The Learning Strategy: 5 areas for civilian and military retirees to focu...

The Learning Strategy: 5 areas for civilian and military retirees to focu...: 5 areas for civilian and military retirees to focus on in 2013.   www.thelearningstrategy.com Was this past year an employment bust for y...

5 areas for civilian and military retirees to focus on in 2013.

5 areas for civilian and military retirees to focus on in 2013.  www.thelearningstrategy.com

Was this past year an employment bust for you?  Are you stuck in neutral?  Do you know what you want to do?  Starting or restarting a career in today's fast changing environment presents challenges that require skills and knowledge. Be positive, the New Year is here, and with it comes new possibilities for growth, upward mobility and more that you can take advantage of....  Here's how:

1.  Refocus - Develop a Mission/Plan:  If your supplementing your retirement income, your in a great position to something you want to do.  If not, you still have incredible experience and skills that organizations need and want.  You can highlight this into a career that you want!  Start listening to yourself, write down what your good at and see how you can leverage and benchmark your experience and skills into an exciting career that you would like to pursue.

2.  Sharpen Your Saw:  Listen to the marketplace and see what's happening in information technology.  The world is moving into computing (computers, networking) technology.  Take quality certificate courses to get up to speed quickly.  Be well versed in digital, mobile, cloud computing, software or anything computer related.

3.  Get Your Degree:  We find 85% of the retired workforce has taken some type of college credit-based courses.  Look at the new educational degrees that are being offered, see what your interested in and is related to your Mission/Plan, get your courses/credits transferred and finish your degree!

4.  Start Your Own Business:  Probably based on your experience, you have established a network of contacts and developed a number of ideas that could springboard you into a self-sustaining business.  Today, you can also start an E-Business with very little upfront investment and capital.  Do your homework and learn why better than 90% of new businesses fail and learn how to assure your venture succeeds...

5.  Stay Healthy and Enjoy Your Family:   You worked hard or served your country for a long time, so it's more important than ever to strategically target a career that you'll enjoy.  If you accomplish your Mission and Plan, balancing a career you really enjoy will improve your family life and keep your mind, body and spirit healthy!

jeffroth@tlstrategy.com

Do you know what you’re really good at and what you are not?

Michael Jordan is one of the greatest basketball players of all time – winning 6 championships; Google is one of the most admired companies with stock shares toppling over $600.00 a share; Michael Phelps has won more gold medals than anyone in Olympic history - and the list goes on. 

You might wonder what made them so good at what they do.  The answer is simple; they became successful at what they are really good at.  The hard part is figuring that out.  Does it come natural?  What does your organization focus on with great interest, enthusiasm, dedication and passion?

Since President Obama recently won reelection, he will be continually calling upon Community Colleges to significantly improve its postsecondary education performance.  The President’s declaration that in an ever more competitive global marketplace, the United States must once again lead the world in college attainment, challenging Americans to compete at least one year of education past high school.

Completion is the key!  To fully enjoy the benefits of higher knowledge and skills, students must graduate.  Dropping in for a couple of classes at the local campus rarely makes a difference for long term students.  Therefore, it is vitally important that Public and Private for-profit institutions who have positioned themselves in providing a full pathway not only increase the likelihood of student graduation, but also open the door to a good career. 

One alternative that is becoming a growing strategy and can deliver greater return-on-investment than longer term bachelor or associate degrees – are certificates.  For businesses needing to recruit readily-trained employees and improve their existing workforce - partnering with colleges in developing customized certificate programs can be the most direct path to help their employees complete college and to ensure company and career success.

However, employers are concerned about investing in these college partnerships because of:

·         The talent and commitment required to understand their business and to develop and customize the type of training they need to meet their goals and objectives.

·         The lack of awareness in terms of the quality of services and advantages a college has to offer them.

·         Resource constraints in administering, managing and reporting on performance, especially during business growth periods and economic competitiveness.

·         The state-of-the-art technology tools needed in delivering high quality, consistent training regionally, nationally and internationally.

A little more than half of all certificates are awarded by public institutions, mostly community colleges;   four in ten are now granted by private for-profit institutions and is growing.   As a result, For-profits are making huge investments in building awareness through integrated marketing techniques and are increasing sales and consultant velocity – generating interest to businesses and individuals.  And the investment and competition keeps on growing…  

So what is your overall plan and go-to-market strategy to achieve better success?  Do you have the right organizational structure in place?  Do you have the right talent?  Is your institution on-board?  How do you select partners that you can trust?  Do you know what you’re good at and what you’re not?   

The 6 Major Challenges for College Workforce Organizations

The 6 Major Challenges for College Workforce Organizations:  

Meeting the needs of business has become more complicated and the demand for partnering with business will grow.

The  6 Major Challenges that most College Workforce organizations face on a daily basis are:

1.  Doing more with less - How can you provide need assessments, customize, develop and implement more more new campaigns (Specials, Promotions, etc.), events (Lunch n Learns, Seminars, etc.), and Course Programs that will increase without increasing staff or overhead costs?

2.  Increasing competition - How to you compete with local, national and international competition without running your offerings at a cost that negatively impact the organization's operating margin.

3.  Need for information - How do you gather information about industries and customers so that you can better target them, as well as new customers with similar profiles?

4.  Business Outreach - How do you reach out to business prospects, converting them from interested into leads-and leads into customers?

5.  Partnerships - Who can you trust and how do you develop, monitor and maintain strategic, long term partnerships without jeopardizing your brand in the community?

6.  Cost of doing business - How do you adjust your expense requirements or prices to compensate for a poor economy or an increase in promotion, development and operation costs?

The planning process is essential to meeting these challenges as you transition from a workforce organization of the college to a for-profit based B2B operation.  

Jeff Roth, is a CSS Educational Consultant that enjoys turning problems and ideas into strategic and tactical advantages for our colleges and universities.