| REVIEWS
Cruising
Cyberspace
Web
Site Pick Of The Month
By Pam Wegmann
Not too very long
ago in the world of business, one went to school, learned what they needed
to know to enter a career or company and then spent most or all of their
work life at the same company. Today, the average college graduate will
change careers (not jobs, careers) four to six times in their work life.
In keeping with this cultural change, and the competitive nature of getting
and keeping a job in this world of corporate downsizing, one must now commit
to continuous learning. Here’s a site that will help you assess career
moves and find your way on the path of lifelong learning:
http://www.alx.org
This is the site
of the American Learning Exchange. It’s a series of databases and a listing
service that tells you who’s providing training and education dedicated
to the world of employment. There are thousands of entries of classes,
seminars and workshops that are regularly held all over the United States
which can help enhance your current career or help you change jobs. Providers
include colleges, universities, trade and tech schools and private training
companies.
The site has links
from the home page to distinct areas for site visitors who would be learners,
employers, instruction providers or instruction developers. However, upon
closer examination of each of the areas, the content is largely redundant,
with only some additional or specialized information provided for each
of these niche markets.
At the Learners’
link, clicking on the Offerings button takes you to the meat of this site:
a voluminous list of courses and seminars for the individual looking to
learn more about any number of business related topics. One can search
by keyword or subject for workshops, courses, seminars, and/or degree and
certificate programs offered by a variety of types of learning institutions.
Taking another door to the same information, one can click on the Providers
button to search the same database by name of institution, type (trade,
two year college, etc.) or specialty.
The Learners’ link
also offers a general tutorial on career development at Career Info. At
Consumer Info, you will find FAQs, financial aid tips, a glossary, and
guides and tools for further study of the topic.
If you are an employer
and want to see what’s available for your employees, particularly for negotiating
a customized package, there’s a link for Employers, too. But it really
contains the same information as that provided for the Learner except it
has this extra category of information on training packages offered by
various instruction providers to employers for their employees’ development.
The link for Providers
is more of the same, but touts itself as a way for providers to check out
the competition.
There are some valuable
links to America’s Job Bank, where over 900,000 job seekers have posted
resumes and over one million jobs have been posted by employers.
Even with its shortcomings,
this is still a site worth bookmarking if you are in the market for providing
or receiving career education.
Knowledge is Power!
:-)
August 1999
Questions/Comments
can be sent to pam@info-matters.com
or faxed to 504.738.0016. You can also reach Ms. Wegmann at 504.738.0070.
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