Online degrees offer flexibility and adapt well to the rapid pace of technology advancement in the field of accounting. While an online degree does not guarantee you a quicker finish than traditional accounting programs and will still need to be coupled with the completion and fulfillment of the Certified Public Accountant exam, it’s almost a certainty that it will be significantly cheaper than a traditional degree, although tuitions will still vary. The level and nature of your degree can vary too, ranging from associate to bachelor’s to master’s in the sub-specialties of finance, federal accounting and auditing, accounting information systems, accounting in the public sector, and statistics.

Once you have your accounting degree, it’s important to keep it up-to-date by exploring certificate programs. These are non-degree credentials that afford a degree holder with additional, more specific, areas of knowledge. Certificate programs are critical in professions such as accounting, in which new technologies and government regulations are continually creating the need for specialization. Certificate programs do not take as much time as a full accounting degree and they offer the possibility of considerable upgrades in both salary and title.

Certificate programs vary widely in nature, from basic programs directed towards high school graduates to more advanced programs which aid in preparing for the Certified Public Accountant examination. They usually focus on bestowing specialization in the fields of managerial accounting, business law and taxation, corporate finance, forensic accounting and financial analysis. The diversification of areas of expertise in accounting testifies to its long term stability as a career profession as well as its ubiquity in virtually all forms of business and commerce.

Certificate programs are a great way for accounting graduates to update their skills and prepare themselves for changes in the industry. They are also extremely important for people who wish to keep several different career options open. For example, specialized certification can make you qualified to work for a private company as an internal auditor, or to secure a post in a government agency or an organization in the public sector. That’s three different job markets that a certified accountant will be prepared for. As opposed to other industries that are bottlenecking into certain directions, accounting continues to expand into many different fields and is accessible to many different people.

There are a variety of options for where to acquire your online accounting degree-DeVry, Kaplan, Strayer, Capella-and just as many options for pursuing certificate programs thereafter. This career path promises greater job security than most other professions, and in a number of different fields. For these reasons and more, accounting jobs are projected to grow extensively between now and 2018, making accounting the most stable career choice in the nation, ahead of even business. The Bureau of Labor Statistics isolates four major sectors for accounting jobs in the coming years: public accounting, government accounting, management accounting, and internal auditing. A career in any of these fields, bolstered by several certificate programs, is a good option for professionals with an interest in finances, accounting, and auditing.

“The unemployment rate for people who have never gone to college is more than double what it is for those who have gone to college,” says Dr. Mary Hawkins, president of Bellevue University. “And during the next 10 years, nearly eight in 10 new jobs will require workforce training or a higher education. These statistics make it clear that completing some form of higher education is the best tool to meet the challenges of a 21st century economy.”

If you’re considering going back to school, chances are you’ve wondered about online learning. Is it legit? Will I get the same quality education I would in a classroom? Will my degree be as respected as much as it would if I attended in person? The answer is, surprisingly, the same as with a traditional, in-class situation—there are varying levels of online degrees and you must do your research to find the best one for you.

“…These statistics make it clear that completing some form of higher education is the best tool to meet the challenges of a 21st century economy.”

Here are four factors you should consider if you’re contemplating getting your degree online:

Just as with an in-class program, you want to make sure the institution you attend is regionally accredited. This designation is an indicator that the institution voluntarily reports on the quality of its programs and submits to assessment to ensure quality offerings.

Determine whether or not you must be online at a particular time each week; if you can enter the virtual classroom when it is most convenient for you. Based on your lifestyle, decide which of these formats will best set you up for success. Maybe you have a hectic, unpredictable schedule and you need to do the work when you can fit it in. Or perhaps you are the kind of person who benefits most from a set time each week to attend class.

Online learning is still relatively young in higher education. Some institutions, like Bellevue University, have been offering online degree programs since the mid-‘90s. It is important to make sure the school you choose has had time to optimize its online offerings.

Ask if the entire degree program is offered online or if it is just one component of the larger program. Some universities require both online and in-class participation within the same program. If you are interested in this type of blended program, make sure you ask how much content is delivered online and how much is delivered in class so that you can plan how you are going to fit the components into your life.

Lastly, please know that when you reach your goal, your degree will not indicate whether you studied online or in class. You don’t need to worry about perceptions from those who still doubt online learning. What’s most important is determining if earning your degree can get you to where you want to go and if online learning is the best way to fit getting a degree into your already busy life.

These are a few of the questions that the recipients of this year’s L’Oréal USA Fellowships For Women In Science Program are asking and working to answer.

The program helps raise awareness of the contribution of women to the sciences, and identifies exceptional female researchers in the U.S. to serve as role models for younger generations.

