Learning Centers Lets Job-Seekers Polish Old Skills, Learn New Ones Students Increase Their Employability For Less Time And Money Than Formal Schooling Would Take

The Information Revolution is placing harsh demands on workers.

The reality is simple: Get up-to-date with those essential office skills or get left behind.

Most people need help but not everyone has the time, the money or the inclination to go back to school. That’s where the emerging learning center industry comes into play.

Said David Wilson, president of Interface Computer School, “The niche we fill in Spokane is that there is a large number of people who don’t have the time or money to go back to college, but have only worked in fast food or construction and they see the professional environment as a good future for them.

“We basically do two types of training,” Wilson said. “We do career training and computer training.”

Interface Computer School is a licensed and accredited vocational school with three Spokane locations.

“We’re working with folks who are looking to start a new career or to get some career training.”

Many Interface clients have never worked in an office or within a professional environment. Instead, they can enroll in the Interface program and within six to nine months, depending on their needs, they can be ready to pursue a professional career.

Others merely want a one- or two-day course that will bring them up to speed on the latest software.

“On our computer training side, people come simply for computer training. These are people who are already working in a professional environment,” said Wilson. “They’re using WordPerfect 5.1, say, and want to convert to a Windows environment.”

The Humanix Learning Centers, a division of Humanix Personnel, are state-licensed vocational schools in Washington and state-certified in Idaho.

“The biggest thing we do is provide computer software application skills training,” said school director Colleen King.

“We offer everything from one course to the full-blown operating system. Our programs may range from 10 hours to 485 hours.”

Many Humanix clients are in the process of making a complete career change, King said,”from light industrial, for example, to something less physically taxing.”

A client in that situation will likely need to master a full range of office skills, including math, keyboarding, punctuation, grammar and spelling.

In that respect, “we are pretty much a regular school,” said King.

A full-blown program can take up to six months, with classes ranging from two to four hours a day, she added.

At Interface, Wilson said, students enrolled in one of the longer courses would encounter some general skills programs, as well.

“In these courses,” Wilson said, “we have some non-computer classes; written communications, bookkeeping. Whatever they need to make them employable.”

Humanix Learning Centers offer students the advantage of its affiliation of its temp-to-hire program. “Our end goal is employment,” King said. “We want to make sure the individual is getting the skills they need to get into the profession they want.”

Neither school teaches computer programming.

“There’s not really a big demand for that,” said Wilson, “and what demand there is requires a college degree.”

Most Interface students will graduate from their courses with the skills needed for customer service, bookkeeping and secretarial positions. For many, the most difficult challenge will be learning to adapt to the professional environment.

They will learn by doing, Wilson said.

“Just being in this environment is a big plus; this is a very professional environment.”

Interface’s long courses include a class called Career Planning, where we address the key issues - attire and grooming, employer expectations.

“We help them prepare their resume and we go through mock interviews which are videotaped, so they can see how they’re doing.”

Wilson said the Interface programs are tailored to the needs of the individual: “We feel we can custom-design a training program for anybody, depending on what they’re bringing to the table and what they want to get out of the program.

Interface utilizes what Wilson called a four-step process for developing curricula.

“In the first step, we will buy a curriculum, from as many as three or four publishers. It’s never quite what we want, so we use it for about six months, then we start to develop supplemental material. Then, after about another six months, we develop our own.

As many as 100 students may be enrolled at any time in each Interface learning center and Wilson said demand has grown at a steady five to 20 percent per year.

As many as 85 or 90 percent of all Interface students are women, but “we’re waiting for that tide to turn,” Wilson said. “There are lot of men out there who have a hard time seeing themselves behind a desk. They see that as more of a female profession.”

Men who feel that way may be painting themselves into a dangerous corner, he said.

“I read an article a long time ago that said that unless men started getting involved, women were going to be running the place because they have the computer skills.”