Posts Tagged ‘training’

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The Cost of Not Having Higher Education

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

If you’ve considered going to school for a college degree, then you’ve considered tuition costs, textbook fees and travel expenses. People also turn to online education to extend and expand their career options. Online classes eliminate textbook and travel costs and offer an economical solution to rising tuition of traditional education. While it’s true that quality online programmes and degree programs aren’t free, they are affordable, especially when you consider the cost of not having a higher education at all.

Gaining higher education has a direct effect on your career. In fact, statistics show that the higher the level of education, the higher the amount in earnings a person will receive, proving that continuing education past a high school level is the best way to hold on to a career and achieve financial success.

Higher education is vital to remain competitive in the job market. According to “The Book of Knowledge” put out by Merrill Lynch, 50 percent of employee skills become outdated in three to five years. In India, nine out of 10 employees in an international workplace survey said they feared that their current skills would be outdated within five years. On the company side, the cost of replacing lost talent averages to 150 percent of a person’s salary (Mercer Survey of Australia at Work). This makes a strong case for companies and employees to invest in higher education to upgrade and update skill sets. Gaining certification allows you to re-train to ensure you can keep the job you have or easily transfer to another position. Taking online courses is an affordable and fast way to earn a certificate that confirms you have the skills that meet the demands of a continuously changing industry.

Credentials are everything. Think about it. Would you go to a dentist who only has a high school diploma framed on the wall? Would you hire a lawyer who dropped out of college before gaining full expertise in law? You feel more comfortable paying a person more money when you trust that they know what they are doing and have the education and certification to back it up. To convince employers and customers you have the skills to do the job, certifications and degree programs are the way to go.

Higher wages brought on by higher education isn’t new. In the early 1900’s, education was scarce and only a minority of adults had a high school diploma. Working life was dictated by supply of labor and the demand for skilled workers; formal education was not necessary to do the job. As society has continued to evolve, annual earnings of workers increased with education. In the 1970’s, as technological changes started to occur, the corporate world favoured a more educated working population and started compensating generously to attract educated employees. By 1975, full-time workers with a higher education earned 1.5 times the annual wage of workers with a high school diploma. And, by 1999, this ratio had edged up to 1.8.

Statistics prove that gaining higher education and achieving certification is the best way to get the expertise you need to land a more lucrative career. For a higher education experience that works around your schedule, turn to Gatlin International. GI certificate courses can help you gain a lucrative position in the industry of your choice, empowering you to reach financial goals and provide for your future.


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How to Hit a Financial Planning Homerun

Friday, May 15th, 2009

The following article, found on Creston News Advertiser, gives advice on how to plan financially for retirement. Financial planning training is a good way to learn the skills you need to effectively manage your money and prepare for the future.

The crack of the bat. The roar of the crowd as you round the bases. While hitting a homerun in the big leagues is only the stuff of dreams for most of us, baseball can serve as a wonderful analogy for our quest for financial security.

Reaching retirement, or home plate, is the goal. So step up to the plate, take a swing and round the bases with these general, yet timeless, financial tips from Thrivent Financial.

First Base

Get on base by:

* Creating an emergency cash fund with at least three to six months worth of living expenses set aside. This fund is essential to cover unexpected short-term expenses, like a major car-repair bill or broken furnace. Keep the funds safe and accessible in a savings or money market fund, and be sure to replenish the fund later if you draw from it for an emergency.

* Purchasing property insurance that protects you and/or your business against the loss of the property or income. Auto, homeowners and business owner policies fall under this category.

* If your employer does not provide health coverage, buy your own. You can’t afford to be without it. “If you fall ill and have to be hospitalized without health insurance, you will quickly realize that the cost of not being insured far exceeds the cost of premiums,” says Bruce Fear, vice president of Protection Products and Solutions for Thrivent Financial.

Second Base

As you head to second base you’re approaching the middle part of your life and earnings potential. Second base is about protecting your income from a long-time illness or injury, or the death of a loved one.

* Investigate disability income insurance. It’s easier and cheaper to get when you’re younger, and provides a benefit to replace a portion of your income if you become too sick or injured to work. It protects your most important asset — your ability to earn an income.

* Life insurance is also essential. It protects your loved ones against the loss of income they would experience if you died. There are two main types — term and permanent. Both help preserve the lifestyle of your surviving family members, but permanent can also allow you to accumulate a cash benefit.

