LearnKey Blog
LearnKey First Quarter rollout of enhanced courses and products for 2012!
It is starting to be really busy with our LearnKey 2012 production shoot schedule, and I’m very excited with some of our new courses and exams recently released the past three weeks. It started with our February 2012 release of our Advanced Security Practitioner Certification (CASP) course designed to provide students with an explanation and understanding of conceptualization of security topics, as well as theoretical instruction/demonstrations in designing and engineering security solutions. This training course prepares students for the CompTIA exam CAS-001. LearnKey Expert course instructor Tom Carpenter does a very thorough and solid job covering the key objectives.
Earlier this week we successfully released our Flash CS5 MasterExam™ that helps IT certification candidates put the finishing touches on their comprehension and confidence as a final step before sitting for the exam. With over 200 questions, this supplements the training and hands-on experience needed to pass the Adobe® Certified Associate (ACA) Rich Media Communication with Adobe® Flash® certification exam.
Another release this week is our PowerPoint 2010 MasterExam 77-883 which is a great way to assess the skills of your staff with the individual components of PowerPoint 2010. Increase productivity by discovering and correcting skill deficiencies, or to find out how proficient prospective employees are before you hire them.
We ended the week releasing our Dreamweaver CS5 MasterExam™ with over 200 questions that supplements the training and hands-on experience needed to pass the Adobe® Certified Associate (ACA) Web Communication with Adobe® Dreamweaver® certification exam.
Over the next couple of weeks I will share with you our 2012 Production release schedule for the remainder of the year. One teaser I can share with you is a very exciting course we plan to release about leveraging behavior – a perfect life skills and career readiness topic.
We are off to a great start, and I promise to keep you posted on our most recent product releases!
February Employee of the Month
Another great opportunity to brag about our great employees, and no better way than to announce that Michael Watson has been named the employee of the month February.
Better yet, here’s what his manager Jared Baker had to say about him:
“Michael Watson is the epitome of a team player. He is always positive and willing to help in any situation. I am always amazed at his attitude and willingness to make it happen and be successful no matter what comes his way. Many times he has been in positions that would have been very easy to get discouraged. He remained positive and always displayed leadership and company loyalty no matter what. As we head into battle and fight for each of our successes in our respective areas in the company, I will always want to have Michael Watson by my side. It is an honor to work with him!”
During my tenure as CEO for LearnKey, I can honestly echo what Jared shares about Michael. He displays our core values each and every day: Trust – from his clients, Value – in his commitment to be the best resource to his peers and clients, and Ease – in how easy it is to get along with him. Thank you Michael for your commitment to LearnKey. We truly feel fortunate to have you on our team!
Tech jobs are the most popular among veterans
A recent article by PayScale recognizes the difficult task of returning to civilian employment after military service, and in an effort to ease the confusion, asked the question, “Where do military veterans usually work after finishing their service?”
The result? Veterans typically go to jobs where they can apply the skills they learned in the military, which turn out to be mainly tech jobs. PayScale measured the top fifteen most common, well paid, and quickly growing professions veterans choose, and also the top ten job skills veterans report having, and found that while some of the jobs were leadership and medical positions, many of the jobs and skills had one thing in common – they were mostly in information technology or other tech-related fields.
Here is a sample of the data – the top five job skills veterans report having:
- Emergency Room (ER)
- Computer Security
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Electronic Troubleshooting
- Security Risk Management
Read the full article for more information, including the full list of top job skills, and the titles, average salaries, and projected job growth of each of the top fifteen job roles.
Veteran benefits provide certifications and new job skills through LearnKey courseware
I just want to write a few words about a friend of mine that I met through our VA vocational rehabilitation program. Chris and I were introduced over this last summer when he began using the LearnKey program to advance his IT career. At the time, he was working in an IT role, but in a limited, part time position. Over several months of interaction, I have come to think of Chris as a friend as our whole group has been following his progress and cheering his success. In January, I was able to meet Chris face to face as he came into our recording studio to shoot a testimonial video. It was a great experience to get better acquainted and to learn that Chris served as a combat engineer in Baghdad, the same role in which my father served during WW2.
LearnKey, now a Better Learning Systems company
Good news, everyone! It was just announced that LearnKey is now a Better Learning Systems company.
What does this mean for you? As a parent company, Better Learning Systems oversees three brands – LearnKey, LearnCast, and Predix. Each company will continue to operate with their current branding, but the new partnership allows us to expand each others’ offerings in a way we could have never done before. LearnKey customers now have access to LearnCast’s mobile learning and publishing platform, and the Know Your Talents™ behavioral learning system powered by Predix.
Continue reading “LearnKey, now a Better Learning Systems company”
LearnKey Team Members who Really Shine!
At LearnKey we are very excited for 2012, and there is no better way to start the year then to share our most recent Employee of the Month winners. Success in any organization starts with great people and I am really pleased to take a moment and share some insight about these two great individuals.