Here are the women who were selected by an interdisciplinary review panel and a distinguished jury of eminent scientists and engineers:

Dr. Trisha Andrew, 26, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA—organic chemist in the field of organic electronics. The Fellowship will help Dr. Andrew investigate the interaction of organic chromophores with interesting optoelectronic materials known as “quantum dots,” which hopefully will lead to a different kind of solar energy.

Dr. Tijana Ivanovic, 35, Harvard Medical School, working at University of Colorado at Boulder as a virologist studying virus entry into cells. The grant will enable Dr. Ivanovic to build a custom Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) microscope and use it to study the fusion mechanism of the influenza virus by visualizing the fusion process of individual virus particles in real time.

Dr. Karlin Bark, 30, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA—mechanical engineer in the field of haptics. The Fellowship will allow Dr. Bark to study the potential use of haptic feedback in stroke rehabilitation. She will work alongside clinical specialists at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute to develop, refine and test an affordable upper-limb rehabilitation system that can be used in clinics and homes to assist stroke survivors in retraining the motor pathways needed to complete everyday tasks.

Dr. Sasha Devore, 31, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY—neuroscientist examining health sciences and technology. With the support of the grant, Dr. Devore will employ techniques for selectively activating and recording the behavior of neurons in order to study the function of feedback pathways in sensory processing. Numerous neurological diseases and disorders are linked with dysfunction in the brain’s feedback pathways and are typically accompanied by impairments in sensory processing.

Dr. R. Blythe Towal, 27, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA—biomedical engineer in the field of computational neuroscience. The Fellowship will allow Dr. Towal to design and build novel instruments to measure human eye movements during normal, active-sensing behavior as opposed to the highly artificial conditions of the laboratory. She hopes that these experiments will lead not only to improved robotic technologies, but also to a deeper understanding of information processing in the nervous system.

Entering its ninth year, this national program annually recognizes and provides support to five postdoctoral women researchers in the U.S. who are pursuing careers in the life and physical/material sciences, as well as mathematics, engineering and computer science. Recipients receive up to $60,000 to apply toward their postdoctoral research to further help them achieve their goals.

Since its inception, the program has awarded 40 Fellowships to women scientists across the U.S. Each year, the program attracts talented applicants from diverse scientific fields, representing some of the nation’s leading academic institutions and laboratories. The recipients attend an awards ceremony and professional development workshops, media training and receive networking opportunities. In 2012, these workshops, which are facilitated by the program’s partner, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), will encompass job search techniques, interviewing skills, budget development for grant requests and strategies for submissions to peer-reviewed publications.

The Fellowship program is open only to women postdoctoral researchers. For more information, visit http://www.lorealusa.com/forwomeninscience or on http://facebook.com/LorealUSAforWomeninScience.

A national study by the University of Phoenix Research Institute finds that those who postpone college, then earn their degree while working, are estimated to make an average 22 percent return on their educational investment.

The financial benefit of a college degree is no surprise. What is surprising is that three out of four Americans are nontraditional students—defined as working adults who delay college until after age 23-and that the return on investment for these students is almost double the return for traditional students.

Until now, most studies have focused on traditional learners who begin college after high school. Very little research has focused on the majority of college students—those who are balancing school with work and family.

The study, “Traditional and Nontraditional Students: Is a Bachelor’s Degree Worth the Investment?” used data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the College Board and analyzed the financial return on investment of traditional and nontraditional students.

The return on educational investment for nontraditional students was 22 percent compared to 12 percent for traditional students.

Researchers point out that the purpose of the research is not to recommend a nontraditional educational path over a traditional one, but to underscore the remarkable consistency with which a college education provides value over a person’s lifetime.

Moreover, the findings project an upbeat message for those considering going back to school while still holding down jobs.

“The study provides evidence that investing in a college education at any age is a sound decision,” says Dr. Tracey Wilen-Daugenti, who leads the University of Phoenix Research Institute.

“Educators and employers can help make America more competitive in the global knowledge economy by creating policies and programs that support college students in all stages of life.”

Read a full copy of the report at http://www.phoenix.edu/institute.

Only about 27 percent of working adults in the U.S. have college degrees, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Adults with a bachelor’s degree have an unemployment rate of about half that of those with only a high school diploma, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bachelor’s degree holders also make at least 40 percent more.

One place many adults turn to is Strayer University. This 119-year-old accredited university has more than 90 campuses nationwide and online. The school provides high-quality, postsecondary education in business administration, accounting, information technology, education, health services administration, public administration and human resource management for working adults. Online classes follow either a real-time or an anytime—24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week-format. The courses offer students the flexibility needed to fit classes into a busy life. Classroom and online instruction can be combined and tutoring is free for all students.

To further help students, Dr. Deborah Snyder, senior vice provost of academic programs, Strayer University, offers some essential tips for parents to consider when returning to college:

Talk with your spouse—The additional time devoted to going to classes, studying and preparing for exams may require a shift in responsibilities.

