LearnKey Blog
Culture: There is so much more to it than meets the eye
What if I told you the easiest and to me best analogy to explain what culture is that “Culture is an iceberg. There’s so much to it than meets the eye.”
That really resonates with me and my team. It is something that must continually be monitored, mentored, developed, with constant reinforcement of super amazing people, process, tools and technology.
One of our team members Julie Plummer from KYT Corporate did an excellent blog topic on culture trends and she specifically gave her thoughts around the importance that people/team members/employee’s feel connected to the company and its cause. Since our cause is all about helping drive a culture of learning and helping individuals improve their employability skills its extremely motivating for me to be passionate about sharing our cause- if we focus on always trying to get better, we will. Our culture is all about getting better and our employee’s want to continue to grow as well.
Back to the “there’s so much more to it than meets the eye” in my analogy around culture. With my thirty-five (35) years of leadership experience one thing I have learned is the workforce, its landscape, working environment constant changes, requires three important skills: Communication, more communication and then yes, more communication. That is right – you develop your plan, share it, reinforce it, then go out and evangelize it through every communication method (i.e. newsletter, one on one’s, team meetings, all hands company updates, and then some) possible.
Then it’s about letting your leaders lead, empower your teams to take risks (calculated) from time to time, and to always be learning while trying to get better at what we do. I feel blessed to have the teams we do working with corporations, school districts and those adult learners going through our IT certification pathways, it reminds of why we do this and reinforces our culture too.
Working With Teachers on Certification Prep
One of my favorite lines from a movie and something I can relate to is a scene from the movie 48 Hours, where a character named Luther goes to pick up his car in a parking garage. The attendant looks at the ticket and says, “Wow. Two years.” Luther’s response: “Yeah. I’ve been busy!”
That is how I feel about this blog, given all our major suites (Adobe, CompTIA, and Office) have either been upgraded or are being upgraded since the last time I said hello here. One other suite of certifications has changed, from the Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) suite to the IT Specialist suite, now hosted by Certiport instead of Microsoft.
The changeover happened about a year ago, but the MTA program officially ended on June 30. To that end, many teachers who use our courses are trying to get certified in the IT Specialist certifications in time for the fall. And I have had the privilege of helping some teachers lately, specifically the Hillsborough County schools in Florida, prep for two of these certifications, Device Configuration and Management and HTML/CSS. I liked being in a live environment again, albeit virtual, as that is what I did primarily before joining LearnKey in 2015.
The time I spent with the teachers reminded me of some critical exam points, and I want to share two of them with you today. First, always get a copy of the objectives for any exam and study those well, paying close attention to each objective’s first word or phrase. There is a big difference between “Describe…” and “Configure…” as the latter indeed will have more in-depth questions on an exam.
Secondly, get hands-on practice where you can. For example, for the HTML/CSS exam, build some webpages using HTML and CSS. Make sure you have a code example for each objective on the exam. Make the website your own. Studying something always resonates better when you can make examples of your own.
Lastly, if you can study in a group, great; this way, you and the other group members can research together and bounce concepts off each other. Someone else may better understand an idea than you do and vice versa. We as a group did that by going through some practice exam questions, and the exercises benefited the teachers as they prepped for the exams.
We have some big course releases coming soon, which I will detail in this blog. And I promise not to be like Luther any longer.
What is an Engaged Employee?
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of an employee who is engaged? Is it the employee that is always happy? Or the one who shows up on time every day? Whether you listed one trait or many, what if I told you that these traits are unrelated to employee engagement?
Engagement from an employee is based on an emotional connection to what they are doing. I recently read an article that helped me see the difference between an engaged employee and the employee who is not engaged. Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.
An engaged employee will know the true “WHY” behind every task they do every day, and that will motivate and drive them to company goals/mission. Helping employees find the “WHY” is what we do for our customers with our Enterprise Development Solution. These proven and game-changing solutions are based on four needs that every employee needs to become engaged.
“Know Me. Grow Me. Include Me. Inspire Me.”
An engaged team is a team who will do their job and willingly and happily go the extra mile to make sure that their customers/clients are happy. It’s all about the “WHY.” When your employees understand that the positive impacts are endless.
Company culture: One-on-ones validate – Employees want to grow
During our June all-hands video call I promised to complete one-on-ones with every employee who does not report directly to me. My goal was to ask four questions to each employee so I could get consistent feedback on what was working, what needed to improve, and what other learning experiences have they had along the way during their tenure with LearnKey and Know Your Talents.
Always be listening
The feedback has been amazing and truly listening to the voice of the employee is something that through these one-on-ones will help us get better. Plus, we have implemented some improved tools for specific departments and are working on a few others. Our leadership team works hard to develop a growth-oriented company culture that is focused on always wanting to get better. I was really proud of the feedback employees shared about the strong relationships they have with their peers and leaders. The word “respect” is big in our company.