First I want to recognize Levi Williams, a great example of “can do attitude”! It does not matter if he’s helping one of our K-12 customers with IT questions, or internal team members with basic questions. He is always wanting to help out in anyway he can. He was named employee of the month for December 2011 and nominated by several team members for his constant display of our core values around: trust, value and ease. Levi works out of our St. George, UT supporting our IT needs.
The second team member, Sharlinda Jessup, out of our Cedar City, UT office, has been named the employee of the month for January 2012. Sharlinda embodies our core value of trust in everything she does. No matter what assignment, she can always be trusted to get it done quickly and with minimum direction. She has gained the trust of every employee she has interacted with in her time at LearnKey, and she responds to that trust whenever she is asked to do something. Shar’s commitment and work ethic provides a level of ease to our process which is unmatched.
I can not convey enough how the entire team at LearnKey is so proud to have Levi and Sharlinda supporting our customers and what an impact their combination of “can do attitude” and “commitment” means to our company. Be sure to check back, as February is right around the corner!
What’s Your New Year’s Resolution?
At the beginning of every year, people from all over the world make a vow to improve their lives. Sure, you can say things like “I’m losing weight!” or “I’m going to exercise more!” like millions of others, but unfortunately most people don’t stick with it. So, with typical New Year’s Resolution failure rates extremely high, why not try something new this year – get a certification or gain a new job skill.
As several studies in the past few years have concluded, employers claim they can’t find enough qualified people to fill the available jobs. If there is a lack of qualified job candidates, that means the qualified ones will stand out even more than before. That means that if you’re qualified, your chance at landing the job you’re after just skyrocketed.
See for yourself – take a look at the job results when you search for “A+ Certification”.
Want to learn Adobe Photoshop? Here are some jobs requiring Photoshop skills.
Mobile apps are huge right now – and they all need skilled developers to create them. Here are some Mobile App Developer jobs.
I’m not going to lie, mastering a new skill and gaining a certification takes dedication and focus. It’s not something you can set aside an hour every few weeks to work on, you really have to work at it. The same rule applies to pretty much anything that will improve your life, though. Want to lose weight? You’re going to have to put some serious time in at the gym and watch what you eat. Working out for a few minutes once every two months won’t cut it.
So if you really want to work on adding new skills to your résumé, why not get started now? Who knows, maybe once you land that new job, you’ll get more free time to focus on some of your previous resolutions!
21st Century Tools Put Students in Charge of Their Learning
As most educators now know, using technology can increase student engagement in your classroom – but how can utilizing these tools in your classroom put students in charge of their learning? There are so many free tools available over the Internet that can be utilized in the classroom to empower students, and selecting the right tools will be dependent upon what tools your students are interested in, and what your goals are for particular lessons.
The great thing about using online tools is that everybody’s voice is the same volume, which creates the feeling that all ideas are equal. This can inspire students to share openly. Students may be more active in online forums because they feel more comfortable using them. They might make some students to share and actively participate in discussions that they may not take part in if it were an in-person discussion. These tools are the tools that students use outside of the classroom, so why not find a way to use those same tools in teaching?
Blogs and wikis are both great tools you can use to empower students. These tools are great because they are collaborative and students get the chance to have their voice heard. In one of my classes we use both blogs and wikis. We have small groups, and each one of the group members had to create our own blog. Each week we have a big idea question we have to write about on our blog, then we visit each one of our group members blogs and comment on what they posted. Our class wiki is created with the idea that students will reference the resource throughout the course. To build the wiki each student is responsible for finding five resources on a particular subject and citing the resource as well as summarizing information from the resource. Both tools have proved to be very beneficial from a learner’s perspective.
Salt Lake City Trip
I recently had the opportunity to travel up to our Salt Lake City offices to see the production studio. I had heard stories about how impressive our blue screen was, but really I had no idea just how big it really was. I have heard that our production studio has the largest blue screen in the Salt Lake Valley, and I can see why. I was only there for a short time, but it is quite the experience in our studio and I actually got to do a little bit of filming.
It is a full studio with all of the cameras lights and expected equipment. The Salt Lake Production team was great and made me feel very comfortable. The filming went smoothly and was a lot of fun, hopefully it turns out okay and they don’t have to do too much editing. You will have to stay tuned to see which course I am making a cameo in!
LearnKey Holiday Hours
Good news, everyone! It’s late December, which means it’s the time of year filled with food, family, holiday cheer, and odd business hours.
LearnKey’s Holiday Business Hours
While you can still access your OnlineExpert courses over the holidays, our sales and support staff will not be available outside of these times:
Normal business hours:
Sales: Mon – Fri 8am – 5pm MT
Support: Mon – Fri 6am – 6pm MT
Friday, December 23: Closed at 2pm MT
Monday, December 26: Closed
Friday, December 30: Closed at 1pm MT
Monday, January 2: Closed
We hope everyone has a great end of the year. Be sure to eat plenty of holiday snacks and drink plenty of eggnog, because pretty soon everyone will have to start their New Year’s resolutions to go on a diet!