CEO Gets “Belted” By Senior Instructor

I have an impeccable wardrobe. Not impeccable as in perfectly tailored suits, mind you. It is impeccable in that it is perfect for the business casual work environment at LearnKey and for my second home, the golf course.

I’m talking specifically about my belt collection. Yes, I have a brown belt and a black belt like most guys do, but, I also have white, silver, mocha, purple, deep purple, navy, light blue, green, lime, neon, orange, and red belts. I even have a white/blue two-tone belt which reverses to a black belt. Snazzy, huh? Most of my co-workers are very complimentary of my wardrobe. They know good taste when they see it.

I said most because our fearless CEO, Jeff Coruccini, for the longest time failed to see the light on my colorful belts. Every time he flew up, he flat ridiculed my belts. This after I made it a point to make sure he always saw a new one for several straight trips. Spending 15 years in classroom training before coming here two years ago, I learned to read people well, so where I heard ridicule from Jeff, I felt a sense of his wishing he could pull off the look I pull off so effortlessly.

Like me, Jeff likes to get out for a frequent trip around the golf course. He recently had a birthday approaching. So, I asked his wife, Lori, “Hey, what does Jeff wear to the golf course?” Her response, “Black or white shirt and tan shorts. Nothing too exciting.” How sad, I thought. So, while Jeff was up here this week making the rounds, I had a care package sent to him. He made it home, found the box, and here my friends, is a very happy man with the start to what I am sure will be a most impressive belt collection:

Just look at the joy on his face knowing that one day, he will have that impeccable wardrobe, just like I do.

So, what does this have to do with employability and certifications and a workplace in general? Actually, there is a point here: We here at LearnKey work hard, very hard, to create the best possible courses we can to improve employability and certification prospects for all of you. But in all that hard work, we allow for fun. We allow for laughing at ourselves and with each other. And just having that attitude about life will make you more employable…every day. And, you will enjoy life that much more.

Q1 2017 Key Contributor Award Winner “epitomizes core values”

At LeanKey if you need help with a marketing piece, ask Beau. If you need help creating a newsletter, ask Beau. If you need to learn how we process student reports, ask Beau. If you need help creating a CTE/K-12 online marketing campaign, ask Beau. Website redesign ideas, ask Beau. So what has become perfectly clear? “Beau knows”!

Which is why it was exciting to announce earlier this week that Beau Shakespear was named Better Learning Systems/LearnKey’s 2017 Q1 Key Contributor Award winner. He is someone that truly demonstrates our core values: Ease, Value and Trust. He is by far one of the easiest team members to work with, and always displays a “can do” attitude. As noted above by the many “hats” he wears he has significant value, but it truly is the trust and respect he has from his peers that sets him apart. It is really hard to find anyone who is more of a team player than Beau, and when it comes to our “Why” he truly is all about “improving employability every day.”

Here are some of his key accomplishments over this past quarter:

Played a key role in the new design of our LearnKey.com website
Facilitated the new design of our tradeshow banners
Revised VA Catalogs – Worked patiently as they were re-worked close to four times over the past year (DI, VA, & Voc Rehab) and accomplished it down to one catalog now.
Created a tracking method and follow-up process for all new BO Students
Reviewed 50+ resumes and LinkedIn profiles

He accomplished the above in addition to managing a busy VA student workload and always coordinating the monthly LKVS newsletters. When members of the leadership team nominated Beau they used words like: rock star, dedication, focus, accuracy, respect, ultimate team player, even keel, nice, never a bad attitude, helpful, and “can do attitude” to describe him. Beau is no stranger to awards; three years ago he was recognized as LearnKey’s employee of the month.

Again, please join me in congratulating Beau for receiving this award. We are fortunate to have great employees, who are great team members and share our passion around “Improving Employability Every Day”!

Access 2016 Released!

Today, we are excited to announce the release of our Access 2016 course.

Access 2016 (77-730)

In Access 2016, the relational database app in Microsoft Office, you can design your own databases or use templates to create databases to share with others, namely coworkers. LearnKey Senior Instructor Jason Manibog will take you through creating databases, creating tables, building queries, building forms, and building reports. These five topics are also the topics on the Microsoft Office Specialist exam for Access 2016 (Exam 77-730). This, combined with what you will learn about relational database structures, will improve your employability prospects in any position needing skills with small to medium-sized relational databases.

Our hope is that through our courseware we may provide learners with the guidance, preparation, and skills they need to succeed. For more information and to learn about additional LearnKey products visit our website.

Congratulations LearnKey for 30 years of success

Today is a big day as it is our 30-year anniversary! Back in 1987, John Clemons, our Chairman and founder of the company, officially launched LearnKey.

He had no idea the journey the company would take; he was just a young man who figured out there was a need in using video to train people how to use operating systems, software, technology, soft skills, professional development, and other topics that could help people improve their employability skills.