Tap into your network—Create a network of support consisting of friends and extended family to help with important household considerations, such as child care.

Make your children part of the team—Children love to have a sense of responsibility and to be helpful to their parents. Explain your educational goals to them and help them understand how they can help you succeed. Group study sessions are one way to create a parent-child bond.

Plan ahead—Inventory your home logistics: chores, meals, child care, children’s activities and exercise routines. Plan for a shift in the division of responsibilities while you are in school. Make sure everyone involved understands.

Review the family budget—Will you pay for college out of savings, borrow money or be reimbursed by your employer? Talk to school advisors and others to determine what makes the most sense for you.

Consider your present lifestyle—Returning to school will require a commitment to spend some of the time you were spending on other activities, including your children’s extracurricular activities. If you’ve been out of school awhile, getting back into the habit of studying will likely take a focused effort on the part of the entire family.

More Information
Learn more at http://www.strayer.edu.

To land or keep your dream job, you may need to change your “shape.”

Employers are increasingly looking to hire “T-shaped people,” according to an expert webinar on future work skills conducted by the University of Phoenix Research Institute.

To know if you are “T-shaped,” consider that the vertical line of the T represents depth and the horizontal bar, breadth. A T-shaped person has general knowledge in a variety of areas and deep competence in a specialty area.

So, for example, if you are a software engineer, you might benefit by developing related skills in graphic design, project management, marketing and even a foreign language. At the same time, you need to specialize in a specific area of software engineering.

Thought leaders from IBM, Manpower, Stanford University, the University of Phoenix Research Institute and the Institute for the Future recently comprised the expert webinar panel that discussed technical and societal shifts that will require new job skills in the next 10 years. The event, sponsored by the University of Phoenix Research Institute and hosted by The Chronicle of Higher Education, drew attention to skills for future workforce success.

To illustrate how businesses can apply these forecasts, panelist Jim Spohrer, director of IBM University Programs Worldwide, spoke about transdisciplinarity—the ability to work across multiple areas of expertise.

“At IBM, we talk a lot about hiring T-shaped people who are both deep problem solvers (experts) and broad communicators who can work well on teams of experts,” said Spohrer. “Transdisciplinarity also implies people who can learn and adapt more quickly, who are better lifelong learners.”

Panel moderator Dr. Tracey Wilen-Daugenti, vice president and managing director of the University of Phoenix Research Institute, says many of today’s problems are too complex to be solved with one discipline. For example, a typical job at a technology firm might require knowledge of technical, financial and human-relations aspects of the business.

“Based on multiple studies by the University of Phoenix Research Institute,” said Wilen-Daugenti, “today’s workforce may not fully understand the skills they will need to be employable in the future.”

By paying attention to the future work skills identified in the webinar, workers can start to position themselves as crossfunctional contributors to the workplace.

Read the full report at http://www.phoenix.edu/institute.

The problem is, social networking comes with, well, problems. Users encounter lots of spam e-mail and phishing schemes. They’re also bombarded with copious-not to mention sometimes inappropriate-advertising. Researchers say many people are so concerned about security that they enter false information because they fear their real information could be used to steal their identities.

Perhaps most tellingly, an editor of technology site CNET wonders, as do many others, what she can actually do once she’s joined a site.

What’s the solution for people who like the links with other people that social networking offers but want more? It’s the logical, yet infinitely more useful, next step in the evolution of online connection: knowledge networking. Instead of networking for networking’s sake, knowledge networking’s goal is sharing knowledge and growing your expertise on subjects you’re passionate about-fly-fishing, politics, swing music, vegetarianism, you name it.

An easy-to-use online tool that already offers a great opportunity for knowledge networking is TrueThinker. Here’s how it works:

Let’s say you’ve got a passion for gardening. With TrueThinker.com, you can form a community about gardening and invite anyone anywhere who’s interested in gardening to join. In your community, you and other members share what you know about new varieties, planting schedules, garden design, pest control, etc. You can organize garden walks, send notices of horticultural events, chat using the messaging feature and more.

You can also build a “KnowledgeBank” on gardening. Here, community members save and share relevant information like helpful or thought-provoking articles, Web site links, photos, journals and much more.

Ultimately, you can use the site not just to connect with others but, most importantly, to grow what you and others know about nearly any topic. If you visit http://www.TrueThinker.com, you can sign up for a free, seven-day trial to take the site for a test-drive.

That’s one reason a major business college is changing the way it teaches Masters of Business Administration (MBAs).

Another reason is that MBA candidates have increasingly diverse program needs, based on their current status and their career tracks. They require programs flexible enough to fit their schedules without any sacrifice of the necessary sets of skills to achieve their goals. As a result, Babson College now offers a single MBA program with a curriculum based on a proven combination of deep functional business knowledge and philosophy of entrepreneurial thought and action—that will be delivered in four ways.

