Mad skills and updated resumes

Nobody likes a know-it-all, but employers do like workers who are educated and have the newest, most relevant skills. Professionals who have college degrees hope that if they earn more certifications or
another degree, they will become more hirable or promotable.

To respond to both employers’ and workers’ needs, Colorado’s institutions of higher education are adding courses, degrees and certificates. The new programs cover everything from buzzword topics like sustainable energy to less “hot” but still important topics such as insurance.

Here is an update on Colorado colleges and universities’ newest additions to their business and professional programs. Some schools are still working on new programs that will launch soon, so be sure to revisit their websites.

University of Denver University College 

University College has developed a new way to deliver the most effective professional education to working adults – the Professional Options Curriculum. Designed to help professionals understand the trends impacting the broad career field and “industry” sector where they work, it also provides needed specialized skills.

Students in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies have the opportunity to customize their degree by choosing the specific skills they need to develop to meet their goals. Professional Foundation courses help students understand the scope of activity, historical development, future direction and trends, and typical types and roles of organizations that operate within a career field. Professional Specialty courses focus on a specific professional area within the larger industry sector in which students are working or wish to work, and help them master the skills needed to excel in that area.

 For more information, visit www.universitycollege.du.edu or call 303-871-3155 or 800-347-2042. 

Colorado State University

In the fall of 2010 Colorado State University began offering a Master of Science in Business Administration with a specialization in Computer Information Systems for distance students. Students view the classes using BizCast, CSU’s video streaming network, and can opt to complete the course work in one to five years.

CSU also added professional programs at its downtown Denver Learning Center. One new program, the Master’s Degree in Organizational Performance and Change, is designed to help middle managers become change agents for their companies. Also in Denver, the business college’s Center for Professional Development & Business Research offers certificate programs in topics such as High Performance Management, Innovative Marketing and others. CSU also offers certificate programs in Loveland.

CSU’s Brighton Learning Center offers a Ph.D. in Organizational Performance and Change. That program began in January 2010, and students will begin dissertation work in August 2012. The university will begin accepting applications for the Spring 2013 cohort in 2012.

CSU’s Colorado Springs campus offers a Master of Social Work degree program. The degree is designed for students who have a bachelor’s degree in a field other than social work.

For more information, visit http://biz.colostate.edu , or www.learn.colostate.edu .

Colorado State University Global Campus

Colorado State University Global Campus, the online university, offers certificates of completion for people who have undergraduate degrees and need to update their skills, but don’t want to make the commitment to a master’s degree. The certificates consist of four courses, each eight weeks long. The areas of study include Online Teaching, Organizational Leadership and Change Management and Teacher Leadership. The Human Resource certificates have been popular lately, and the HR Management certificate prepares people for the Society of Human Resource Management certification.

CSU Global hopes to launch several degrees, including Bachelor of Science degrees in Accounting, Communication, Criminal Justice, Healthcare Administration and Management, Interdisciplinary Professional Studies, and a Master of Criminal Justice and a Master of Healthcare Administration and Management. The university is waiting for approval from the Colorado Department of Higher Education and the Higher Learning Commission.

For more information, visit www.csuglobal.org .

Colorado State University-Pueblo

Colorado State University-Pueblo’s College of Engineering, Education, and Professional Studies has a newly approved Bachelor of Science in Construction Management degree. The first students enrolled in Fall 2010. Construction Management graduates become qualified to work in jobs such as construction company executives, government building officials, project representatives and others.

For more information, visit http://ceeps.colostate-pueblo.edu .

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University of Colorado Denver

The University of Colorado Denver Business School launched a Bachelor of Science in Risk Management and Insurance in January. Pinnacol Assurance made a $5 million gift, allocated over seven years, to fund the program. UC Denver hopes to eventually expand the program to graduate and online courses.

UC Denver Business School recently joined with nine other colleges and universities nationwide to form the Business School Alliance for Healthcare Management (BSAHM). The alliance plans to run a competition for students who will apply management skills to health-care issues surrounding a specific case. The alliance will also encourage hospitals to hire their graduates and set up a peer review of each other’s programs.

Also new from UC Denver, Marketing has added several specializations, including Brand Management, Global Marketing, Marketing and Business Intelligence and Sports and Entertainment Marketing. A new Managing for Sustainability certificate will launch in time for the fall 2011 semester. Students will take four semester-long graduate Business School courses, such as Managing for Sustainability and Business in the Natural Environment.

For more information, visit www.ucdenver.edu .

University of Colorado at Boulder

The University of Colorado at Boulder’s law school has a new Master of Laws (LLM) program. The LLM is a one-year program in addition to the three-year law degree. Colorado Law offers three LLM programs: LLM in Entrepreneurial Law, LLM in Informational Technology and Intellectual Property Law, and the LLM in Natural Resources Law.

