Twas The Night Before Christmas at Community Business College

Twas the night before Christmas, when all thru the school;
Not a computer was running, every mouse was left cool.

Job seekers were nestled, all snug in their beds,
With visions of great jobs and fantastic salaries, dancing in their heads.

When in the job placement office there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But St. Nick and his sleigh, with all his reindeer.

More rapid than eagles he brought something to work,
And with him he brought new job openings all typed up by his clerk.

The job openings were placed very carefully on the tree,
They were sure to fill new hires with a winter-time glee.

And laying his finger aside of his nose,
He took off to look for more jobs as he left me to doze.

But I was sure I heard a voice exclaim as he faded from sight,
Happy job hunting to all, and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas from all of us at Community Business College!

Want to check out pictures of the CBC job placement tree? Check out our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.347447848602522.100364.100000119297771&type=1&l=f2b1c3aee9

The Edibile Arrangements Grand Re-Opening

Edible Arrangements had their grand re-opening/ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday. The ceremony was sponsored by the Modesto Chamber of Commerce. As a Modesto community college, Community Business College tries to attend as many of these grand openings as we can. They are excellent opportunities for the school to gauge new hiring opportunities and what the businesses climate is in town. So we were there and what follows is a report of how it went.

The Edible Arrangements store is a bit of a “re-opening.” The franchise was sold a couple of years ago and the current owners picked it up after having successful stores in other places.

We’ve had to arrangements delivered to Community Business College and by far the most popular item was the chocolate dipped pineapple followed by the chocolate dipped strawberries. The grapes on a stick went well too. The honeydew melon and the cantaloupe add nice color to the arrangement but were by far not as popular as the other pieces for snacking in the office. It certainly brings out the chocolate lovers from staff and students.


At these events you can always learn something new about the business or the industry. Tim, the manager at Modesto’s Edible Arrangements says they always tries to buy its fresh fruit locally for as long as they can. Then, as the cooler months arrive in the Central Valley, they switch to Arizona and Texas. After those states complete their harvest, they import their fruit from Peru. The arrangements are popular for dieters (at least some of what you're eating is healthy fruit) and people trying to send someone something different, other than flowers.

Of course, one of the best parts about the grand opening was, in addition to meeting a whole bunch of friendly people, the free samples. There is nothing like a chocolate-dipped strawberry to make your day a little better.

If you’d like to see pictures of the ribbing cutting ceremony, they will posted in next month’s Modesto Chamber of Commerce Progress magazine, the online version of which can be viewed here.

College Offers Cyber-Monday Deal

The lifelong learning community education department at Community Business College is now offering a Cyber Monday discount of 12% off of any class to help launch the "Mastering Public Speaking" class.

This is an instructor-led, 6-week course where students learn to speak confidently and persuasively to both large audiences and small groups. The course helps students master the art of verbal and nonverbal communication, find out how to overcome their fear of public speaking, learn how to organize and deliver a short or long speech effectively, and practice techniques for communicating with ease and skill in any setting from a meeting to a job interview. The skills learned in this skills-enrichment program translate to other parts of life where communication is important.

By making the classes available online and by blending them into the campus-based programs, the college is offer the best of both worlds to “Mastering Public Speaking” students. Through expert-designed lessons, experienced online instruction, and interaction with fellow students, participants in this course gain valuable knowledge at their convenience. They have the flexibility to study at their own pace combined with enough structure and support to complete the course. Students can access the classroom 24/7 from anywhere with an Internet connection.

The next class starts on December 14th, 2011 and enrollments are being accepted now. New sessions of the course run each month. The public speaking course lasts six weeks. A dedicated professional instructor facilitates every course; pacing learners, answering questions, providing interactive feedback, and facilitating discussions amongst the class participants.

The discount offer starts on CyberMonday, November 28th, 2011 and lasts throughout the following week. To learn more, visit the school’s lifelong learning website at http://www.cbcwebcollege.com.

Military Spouse "Thank You For Your Family's Service" Scholarship

Most people understand what a sacrifice the members of the military take on when they sign up for armed forces duty. Military service personnel take a big chunk of their lives and turn it over in service of their country.

As we wrap up Veterans Day 2011, it's a good time to reflect on what these people do and why this day is so much more than just a 3-day holiday weekend.

The annual Veterans Day parade had a lot of people this year, especially given the cloudy weather and the chance of rain. The overcast clouds, however, added to the poignancy of the setting as we contemplated the sacrifices made by service personnel. One bakery was handing out free gourmet mini-cupcakes to any current or retired service member and other vendors were offering special discounts for members of the military services as well.

It's important to recognize not only the service of the individual members of the military themselves but also the families of the military, as well. Because they aren't always in the headlines, it is sometimes easy to forget what family members sacrifice. Military families are constantly on the move, which makes it difficult to establish long-lasting friendships with neighbors and classmates because spouses and children never know how long they will be in one place before being transferred to a new location and starting over.

