A career college is a postsecondary institution that provides professional and technical, career-specific educational programs. Most career colleges are for-profit institutions that pay taxes yet receive no direct financial support from state governments. Public, not-for-profit public institutions receive state tax support or not-for-profit private colleges that pay no taxes. Completion of a career college program can range from doctoral and master’s degrees, to bachelor’s degrees, to associate degrees, to short-term certificates and diplomas. Career colleges are owned and operated by private individuals, private investors and public corporations.

What areas of study are offered by career colleges?
Career colleges provide educational programs in over 200 occupational fields, including accounting, allied medical, automotive technology, business administration, commercial art, criminal justice and law enforcement administration, culinary and hospitality management, emergency medical technology, information technology, interior design, legal administration, mechanical engineering, network administration, nursing, radio and television broadcasting, and visual and performing arts.

What is the Career College Association?
The Career College Association (CCA), with over 1,400 members, is a voluntary membership organization for private, postsecondary schools, institutes, colleges and universities that focus on the career oriented sector of higher education. Career colleges educate over two million students each year. (more…)

You Can Be Among the Most-Wanted Job Candidates College graduates with information technology and visual communication specialties will be among the most-wanted job candidates throughout the nation over the coming decade. Whether you earn a degree in information technology, in visual graphics design, or combine both skill sets as a web-based communication pro, the U.S. Department of Labor predicts that recruiters will place you on their radar.

Labor Department Predicts Great Job Opportunity

Among the major design fields, the Labor Department says, college and university grads with degrees or certifications in animation or visual design will have the best job opportunities. You can find online college programs in IT/Visual Communication that lead to associates, bachelor, and master’s degrees in the field. And if you already have either a design or information technology background, you’ll find flexible, accredited online classes that help you advance your career.

Gain the Skills You Need for Real Possibilities in Technology

Information technology/visual communication students study the creation, development, and delivery of today’s rich multimedia presentations, advertisements, websites, training videos, and digital publications for a wide range of corporate and private clients. They work in manufacturing, entertainment, financial services health care, educational, and governmental organizations. (more…)

What It Means: Popular culture thrills us with portrayals of local, state and federal enforcement agencies, crime scene investigators and detectives who solve complicated crimes using their powers of deduction and sophisticated technology. However, these are only some of the more high-profile jobs in the field of criminal justice.

Criminal Justice professionals work in a variety of positions, both in the public eye and behind the scenes. There are entry level positions, for example, in local law enforcement, including sheriff’s departments and juvenile justice centers; state law enforcement including the court system and attorneys general offices; federal law enforcement including the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Inspector General; and private companies including insurance companies and security patrol officers.

Criminal justice is one of America’s fastest-growing career fields. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for correctional officers, law enforcement officers and security officers is projected to increase as much as 35% through 2010.*

What It Means To You:
The Criminal Justice program of study at the ITT Technical Institutes teaches fundamentals of the criminal justice system and criminal justice skills. The program offers a foundation in criminal law, legal procedures, criminal evidence and criminology. Areas of study include law enforcement, the courts and corrections. (more…)

Surveying degree or certificate programs prepare students to perform geographical measurements with precision and write descriptive profiles of landscapes, land use patterns and landscape structures. Graduates of certificate or degree programs in Surveying are qualified to seek employment as cartographers, land surveyors or surveying technicians. Learn more here.

What is a Degree or Certification in Surveying?

In addition to serving as president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln also worked as a self-taught land surveyor. His equipment is on display in Petersburg, Illinois, at the Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site. But if you dream of following in this great leader’s footsteps, don’t worry — you won’t have to teach yourself the skills of the trade like he did. A degree in Surveying can prepare you to determine official boundaries, write descriptions of the land for airports, piers, construction and mineral companies and direct the work of survey parties. You’ll also learn how technology is used in contemporary surveying practice as well as terminology and standards for surveying work, and you’ll receive hands-on training in global positioning systems (GPS) and computer-assisted design (CAD). Graduates of degree or certificate programs in Surveying might be qualified to work as cartographers, surveyors or survey technicians.

