applicable) and many of the veterans who go through our program qualify.
Again, please join us in supporting our transitioning troops by interviewing one of our job ready veteran candidates for your IT support needs. There is no cost to tap into this network of talented individuals, only opportunity.
Thank you and with kind regards,
Jeff Coruccini
CEO LearnKey, INC.
When it comes to quality: In Ben we trust
Another exciting month for Better Learning Systems as we head into the 4th Quarter of 2013, and it has all to do with our great people. At LearnKey, we are celebrating another Employee of the Month, and this month our congratulations go to Ben Lee and all his hard efforts to go above and beyond in becoming one of our best quality control specialists in our Cedar City, UT office.
His efforts go far and beyond a quality control specialist – he is a true team player who has demonstrated his efforts through actions, not words.
Here’s what his leader had to say about him during his nomination:
“Ben is an energetic, optimistic, hard working, and friendly team player. He understands most of our LearnKey training & courseware very well, therefore increasing the accuracy of our training. He always gets his work done by the end of the day, and will rearrange his schedule to make sure it is done. He identified a problem with how we keep QC records, and implemented a new QC record keeping process. Ben has always been willing to take on work that isn’t necessarily QC related, and completes each task very well”.
One of his most recent accomplishments was when Ben learned we were wanting to improve our A+ course; he took the training, provided detailed notes on what part of our courseware was effective and what could be improved, then went and took the exam passing the first time! Every challenge we bring to Ben, he has overcome it both in doing the actual work and in dealing with the people involved. He goes above and beyond what is expected and required for a QC person in order to make sure he is doing his job correctly. He has done such a great job with his own work, resulting in less and/or easier work for his team and supervisor.
Enough about work, take a minute to learn more about Ben with our fun survey and who he would take to dinner if he could pick anyone:
Continue reading “When it comes to quality: In Ben we trust”
Quick Learner, Efficient and most importantly Team Player!
Those are the words that describe our Better Learning Systems newest employee of the month: Mrs. Katie Kuether, someone who not only demonstrates our core values to her team, but other teams within the company. Katie has been working in our client services team for almost a year now and plays a key role in making sure all the school districts and student files are loaded and ready come the beginning of school season.
Katie has demonstrated her ability to be a quick learner and very efficient, as this is truly a role in which you “learn as you grow” into the position. As school starts, the most important part of the process is on boarding students and teachers. She fields all kinds of calls ranging from how to sign in, run a report, or save a file to our Learning Management System (OnlineExpert.com) and even troubleshooting.
During our monthly nomination, here’s what Katie’s leader had to say about her:
“Katie has been with the company almost a year and it has been my pleasure to have her as a part of the team. She has been so easy to work with, and has taken on a role that encompasses both a part of accounting and client services. She has excellent customer services skills and asks all of the right questions when given a task. Most of the work with Client Services cannot be trained and added to a manual and you learn on the job and as you go, Katie has done an excellent job of jumping in and going with whatever she has been given”.
Now for the best part – please take a moment to learn more about Katie and learn things like a peanut butter and jelly (add the Cheetos) sandwich…
1. How many siblings do you have?
I have 4 siblings, 2 brothers and 2 sisters
2. What is your favorite movie?
Steel Magnolias
3. What is your favorite band?
Of all time? Nsync
4. What is your favorite vacation spot?
California/Disneyland
5. What was your high school’s mascot?
Pirates
6. What is the weirdest combination of foods you have eaten?
Peanut butter and jelly with Cheetos.
7. What is/was the name of your favorite pet?
Bubbles
8. What was your first car?
I don’t even know what kind of car it was; I just know it was a very yellow station wagon.
9. If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be?
New York City
10. Would you rather sky dive, bungee jump, zip line, or parasail?
I would pick parasail, that seems the safest. J
11. What is the funniest saying you have heard working here?
My favorite is Kim’s phrases “OH BUDDY” and “Yeah weird”.
12. If you could eat dinner with anyone from the past, present, or future, who would it be and why?
My mom and grandma passed away when I was 21, so if I could I would love to have dinner with them again.
Congratulations to Katie for this accomplishment and we are so fortunate to have you as part of our team.
Warm Regards and ’til next month!
– Jeff Coruccini
Justin time LearnKey training
It was a great experience watching Justin Walker one of our LearnKey Courseware experts talk to a group of students from Fountain Hills High School in Fountain Hills Arizona.
These students are wanting to learn Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and earn their certifications. We had a simple message for them – Certifications can and will have a positive impact on your career and college ready preparation. Industry experts now state 89% of IT hiring managers use “Certifications” as a filter for prioritizing resumes. Once in, career professionals who keep their certification track up-to-date earn on average 26% more than their peers.
It was a fun day speaking with four classes as they were good listeners and truly wanted to learn. Another benefit we shared with them is they get a chance to learn “distance learning” by using LearnKey courseware. Also, lets not forget that the teachers we met were fantastic. Thanks again to Bonnie Perkins, Jennifer Ray (CTE Leader) and Karla Primosch for allowing us to come in and speak.
Its great to see BLS/LearnKey team members out talking with students and teachers getting their input so we can make better courses! Thanks again for the great work Justin!