The process was easy as I was following what we do for our customers through the four pillars of our Enterprise Development Solution (two specifically): “Know me. Grow me.” It made the conversation much more engaging. Every employee has taken a Proscan, so we learn about each other’s behaviors/talents, and it was nice to leverage that in conversations around benefits it has to collaboration, being flexible, and respecting why change and/or communication can be much more effective in different ways for different people.
One of the biggest things that jumped out at me was how every employee really wanted to learn other team members’ behavior so they could communicate and support each other more. Less about them and more about the team.
Another important benefit was the reminder of keeping a pulse on our established company culture of learning. Meaning never stop promoting all of the resources we have to our very own employees so they can gain more skills.
Last but not least, was the wonderful feeling of gratitude because we really do have an awesome team.
Famed Investor: Remote Work- “It’s potentially an earthquake”
Remote work is not new to me or a lot of people but the pandemic sure had an impact. Like many companies we adapted and learned along the way, and at the exact same time our corporate consulting division, Know Your Talents, was also in the process of rolling out: Know me. Grow me. Include me. Inspire me., our four pillars that enhances culture and optimizes performance at every level of an organization.
So after reading Marc Andreessen’s recent article/podcast where he talks about remote work – “It’s potentially an earthquake,” I have to agree with him 100% and that is not in a bad way. “It’s potentially one of those things that in a hundred years, people could look back and say, ‘That was a real turning point for how society developed.'” Andreessen goes on to say he’s excited by that idea, adding that “if everybody could still have access to great knowledge-work jobs online, maybe that’s a fundamentally better way to live.”
Now the question becomes how do you do that? Ensure people have the right process, tools and technology so they can work effectively remotely, be part of a successful culture, where their skills are up to date now and in the future.
Now is also not the time to scale back on investing in talent, this article on retaining and growing a workforce even with a potential recession in 2022 is smart thinking in my mind. A skilled remote workforce is inevitable for almost every company in one way shape or form. Let’s look back and say when remote work became an earthquake we conquered it.
Understanding DoD 8140/8750 Certification Levels, Part 3
For this part of the series, we will be exploring Level III for the Baseline Certification Category Roles within the DoD 8140/8570. In the previous two parts of the series, we discussed the entry level and mid-level Baseline Certifications that would help an individual qualify for an Information Assurance Role.
There are three Level III categories, those being:
- Information Assurance Technical/Technician (IAT) – Level III
- Information Assurance Management (IAM) – Level III
- Information Assurance Architecture and Engineering (IASAE) – Level III
Level III categories will be working within the Enclave Environment. Level III’s have mastered Level I’s Computing Environment and Level II’s Network Environment.
These Levels are not entry level, these roles are for those that have been in the Information Assurance workforce and have applicable experience to the next Level. To read more on the requirements for Level III, please refer to this link.
Starting with the Information Assurance Technical/Technicians, to qualify for a role as a Level III IAT, LearnKey provides the certifications that will meet the Baseline Requirements:
Next, the Information Assurance Manager Level III has the following Baseline Certifications that LearnKey provides to help you gain the knowledge and certifications:
The last of the Level III’s that we are going to touch on are the Information Assurance System Architecture and Engineering, which this is the only category that LearnKey does not currently have a certification pathway to meet the minimum Baseline Requirements.
The levels are meant to be consecutive, which means mastery of the prior level. However, depending on your experience in Information Assurance and the different environments, you could potentially qualify for a higher level without achieving the level prior. If you are starting out, please be aware as some certifications have prerequisites that are not explicitly listed in the Baseline Certification Road Map, which will alter how you navigate your certifications.
Understanding DoD 8140/8750 Certification Levels, Part 2
For this part of the series, we will be exploring up-skilling into Level II for the Baseline Certification Category Roles within the DoD 8140/8570. In the first part of the series, we discussed the entry level Baseline Certifications that would help an individual qualify for an Information Assurance Role.
There are three Level II categories, those being:
- Information Assurance Technical/Technician (IAT) – Level II
- Information Assurance Management (IAM) – Level II
- Information Assurance Architecture and Engineering (IASAE) – Level II
Level II categories will be working within the Network Environment (NE), focusing on managing network equipment and supporting architecture. Level II’s have mastered Level I’s Computing Environment.
These Levels are not entry level, these roles are for those that have been in the Information Assurance workforce and have applicable experience to the next Level. To read more on the requirements for Level II, please refer to this link.