CU Boulder and the university’s ATLAS Institute and Division of Continuing Education is launching Digital Media Bootcamp, an intensive three-week introduction to digital media production. The course trains people to become competent designers and developers of digital media. “Current interest is primarily coming from recent graduates and undergraduates who will soon graduate, but a few industry professionals have also expressed interest,” says Joel Swanson, director of the Technology, Arts and Media Program at CU Boulder. “We hope to have a good mix of the two.”

Also new is CU Boulder’s Digital Energy Program, a graduate-level professional program offered by the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program. Students may complete a four-course certificate in Energy Communications Networks or an in-depth Master of Science degree. The program, made possible by Recovery Act funding, is designed to prepare engineers for utility power jobs and focuses on Smart Grid technology.

For more information, visit www.colorado.edu/law/llm , http://tam.colorado.edu/dmbc/curriculum.php , or http://telecom.colorado.edu/DigitalEnergy .
University of Colorado at
Colorado Springs

University of Colorado at Colorado Springs launched Weekend University through its Campus Wide Extended Studies. The courses range from Business & Administrative Writing to Understanding Terrorism. Students attend classes Friday night and Saturday on campus. The courses are for credit, so the program is directed at people who are working and want to finish earning a degree.

Classes began in February. David Moon, senior associate vice chancellor, Academic Affairs, says 210 students enrolled for the inaugural semester, and the most popular class so far is General Astronomy with 35 students. “We really hope that Weekend University will especially be a boon to nontraditional adult learners, and that it will help us serve them better,” he says.

For more information, visit
www.uccs.edu/weekends.

University of Northern Colorado

The University of Northern Colorado Monfort Institute, part of the Monfort College of Business, is offering several leadership workshops in its Sustainable Transformation Program. The workshops are Leading High Performance, Strategy for Sustainable High Performance, Developing People for High Performance, Executing for Sustainable High Performance, and Developing a Learning Culture for High Performance. Attendees can take as many workshops as they want, and if they enroll in the whole series they can earn a Sustainable Transformation-Colorado Certificate. The next series starts this summer in Loveland.

The Monfort Institute also offers High Performance Health Care, a two-day workshop that covers topics such as The Enterprise as a System, Understanding Stakeholders’ Needs, and Develop, Deploy and Manage Action Plans. The next workshop is scheduled for June.
For C-level executives, the Monfort Institute will offer the Performance Excellence Incubator this fall. It’s a part-time program with six one-day classroom workshops, online services and coursework, and interactive sessions with peers.

The UNC Monfort College of Business hopes to roll out an MBA program in Fall 2012.

For more information, visit
www.monfortinstitute.org  or mcb.unco.edu  

University of Denver

The University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business has redesigned its Executive MBA program. The new version, which debuted in Fall of 2010, begins with a business and economic context class. The courses after that have been re-sequenced to better mimic the business flow. Daniels integrated a 10-week Ethics and Leadership course into the program, as well as a Business Case Competition.

Barbara J. Kreisman, Ph.D., assistant dean and clinical professor for the Executive and Professional MBA Programs, says the revamped program emphasizes entrepreneurship. “We needed to make sure we maintained our relevance,” she says. “We were hearing from students that we needed to shift the program to their interest and put more innovation, product development and idea generation into the program.” A panel of venture capitalists and angel investors review students’ final business plans.

Also new from DU is the three-week Summer Business Institute. The session, which will take place in June, is for non-business students who are juniors, seniors and recent alumni. The classes will cover finance, marketing and leadership concepts.

For more information, visit www.daniels.du.edu  

Regis University

Regis University College for Professional Studies offers accelerated learning, which means five- to eight-week terms instead of 16-week semesters. In addition to the classroom-based programs, Regis offers some bachelor’s and master’s degree programs online, with more than 380 courses and more than 6,000 students online.

For people who already have a degree and want to enhance their skills or their resume, Regis University offers undergraduate and graduate certificates from the School of Computer and Information Science, School of Education and Counseling, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the School of Management. Some examples of the certificates are Information System Security, Autism Education, Executive Leadership, and High Performance Management.

For more information, visit
http://cps.regis.edu/.

Colorado Technical University

Colorado Technical University launched a Hospitality Management concentration for its MBA program. The courses will be offered at CTU’s Denver campus and will cover financial management, customer service, marketing, planning, leadership and operations for hospitality, tourism and resort organizations.

CTU recently launched more graduate programs, including a Doctor of Management with a concentration in environmental and social sustainability, Doctor of Management with a concentration in Emerging Media, and Doctor of Computer Science Programs with concentrations in Emerging Media and in Digital Systems Security. These programs combine an online component and 4 ½-day sessions in Colorado Springs.

For more information, visit
www.coloradotech.edu.