LearnKey would go on to help tens of thousands of people improve their job status or achieve first time IT careers through training. It started with offering courses on VHS, then CD-ROM (thanks to his brother David), then the Internet via OnlineExpert.com. Every step of the way this company figured out how to re-invent itself. At first it was a Business to Consumer (B-C) offering, then Business to Business (B-B), and each and every step of the way LearnKey figured it out.

That is because the most successful piece of the business is the great people along the way who made LearnKey what it is today. There are hundreds of employees to thank for that, starting with some who have been with us for a very long time.

Names like: Wendi Mangum, Scott Walker, Michael Watson, Chad Stocks, Jared Baker, Chip Ehlers, Wyett Ihler and Bart Giddings just to name a few are still with us today and for that we (John, David, Lori and I) are truly grateful. We started the celebration earlier this month by hosting some meals for the team; check out some of the pictures and you will see a few of the team members.

Speaking of employees today, I embark on a trip through Utah to celebrate with those named above, and our other current employees. The trip will start in Salt Lake City visiting with our production team, then to Cedar City for some fun with our post production team, and will finally hit St. George by way of LearnKey’s corporate offices for a final celebration.

Next week I will post pictures of the journey as we are proud to continue to do great work by Improving Employability Every Day.

Congratulations LearnKey and the entire team, for it has been 30 years and I sense we will continue to celebrate in another 30 years!.

Jeff

Time To Get Animated With Our Upcoming Adobe Animate CC Course

How many of you remember when Macromedia Flash first became a big “thing” on the Internet? No? How about Adobe Flash? Maybe? How about this question: How many of you feel skunked when you tap to a website on your mobile device only to get the dreaded message, “Your browser does not support Flash”?

Well, you’re not alone if this has happened to you. And just as Flash was the big thing years ago, HTML5 is now. However, Flash and HTML5 did not really work well together, because, to export from Flash, you had to get a plug-in or tool or some kind of extension. It just wasn’t a smooth, seamless process.

Fortunately, those days are over. What was once known as Adobe Flash is now Adobe Animate, one of the newest additions to the Adobe suite of programs. In a nutshell, Adobe Animate is Flash plus the ability to easily create files for ActionScript (the native Flash format), HTML5, and WebGL (Web Graphics Library).

With a new program comes a brand new Adobe Animate course, due to launch late spring/early summer. This course is going to be a thorough, yet clear and concise, introduction to Adobe Animate and will serve two purposes: to improve your employability skills in the areas of web and graphic design as they relate to Adobe Animate, and to get you prepared to pass the Adobe Certified Associate in Multiplatform Animations using Adobe Animate CC exam and obtain your ACA in Animate.

How are we going to do this, you ask? First, we are going to cover animation terms and definitions and build a project in this course while focusing on these five major exam topics:

Setting Project Requirements
Understanding Rich Animated Media
Understanding Adobe Animate CC
Creating Rich Animated Media Content Using Animate CC
Testing, Publishing, and Evaluating Rich Animated Media Elements Using Animate CC

To cover these, we will have several (but not too many) hours of video training, pre-assessment and post-assessment tests, practice labs, and a project workbook full of practice exercises. All of these tools are here to, again, increase your employability prospects and help you obtain the Animate CC ACA certification.

Finally, for those of you wondering which version of Animate we will be covering, technically the course is going to be built for the latest certification offering, which is Animate CC 2015, but the course will work just as well for anyone trying to learn Animate CC 2017.

MTA Windows Operating System Fundamentals Released!

Today, we are excited to announce the release of our MTA Windows Operating System Fundamentals course.

MTA Windows Operating System Fundamentals

The MTA Windows Operating System Fundamentals course (exam 98-349) has been updated to include Windows 10 features and delete any features from Windows 7 not supported in Windows 10. This is a perfect course for someone who wants to learn how to manage Windows 10 and gain the skills necessary to pass the 98-349 exam. LearnKey Senior Instructor Jason Manibog will take you through these Windows 10 topics: Understanding Operating System Configurations, Installing and Upgrading Client Systems, Managing Applications, Managing Files and Folders, Managing Devices, and Understanding Operating System Maintenance. This MTA certification is a precursor to an MCSA certification for Windows 10.

Key Contributor Award Winner: All About Improving Employability Every Day!

In January, Better Learning Systems announced our 2016 4^th quarter Key Contributor Award winner, and not only was this person well deserving but she also is about our true “Why,” which is Improving Employability Every Day!

It gives me great pleasure to announce Ms. Jessica Staples as our most recent Key Contributor award winner, someone who is quite familiar with being awesome! She is in good company as previous winners include: Jason Manibog, Kim Johnson & Wyett Ihler, Sarah Blik & Melanie Benitez and of course the rockstar LearnKey Technical Support team!

