Continuing education for professionals: no matter the industry or profession, ongoing education offers benefits.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: EDUCATION

It's beneficial for all employees in every industry to receive continuous education and training throughout their careers, whether that education takes place formally for credit at an educational institution, through in-house training programs, or through individual research, study, or practice. Every day employees are expected to keep up with advancing technology, methodologies, and best businesses practices.

The purpose of the UAA (University of Alaska Anchorage) Business Enterprise Institute is "supporting businesses and entrepreneurial capacities across Alaska by linking economic development programs," according to its website. The Business Enterprise Institute is comprised of several economic development programs across the University of Alaska system, including the Center for Corporate and Professional Development, led by Director Molly Ridout.

The Center for Corporate and Professional Development

"We offer open-enrollment classes that are hard-skill and soft-skill based; there's everything from leadership to finance for non-financial people," Ridout says. The classes that the Center offers are not for college credit, but are geared toward professionals looking to learn or enhance skills outside of a degree program. To that point, the Center does offer classes that qualify as continuing education credits for those licensed professionals that require ongoing education to maintain and renew their licenses, such as lawyers, social workers, and human resource professionals.

Ridout is new to the program, having been the director for about half a year. She says the Center is always reviewing the courses they offer to make sure the classes are a good fit for the business community they're designed to benefit. As one example, the center is offering a class for engineers to teach them sales skills. "As the workforce is having to change, subject matter experts are often-times now directly interfacing with the customer. Where their comfort zone may be engineering, now they have to maybe be more extroverted and more customer services and sales oriented. It's kind of teaching them the skill set for relationship building, which is what sales is all about," Ridout says. Other soft-skills courses include "Pitch Perfect: Effectively Presenting to Your Alaska Tegislators" and "Staging Success: Sharpening Your Business Presentation Skills."

Ridout says that the Center for Corporate and Professional Development has two sides: open enrollment courses and...