By Columbia Southern University
If you ever wanted to learn more about something, but cannot invest the time to earn a degree, continuing education may be the right choice for you.
Continuing education offers busy adult learners a valuable and convenient way to expand their knowledge without having to invest a great deal of time. Generally, continuing education courses are short-term, focus on a single topic and may meet a required purpose for a job.
However, continuing education can offer so much more to eager learners, particularly those in areas of safety. Chief among its benefits are personal enrichment, employment success and career development.
When combined, these three aspects can generate superior continuing education courses.
- Personal enrichment: Education provides a fascinating arena for a mind to grow stronger and sharper. However, learning does not always have to be regimented or result in an academic degree. In fact, education is simply about gaining knowledge. That knowledge offers enrichment on various levels while satisfying a curiosity or key career interest. No matter the topic—art, history, technology or safety—continued learning allows a person to grow intellectually.
- Employment success: Many departments and organizations encourage continuing education so employees can learn specific skills to do their current job more efficiently or to advance through promotion.
Hiring officials and executives in the public and private sector recognize that a general lack of skills is likely to hold an organization back from advancing its mission. This may explain why 85 percent of human resources and business leaders ranked learning and development as a top issue, according to “Global Human Capital Trends 2015: Leading in the New World of Work,” by Deloitte. Workers can further benefit as the learning can foster possible promotions or increased value to the organization.
- Career development: Perhaps one of most important aspects of continuing education is that it can be vital to helping individuals develop new skills or knowledge. Gaining expertise on the latest trends in a profession not only adds to a person’s resume, but it indicates to your employer that you are taking your position seriously, possibly seeking career advancement and doing your best to advance your skillset.
Separately or combined, these three benefits make continuing education very appealing to learners. They help learners gain knowledge for personal satisfaction, boost a resume or career, appease an employer or gain a promotion.
Columbia Southern University designs its continuing education courses in occupational safety and health with these features in mind. Industrial Hygiene for Safety Professionals features a history of the topic and discussion of how the principles of physics, chemistry and biological sciences apply, appealing to some students’ interests in history and sciences. The course also discusses how the practice of industrial hygiene fits within an environmental health and safety program that gives students information to adapt their environmental health and safety program at their workplaces. As a resume builder, students learn about the latest health hazards to impress potential employers with their knowledge.
CSU also offers two continuing education courses for safety professionals eager for a career boost, promotion and/or personal enrichment.
The ASP Prep Course and CSP Prep Course are both designed to prepare students for the Associate Safety Professional Examination and the Certified Safety Professional Examination offered by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals.
From statistics to ergonomics to safety management and more, these continuing education courses will instill a huge amount of knowledge and preparation for anyone seeking certification.
About Columbia Southern University
One of the nation’s pioneer online universities, Columbia Southern University was established in 1993 to provide an alternative to the traditional university experience. CSU offers online associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees such as business administration, criminal justice, fire administration and occupational safety and health. Visit ColumbiaSouthern.edu or call (877) 347-6050 to learn more.
CSU is an IPSA Supporter. All IPSA Members are eligible to receive a tuition discount – login to our Members Only page to learn more.
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