Community Business College recognizes the importance of military spouse education and the challenges that come with achieving higher education due to constant moves and expenses. That's one of the reasons why Modesto's Community Business College supports veterans and families to help them on the path to a successful, portable career through the "Thank You For Your Family's Service" scholarship.

The "Thank You For Your Family's Service" scholarship was established in 2009 to help more people get full value of their education efforts and to try to help more military spouses than might be otherwise served.

The privately-funded scholarship program, coupled with the Department of Defense MyCAA funding program helps spouses of active duty service members get the training and job placement assistance they need for portable careers. Depending upon their choice of training programs, military spouses can qualify for up to 100% of the tuition and costs to be covered by the combination of funding programs. From Project Management certification in conjunction with the Project Management Institute to Medical Billing and Coding, military spouses have a wide range of opportunities from which to choose.

In order to be eligible, spouses register with the Military One Source system. The training programs must be "job ready," for which Community Business College's vocational (both on-campus and online) training programs qualify. Spouses of recently returned veterans have 180 days from their de-activation to remain eligible.

As part of its overall efforts to bring more training opportunities to military families, the "Thank You For Your Family's Service" scholarship is one of the reasons why Community Business College in Modesto has earned the designation of the Military Friendly School by G.I. Jobs Magazine for three years in a row.

Thanks again to all who serve our country.

For more information, check out the school's website or write to MyCAA@communitybusinesscollege.edu.

DealSaver Coupon for Enrichment Classes Now Live

Community Business College has teamed up with the Modesto Bee’s new DealSaver coupon program by offering a coupon for over 50% off of tuition for both on-campus and online enrichment classes at Community Business College. The classes include computer classes, for Microsoft Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint and QuickBooks.
The college has also included its upgraded online language classes in the deal. By using the e-classroom, students learn new languages from the convenience of their homes or office.

Summer is a great time to learn something new. That's why there are so many "summer reading lists" because education is a lifelong task and learning never takes a break, even during the relaxing days of summer.
As part of this “Back to School Special,” the school is also making its interactive GED preparation program is also available with this Deal Saver.
School Director Dan Guerra said the school chose to offer the College’s first DealSaver because of the “unique and innovative style of social networking with an emphasis on the local community” the DealSaver program provides. The DealSaver arrived in Modesto, California in early July of 2011 and is designed to help newspapers adapt to the opportunities in a digital world. This is the first local DealSaver to offer local educational deals.
The deal runs from July 17, 2011 through July 22. Certificates are valid from July 23, 2011, through Jan. 15, 2012 and can be purchased as gifts.
You can learn several of the programs in the Microsoft Office suite, some of the most commonly used programs in business the world over. If that job listing says you need to know Microsoft Excel, one of these on-campus classes can help you qualify. Excel is the leading spreadsheet program for businesses and has become an indespensible part of the job.
You also have a choice of learning several languages over the Web, including Spanish, French, Tagalog, Greek and many others. This deal is good for six-month classes valued at $94.00.
The Modesto Bee says, "No matter which course you choose, your life will be enriched."

The 2011 Modesto Chamber of Commerce Business Expo

Community Business College attended the 7th Annual Modesto Chamber of Commerce Business to Business Trade Show on June 23rd. It was held in the Harvest Hall at the Modesto Center Plaza and had about 75 businesses demonstrating their wares and services.
Community Business College was there for two reasons: 1) to promote our vocational program graduates to employers and 2) because we also now offer campus-based classes for businesses online business classes about how to start a new business; running a business and market a business to more customers.

This trade show booths are exclusive to Modesto Chamber of Commerce member vendors, but was open to the public. The job placement department sent out free tickets and invitations to all of the school's programs' job seekers and also to employed graduates in order to introduce them to new and active businesses in the Modesto area.

The overall goal of the show for (mostly) small business is to boost their businesses and gain new customers. The Annual Business-to-Business Trade Show opens new markets for businesses and increases awareness for its members. It is especially beneficial to remind people (especially business-to-business consumers) what's available locally.

This year's expo had tools for exhibitors including a workshop about how to prepare the booths and attract attention. It seems that some didn't heed the advice as their booths were pretty bland and a lot of people sat behind their table and chatted more amongst themselves than with expo attendees.

One of the radio stations (AM 1360 KFIV) did a live broadcast and interviews from the fair and people really seemed to enjoy it. The DoubleTree Hotel made the most of their "home-field advantage" by hanging lots of balloon arrangements from the ceilings and gave out chocolate chip cookies plus a stuffed "Mr. Cookie" toy. The cookies made a great dessert to the main course of "naked burritos" handed out by QDoba and the fruit appetizers handed out by us at Community Business College.

In addition tot he information on the school's vocational program, our booth provided information on the MyCAA, WIA and TAA training funding programs available to the school. These are great programs that can get people training and job placement assistance without saddling them with student loan debt.