How It Works
The new program will be consistent across the 12-month, 24-month, evening or blended onsite and online options. Students will take the same core courses with the same faculty and can choose from a common set of electives. As a result, all the MBA graduates will emerge with the same extraordinary skills and experiences with which to launch or propel their careers.

A restructured course schedule provides students with more time for class preparation, co-curricular activities, career exploration and networking.

The goal of the new program remains to offer a transformative, hands-on experience that produces entrepreneurial leaders with a global mind-set who are adept at identifying and capitalizing on opportunities to create economic and social value.

Learning by doing has always been a hallmark of a Babson MBA education, but in today’s world, it’s more important than ever for graduates to be able to hit the ground running. Students learn to transform instruction into instinct, so they can make real-world decisions in real time that have a real impact.

As a living and learning laboratory, the school has always promoted the value of blending classroom and non-classroom activities.

The college’s MBA program has been ranked No. 1 in the country for entrepreneurship for 18 consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report, as well as by Bloomberg, Businessweek and Financial Times.

Learn More
For more information, visit http://www3.babson.edu/babson2ndgen/Graduate.

Social intelligence, transdisciplinarity, cognitive load management, new-media literacy

These are just some of the skills recently identified as essential to the workforce in the next decade.

The University of Phoenix Research Institute brought together thought leaders from IBM, Manpower, Stanford University and the Institute for the Future for a webinar to shed light on technical and societal shifts that will require new job skills.

Panelist Marina Gorbis, executive director of the Institute for the Future, outlined six key drivers of societal change and 10 skill areas that will reshape the workforce in the next 10 years.

Global connectivity, smart machines and social media are just some of the drivers reshaping how business leaders think about work and the skills their employees will need.

The research has implications for individuals, educational institutions, industry leaders and policymakers.

Workers in the future will need to be adaptable, lifelong learners and demonstrate foresight in navigating a rapidly shifting work landscape. Educational institutions must also demonstrate foresight and recognize that work skills are changing.

For example, if not already doing so, they should consider integrating new-media literacy into education programs.

The results also have implications for business. Human resource professionals, for example, should reconsider traditional methods for identifying critical skills, as well as selecting and developing talent.

For policymakers, the research demonstrates the need to prioritize educational policies that promote lifelong learning and constant skill renewal.

Dr. Tracey Wilen-Daugenti, vice president and managing director of the University of Phoenix Research Institute, says to prepare America’s workforce for the jobs of the future, “Individuals, educators, business leaders and policymakers must anticipate emerging trends and work together to promote skill development across industry sectors and geographic regions.”

To access the recorded webinar, visit http://www.chronicle.com/webinars/universityofphoenix4.

To download the Future Work Skills: 2020 research report or executive summary, visit http://www.phoenix.edu/institute.

Military personnel seeking to further their education often face several issues. According to a report* by the American Council on Education (ACE), military undergraduates can find it difficult to finance their education and to manage time constraints.

Fortunately, there are solutions to help the men and women of the armed services overcome these obstacles, pursue their education and achieve their goals.

The ACE report, entitled “Serving Those Who Serve: Higher Education and America’s Veterans,” showed that the top three reasons for choosing a particular learning institution were location (75 percent), program/coursework (52 percent), and cost (47 percent).

Location: Continuing education is easier than ever, especially with the growing number of for-profit colleges and online learning opportunities. In fact, the ACE report found that 12 percent of those servicemen and women pursuing their education chose a private for-profit institution, such as Colorado Technical University (CTU) or American InterContinental University (AIU). Higher education for military personnel can help servicemen and women enhance their military careers and help them prepare to pursue career opportunities in the civilian job market.

Programs and Coursework: For those pursuing military education, online degrees are an ideal solution. Whether on active duty overseas or earning a degree as a civilian, online programs offer flexibility that allows military students to learn on their own time, wherever they are located. There are more online possibilities than ever before. Whether you are looking for a degree in criminal justice, business administration, IT or even design, it’s possible to get the education you need in some of today’s most exciting fields.

Cost: Thanks to programs such as the Post-9/11 GI Bill, also known as the New GI Bill, the Armed Forces Tuition Assistance (TA) Program, and financial aid from individual institutions (including assistance for military spouses), it’s become much more affordable for military personnel to earn their degrees. Some colleges and universities also offer transfer- in credit for eligible military training. Not all credits are eligible for transfer. See the university’s catalog regarding transfer credit policies.

Since the New GI Bill was passed in 2009, the Veterans Administration has issued nearly $4.8 billion in benefit payments, which has opened the doors of higher education to nearly 340,000 people. To find out more about the Bill and to find an approved education program, visit www.gibill.va.gov, or call 1-888-GIBILL. To learn more about the TA Program, visit www.militaryta.com.

*AIU and CTU do not guarantee employment or salary.

SOURCE:
Career Education Corporation – courtesy Family Features