Starting with the Information Assurance Technical/Technicians, to qualify for a role as a Level II IAT, LearnKey provides the certifications that will meet the Baseline Requirements:
Next, the Information Assurance Manager Level II has the following Baseline Certifications that LearnKey provides to help you gain the knowledge and certifications:
The last of the Level II’s that we are going to touch on are the Information Assurance System Architecture and Engineering, which to help you meet the Baseline Requirements, LearnKey offers the following certification:
The levels are meant to be consecutive, which means mastery of the prior level. However, depending on your experience in Information Assurance and the different environments, you could potentially qualify for a higher level without achieving the level prior. If you are starting out, please be aware as some certifications have prerequisites that are not explicitly listed in the Baseline Certification Road Map, which will alter how you navigate your certifications.
Understanding DoD 8140/8750 Certification Levels, Part 1
Welcome to the first part of the DOD 8140/8570 series. The purpose of this series is to provide information for individuals to help them understand the certifications and how to skill-up.
For this part, we are going to be discussing the Entry Level categories within the Approved Baseline Certifications list. A quick background on the DoD 8140/8570; these are used as guidelines that highlight the requirements and expectations such as training, certifications, and the management of those who perform DoD Information Assurance functions. The Baseline Certification List is broken down by Category or Specialty and Levels. These certifications align with specific Information Assurance (Cybersecurity) Roles.
There are three Entry Level categories, those being:
- Information Assurance Technical/Technician (IAT) – Level I
- Information Assurance Management (IAM) – Level I
- Information Assurance Architecture and Engineering (IASAE) – Level I
These three categories have minimum requirements allowing for individuals or companies to get their compliance started with the 8570 Baseline Certifications. There are three levels to each of these, starting with Level one which is primarily in the computing environment (CE), or in simpler terms, system/PC assets.
If you are hands on, and enjoy working within the environment, maintaining, and fixing compliance issues, the Technician category would be a great fit for you. We offer the following certifications that align with the 8570 IAT Level I category:
Potential job roles could be Junior Software Engineer, Cyber security Analyst, Network Engineer, System Administrator.
If managing people is in your skill set, or you’ve wanted to explore it, the Management category would be a great fit for you. We offer the following certifications that align with the 8570 IAM Level I category:
Potential job roles could be Cybersecurity Analyst, Information Assurance Manager, Information Security Specialist.
Last, if you enjoy designing and setting up secure information architecture systems, the Architecture and Engineering category is a great fit for you. We offer the following certification that aligns with the 8570 IASAE Level I Category:
Potential job roles could be IT Systems Engineer, Network or Systems Engineer, Data Architect.
Depending on your area of interest, LearnKey has you covered to help you become compliant for an Information Assurance role. To review more information regarding the Baseline Certification List, please refer to the link here. You can also use this resource to familiarize yourself with the additional requirements outside of the baseline certification.
In the next part of the series, we will be discussing up-skilling to Level II and III.
Know Me. Grow Me. Include Me. Inspire Me.
Wow, this year is going fast, and as we reflect on the first quarter of this year we were thrilled to hear we had over thirty (30) veteran students get placed in jobs the first quarter of this year. It was also nice to see that the entry level IT Professional annual salary was over $65,000 a year. Additionally, we set a record for the number of certifications achieved by our students in March, topping over 143! IT certifications are a great way to demonstrate competency with potential employers and hiring managers.
What is next? How about our new messaging: Know Me. Grow Me. Include Me. Inspire Me. This is something we are so excited about as it matches who we are and what we want to do with our corporate customers, as well as the students that complete our signature Blue Ocean programs. It’s all about growth, development, investing, and engaging with people that make a great culture.
The fact that we can take feedback from corporate customers and incorporate that feedback into our courses, it gives us a competitive advantage, as we know exactly what customers are looking for in the new world remote/hybrid workforce. Example is when an employer survey shares that the top three life skills/reasons graduates fail in the workforce are Emotional Intelligence, Coachability, and Motivation, you can bet we are going to focus on it within our courseware and our employability team.
LearnKey Production 2022: Network+, ITS Cyber Security , A+ and More!
Here we grow! February is almost over, and boy are we busy. We have onboarded amazing new team members (Donna, Sydney, Sarah, and Larae) and in last month’s blog we were reflecting on the holidays. Now we are less than a week away from March. Q1 2022 is almost over- yikes!
Super excited about our amazing production team. Our Senior Instructor Jason Manibog just finished up Network+, and now he and our production team are already filming A+. These are super big LearnKey Signature courses and our production team is on it.
CompTIA is a signature track for LearnKey and, just as we did last year with CompTIA’s new Security+, our team has created an amazing learning scenario to be the theme of this course.
Since I joined LearnKey in 2011, we have always incorporated scenario-based learning as part of our theme for every signature course we produce. It really puts relevance to learning, and that is what we are all about.
Next month I will share some exciting news about our messaging for 2022.