Jessica is a key member of our LearnKey Veteran Services team, making it through some major transitions over the past few years to help streamline and improve the program. She is also celebrating three (3) years with LearnKey this month. She is a true team player who constantly demonstrates our core values: Ease, Value, and Trust every day!

During the 4^th Quarter, Jessica was an enormous help with training and mentoring our newest VSR, Nina Sepulveda. With her extensive knowledge of the program and eagerness to help, she made the onboarding of Nina an easy process. We can’t thank her enough for her contribution as a team player. When things didn’t work perfectly or go according to plan, she made it work for her students and for LearnKey. She is extremely detailed and every one of her students has nothing but great things to say about her. When she takes on a task we can trust she will get it done, and with all of the I’s dotted and T’s crossed.

In 2016 our LearnKey Veteran Services Team assisted students in achieving over 285 certifications, with Jessica directly supporting 128 of those certifications! Her dedication to helping our students achieve their goals is a true example of value.

Again, please join me in congratulating Jessica for her spirited team work, “can do attitude,” and overwhelming positive and motivational support she provides our student base. She is a great reflection of what it means to be “Improving Employability Every Day”.

Kind Regards,

Jeff Coruccini

Can You Become a QuickBooks Certified User Without Being a CPA? Absolutely!

That question above was one of many questions I got when I used to teach QuickBooks in a classroom setting. I’m not a CPA and I’m a certified QuickBooks user, so you can become one too. What is QuickBooks, you ask? It’s an industry-leading accounting software program, geared toward helping businesses of all sizes organize and perform their accounting duties.

We are currently working on our updated QuickBooks Certified User course, which we have completed filming and are in the process of fine-tuning. This course maps to the 10 domains on the QuickBooks Certified User certification exam. The 10 domains are:

QuickBooks Setup
QuickBooks Utilities and General Product Knowledge
List Management
Items
Sales
Purchases
Payroll
Reports
Basic Accounting
Customization and Shortcuts

Our new QuickBooks course covers these 10 domains in such a way to help you prepare to pass the QuickBooks Certified User exam (done through Certiport) and obtain your QuickBooks Certified User certification. We present the material in a very concise, easy-to-follow format, kind of like the QuickBooks program itself.

This course will have video training, pre-assessment and post-assessment tests, practice labs, and a project workbook, all geared toward solidifying your QuickBooks knowledge not only for the certification, but also to improve your employability prospects for any position requiring QuickBooks knowledge. Or you may have a small business of your own and want solid knowledge of QuickBooks, so you can let it do the major accounting work for you, leaving you to do what you do best—run your business.

So, back to the original question: Can you get the QuickBooks Certified User certification without being a CPA? Yes, indeed! And you can get this without being a financial planner or tax preparation expert or, well, you get the drift.

Stay tuned to this blog space for my update next week. I promise you, it will get “animated” at times!

Outlook 2016 Course and Workbooks Released!

Today, we are excited to announce the release of our Outlook 2016 course.

Outlook 2016

In this course, LearnKey Senior Instructor Jason Manibog will take you through what is needed to become proficient and efficient in Outlook 2016, the personal information management tool in Microsoft Office. Specific topics include: email, calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes. The course will also prepare you to take exam 77-731, the Microsoft Office Specialist exam for Outlook 2016.

2017 Best Training ROI for your employee’s and customers?

It is all about better communication resulting in a better customer experience.

It’s a no-brainer that bad customer service will cost your company business. But it turns out employees’ behavior toward each other can affect your bottom line, too.

So the question is: are your employees properly job ready trained in the areas of dealing with difficult customers, meeting consumer needs, the art of customer service, listening under pressure, workplace ethics, email etiquette, social media at work, and bullying in the workplace?

A well-known study of retailer Sears revealed that a five-point improvement in employee attitude results in a 1.3% increase in customer satisfaction, which then drives an 0.5% increase in company revenue.

Which is why LearnKey’s 2017 video-based training series on customer service is the perfect solution for your organization. It’s relevant for today’s workforce, high quality, available anytime/anywhere, and can help you deliver a solid ROI for both your business customers and, most importantly, your employees.

In today’s digital world it’s all about the customer experience:

What is customer experience and why is it important?

Customer experience is your customers’ perceptions of how your company treats them. These perceptions affect their behaviors, build memories and feelings, and may drive their loyalty. In other words, if they like you and continue to like you, they are going to do business with you and recommend you to others. Note: If one of your customers has a bad experience there is less than a 10% chance they will tell you about it, but they will choose not to do business with you in the future.

Why should you focus on improving your customer experience?

According to a recent walker study, by 2020 customer experience will overtake price and product as a key differentiator. By now it should be clear that customer service can no longer be relegated to the basement of your brand’s focus. It must be front and center of your organization, alongside marketing, as a priority focus for customer interaction and retention.

Contact us today for a no-cost proof of concept on how this training can improve your ROI.