Third Base

Third base is about protecting your hard-earned dollars, the assets you’ve accumulated for retirement or other financial goals. As you head to third, consider what types of events can lower your probability of rounding third and heading home. Two key items you should consider:

*Investigate medical insurance. While many companies provide medical insurance, once you retire, the coverage usually ends. And, if you aren’t eligible for Medicare you’ll need to consider individual medical insurance. If you’re eligible for Medicare, keep in mind it won’t cover all your health-related expenses in retirement. Supplemental insurance can cover the gaps.
* Long-term care insurance should also be on your mind at this stage. The coverage can provide for necessary medical or personal care services provided outside a hospital setting, such as in a nursing home or your own home.

Reaching Home

Covering all of the bases over time will help you reach home plate — protecting your retirement plans.

* Estate planning is a key element of retirement planning. This is the process of working with your legal, tax, and financial professional to arrange your financial affairs so that you have sufficient assets to meet your lifetime needs, while ensuring that your wealth will be distributed according to your wishes after your death.

“A stable, solvent retirement in which you can maintain the standard of living you enjoyed while you were working is the equivalent of hitting one out of the park,” says Fear. “With a little bit of planning, the goal can be within reach.”

Web Worker Careers: SEM & SEO

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Today’s post from Web Worker Daily says that search engine marketing can increase exposure of a company’s Web site and drive business online. More and more professionals are turning to SEO training to help upgrade their companies and their careers.

As companies strive to get discovered by customers on the increasingly crowded Internet, demand for the skills of search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) experts has grown.

Could a search engine-related career be right for you?

Types of Search Engine-Related Careers

Search engine marketing and pay-per-click advertising (PPC) responsibilities involve creating, launching, managing and optimizing paid search campaigns. Critical thinking, problem solving and analysis play an important role as this job requires reviewing data and creating reports. The reports provide needed information for tweaking campaigns in order to boost their effectiveness. These jobs often require knowing how search marketing applications work.

SEM specialists research and select the right keywords to optimize sites with, write ads that compel people to take action and conduct tests to determine campaign effectiveness. People in this job optimize landing pages and use email, blogs, social networks and online PR to create marketing campaigns with high conversion and click-through rates (CTR). These jobs usually have a greater analytical focus than SEO jobs.

Search engine optimization experts focus on designing or modifying web sites to play nice with search engines and help the site appear higher on the search engine results pages. They make sure the site doesn’t have any aspects that negatively affect its standing with search engines. This career has overlaps with web design because improving a site’s ranking may call for making changes to the site’s content and structure.

It’s important to know the difference between “black hat” and “white hat” tactics as well as the pros and cons of each. Using black hat strategies can hurt a company’s standing in the SERPs. Once a company loses its standing, it’s very hard to climb back up. Rob Oskins of Capital Solutions Bancorp explains that SEO experts have two key roles: ensuring the search engines can crawl your site’s web pages easily by optimizing the site’s content and structure, and getting links from other sites. “SEO involves these two major areas. It’s not rocket science, but it’s not easy,” Oskins says.

How to Qualify

SEMs and PPC managers need to know how to use Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and similar services to create profitable campaigns. It helps to become Google Adwords certified and join the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO).

Knowing web design, HTML and other web site markup and technologies benefits those who want to work in SEO. “Having HTML experience when going into SEO is as important as learning the alphabet,” says Stephanie M. Cockerl of nextSTEPH. Some jobs require knowledge of languages like JavaScript, PHP and ASP.NET.

It’s possible to fall into the job through a happy accident like Christopher Noonan, president of Noon-an-Night Marketing. His brother needed to build a web site and market it. Noonan helped and discovered a new talent, and learned his skills the hard way through trials, testing and guessing, which he did for no pay. “The knowledge I gained in the first year by having a site to play with from the very beginning really helped my confidence and ability,” he says.

Some discover the career after a lay off. Cockerl learned PPC on the job with help from a mentor who was her former employee’s vendor.

Online Marketing Tools

Those in this career rely on Google AdWords, Google Analytics,  Wordtracker, WebTrends, bid management software, web tracking software, Microsoft Excel, instant messenger, texting, conference calls and email.

Find Clients

Consultants in this career find their clients mainly through referrals from current clients and online networks such as LinkedIn.

Would you consider a search engine-related career?

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