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Mesa State College

Mesa State College’s Business Department offers several Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degrees, Bachelor of Science Degrees in Accounting, Computer Information Systems, and Construction Management, and an MBA program. The college, which is in Grand Junction, also offers three certificate programs in business: Entrepreneurship, Supervision, and Decision Support. The certificate programs take about three months to complete, and consist of nine on-campus meetings plus online coursework.

For more information, visit
www.mesastate.edu/business.

Adams State College

Adams State College’s newest offering is the Higher Education Administration and Leadership (HEAL) program. The program offers a Master of Arts degree and a post-graduate executive leadership training program in higher education, with a special focus on Hispanic Serving Institutions and Latino/as. “We actually received seed money in 2009 to develop and start the program from the U.S. Department of Education’s FIPSE program,” says Melissa Freeman, Ph.D., director of HEAL. FIPSE, or Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, is a grant program.

The college, in Alamosa, enrolled the first cohort of 18 students in August 2010. Freeman says most of the students are higher education professionals who work in student affairs, enrollment management, faculty or institutional research. “We have a couple of individuals not in higher education institutions, but have an interest in higher education,” she says.

For more information, visit
www.adams.edu/academics/business/heal/

Jones International University

Jones International University, an online institution based in Centennial, launched a Doctorate of Education in Adult Education Leadership. The program is for people who work in higher education, human resources, staff development and training positions within health care, military and government organizations.

“All of these environments have internal training and education initiatives,” says Lynn Payne, Ph.D., chief academic officer for JIU. “Our Ed.D. aligns the concepts of adult learning theory with the development of training and education programs to those workplace environments.” She says students could range from HR professionals who have to lead training seminars in a corporation, to registered nurses who want to move out of clinical work and become instructors.

The first class began in February with eight students. The program takes three years, but Payne says some individuals might take longer to complete the coursework and dissertation.

For more information, visit www.jiu.edu .

Metropolitan State College of Denver

In January, Metropolitan State College of Denver announced its Franchise Ownership Program. The program, with a proposed Fall 2011 launch, will bring together franchisees, franchisers, investors, and the Center for Innovation at Metro State. The franchisees are Metro State alumni and students who are in their last semester as a senior, who pay $5,000 to $10,000 and receive start-up training.

The franchisers, which so far include Camp Bow Wow, Smiling Moose Deli, 10 til 2, and others, cede half of their franchise fee to the Center for Innovation in exchange for these trained and enthusiastic new franchisees. Investors provide startup funding, and then receive a percentage of the franchisees’ revenues over the next 10 years. The Center for Innovation will receive half the franchisee fee and one percent of the annual royalty that franchisees typically pay to the franchiser.

For more information, visit www.mscd.edu/fop/ .

Bridgepoint Education

Bridgepoint Education is an independent, for-profit education company that offers online and campus-based programs. The company owns Ashford University in San Diego and University of the Rockies in Colorado Springs.

Ashford University recently added two online degrees. The Bachelor of Arts in eMarketing covers topics such as ebusiness, Internet and social media marketing, business law, accounting and marketing strategy. The Bachelor of Arts in Consumer & Family Financial Services is designed for students who are interested in careers as brokers, financial advisers, or investment analysts. Other online Bachelor of Arts programs include Entrepreneurship, Environmental Studies, and Healthcare Administration.

University of the Rockies, formerly the Colorado School of Professional Psychology, offers master’s and doctorate degree programs in the social and behavioral sciences. The three newest degree programs are a Master of Arts in Human Services, a Master of Arts in Organizational Development and Leadership, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Development and Leadership. The courses are offered online in an accelerated six-week format. University of the Rockies also offers graduate certificate programs in Business Psychology, Criminology and Justice Studies, General Psychology, and Organizational Leadership.

In April, Bridgepoint will host a grand opening of its new downtown Denver campus.

For more information, visit www.bridgepointeducation.com .

American Public University

American Public University is an all-online university. Its corporate offices are in Charles Town, West Virginia. According the company’s website, the institution offers more than 70 associate, bachelor’s and master’s programs.

Carol A. Pollio, Ph.D., is program director of Environmental Studies, an area she says has seen enrollment grow 400 percent in the past three years. She points to recent high-profile events as an important factor in the increased interest.

“From the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to the coverage on climate change, our society is exposed to environmental issues daily,” she says. “Many of our students tell me they are in this degree program because they ‘want to make a difference’ or because they want their children to have clean air and water, birds and giant sequoias to enjoy in the future.”

The university offers a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies in four concentrations: Environmental Technology and Management, Fish and Wildlife Management, Regional and Community Environmental Planning, and General. There’s also a Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Management, which covers topics such as ecosystems management, regulation and law, and environmental ethics.

Other popular programs include Information Technology Management, Sports & Health Management, Business Administration, and Homeland Security.

For more information, visit www.apus.edu .
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