Cartography

Cartographers use mathematics, survey data and demographic and other information to create maps of the earth’s surface for a wide variety of uses. (more…)

Sports medicine is not just about treating injuries. Every year millions of Americans vow to eat healthier, exercise regularly, and lose weight. But, as recent studies have revealed, these vows have a high rate of failure—the United States has one of the highest rates of obesity in the world. For those who do succeed in getting in better shape, a personal trainer is often an important part of the solution.

The field is growing rapidly, generating more college degree programs as well as professional training and licensing options. “It has really taken off in the last 10 or 15 years,” says Walter Thompson, a professor of exercise physiology and nutrition at Georgia State University. “I thought it was a fad, but it’s a profession now. We predict that it will grow exponentially, especially with the epidemic of obesity in the United States.”

Thompson adds that some corporations are now encouraging or even paying for exercise programs for their employees, and health insurance companies are also beginning to provide incentives for subscribers to get in shape. He notes that U.S. surgeon general Richard H. Carmona has spoken out strongly about the nation’s obesity problem, calling it “the terror within.” (more…)

What Is Six Sigma Certification?

Six Sigma Certification is documented proof that a person has acquired certain standardized capabilities with regard to the quality management technique that, when applied, works towards error/defect elimination and prevention. However, the certificate does not guarantee that a candidate has implementation skills, but only certifies competency in the subject matter. One can attain certification in any of the key roles (Master Black Belt, Champion, etc.).

Basis For Six Sigma Certification

Six Sigma Certification typically involves studying the related subject matter and passing an exam. Training institutes or companies provide certification tests and six sigma training courses. It is not unusual for new companies to have their employees test on a training institutes’ tests. This completes the first part of the written test in the candidate’s proficiency in the subject matter. Now comes the real test! Once having passed the written test, The candidate must work hands on a project or two in a practical environment. In this situation, the candidate must demonstrate that he or she is competent enough to implement the knowledge acquired in classroom six sigma training. (more…)

Many questions arise in the minds of six sigma certification candidates. These questions range from the most strange to the most genuine concerns. There is a compelling need to explain things regarding the exam for the benefit of those who have questions but don’t know where to find the answers. Here is brief outline of a few fundamental questions that are frequently asked about Six Sigma Certification.

“Homeland security (HS) is a growing, versatile and dynamic profession,” says Jim Ramsay, program coordinator for the BS program in homeland security at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL. “We (educators, government officials, and military personnel and HS professionals) generally realize that following 9-11, homeland security became a new profession.”

However, he adds, the timing of events and the complex nature of the job at hand didn’t allow higher education to produce practitioners at a rate that either the government (state or federal) or industry needed. Hence, there was a rapid influx of ex-military, ex-airline, ex-police, ex-security, etc., professionals into the fledgling profession and the newly created U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), all of whom are aging.

And when you take an aging workforce and an urgency for skilled, highly-trained professionals, the result is more and more institutions offering homeland security degrees.

Of course, it’s not just terrorist threats that demand immediate response to protect people and their property. “Hurricane Katrina showed us that with all due respect to our efforts to manage infrastructure protection, customs and border protection, terrorism, transportation and shipping security, etc, there are real threats from natural disasters that have very large, very expensive and very difficult to fix consequences,” explains Ramsay. (more…)

Is an Online Software Engineer Degree Right for You?Here are the minimum expectations, requirements, experience and exam specifics for a Software Quality Engineer. If you already know that this is the certification you want to pursue, move on to exam preparation.

Minimum Expectations of a Software Quality Engineer

* Must possess a fundamental understanding of quality philosophies, principles, methods, tools, standards, organizational and team dynamics, interpersonal relationships and professional ethics.
* Must possess an understanding of software quality management principles and demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of developing and implementing software quality programs, which include tracking, analyzing, reporting, problem resolution and training.
* Must understand and be able to implement software development and maintenance processes and methods, to quantify the fundamental problems and risks associated with implementing software development support processes, and to assess, support and implement process and technology changes.
* Must possess a basic understanding of project management principles and techniques as they relate to software project planning, implementation and tracking.
* Must know how to select, define and apply software measurement, metrics and analytical techniques, and possess a basic understanding of measurement theory and techniques and how to communicate results. (more…)