The show ran from 3 PM to 7 PM Thursday. At the end of the show (around 6:30) things slowed down and some booths began packing up. Community Business College, however, was one of the stalwarts that stayed to the end.

It was a good experience and we made a lot of new contacts. The best part of the show was getting to see graduates who are employed coming to our booth and telling us how much they enjoy their new jobs.

Three New Job Leads for CBC Grads

Today our job placement department got three new job leads this morning. The job leads were from serious employers and they look like solid positions.
Hopefully this is a sign the economy is picking up again and employers are getting to the point where they need to hire.
Although there are always hirings and firings going on during any economy, it's difficult to see the bigger picture and know if there are a net number of new-hires happening. One of the ways Community Business College tries to gauge this metric is to ask employers if the job openings are newly created positions or if they are replacing somebody. The new positions tend to mean jobs are being created whereas replacing someone is more likely to mean no net gain.
If you're a CBC grad and you are interested in getting details about the positions and possibly applying for them, contact the school job placement department.

SharePoint 2010 Beta Testing Completed

We received the results of the SharePoint 2010 Beta test and it all went well. Thanks to all who participated.

Those who participated in this beta test of the certification exams were some of the first people in the nation to test in the new Microsoft Office Specialist SharePoint 2010 certification exam.
Microsoft SharePoint is a web application program by Microsoft. SharePoint is an advanced software platform multiple web applications and supports a wide variety of combinations of enterprise website requirements. Generally it is used with web content management and document management systems.

Examples of its use are multi-purpose platform allows for managing and provisioning of intranet portals, extranets, websites and search, document management, and social networking tools. SharePoint can also be used as a web application development platform.

The project at Community Business College was a very successful beta and reached its conclusion on schedule. We received an abundant amount of test results and the task of compiling and analyzing the data is already underway.

The SharePoint certification validates students' skills in the Microsoft software and is especially helpful with employers who are looking for people with a specific skill set.

The beta testing program was similar to the QuickBooks certification beta test run Community Business College did earlier this year.

If you are interested in participating in another beta certification exam, please contact the administration at Community Business College.

CBC Offering Students Free QuickBooks Exams

Free Exam Vouchers

The official QuickBooks certifications exam publisher is offering free QuickBooks certification exam vouchers to Community Business College for a very limited time (Midnight, January 31, 2011 to be exact).

It's part of the company's introduction to their new QuickBooks certification program (and a way to beta test their exam software). This Independent exam publisher chose Community Business College to provide its staff and student the opportunity to get an exam voucher and take the exam at no charge. These exams are not yet officially available on the market yet and so anybody passing the exam will receive one of the very first QuickBooks certificates issued.
Community Business College incorporates QuickBooks into its administrative training programs in order to provide its students with the background employers have said they need. The school has been designated an official testing center and also offers a QuickBooks-focused bookkeeping vocational training program.
This is the same publisher which offers the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) exams. The QuickBooks exam is not an "environment simulation" like the MOS exam, but a 50-question multiple-choice dealing with both QuickBooks topics and basic bookkeeping topics. One suggestion school staff have offered is to become familiar with QuickBooks reports, how they are used, and what the information on them means. Community Business College has a brief study guide available.

The vouchers are absolutly free and include one free re-test if you don't pass the first time around. Community Business College is also waiving its proctoring fee for tests scheduled between 9 AM - 5 PM, Monday through Friday through February 15th.

The request for a free exam voucher must be received by January 31, 2011. However, once the voucher request has been processed, the voucher is good through February 15, 2011. Supplies of vouchers are limited and the offer may end at any time before January 31. It's on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you can't make it to Community Business College to take an exam, you can schedule the exam with another testing center which can be found at: http://www.certiport.com/portal/pages/locatorview.aspx
Make sure to ask if the other testing center is ready for QuickBooks exams and if they charge a proctoring fee.

How to Get a Free Testing Voucher: Send an e-mail by clicking here or call Dan at Community Business College at (209) 529-3648.

In addition to the QuickBooks vouchers, there are also AutoDesk exam vouchers available under the same program.

First Week of the New Year Results

As we wrapped up the first full week of the new year, 2011, things seem very much like 2010 but we saw some positive signs this week:

• Job interviews increasing. Although unemployment figures for December were released by EDD on Friday and the numbers for for last month seem to be more of the same high unemployment, low-growth, we at Community Business College have seen more activity in job interviews of our graduates. More graduates reported this week that they are getting more job interviews.

• Interest in training is up. We had a lot of interest from people looking to make 2011 a year where they put learning and education higher on the priority list. From Rosetta Stone language learning to the full vocational programs in Medical Office Specialist and HVAC , the inquiry calls increased this week over the last weeks in December.

• More Opportunities for learning. This week there were some announcements for increased opportunities for both staff and students to learn new things. This includes the Certiport certification testing for QuickBooks and a new Get Motivated seminar coming in early Spring.

So it was a good and busy week. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come in 2011. Happy New Year!