ON ANOTHER PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

In continuation with our discourse for personal development programme, it will be recalled that our previous discussion was centred on providing alternative for balancing their excessive ‘facebookation’ with a more rewarding business. I am optimistic that some people will dismiss it as an intervention for teenagers; while others might look at it as an alternative suited for people lacking in computer appreciation skills or job interview techniques. It is against this backdrop, I will attempt to provide additional information to people who are interested in boosting their careers more especially in areas related to computing, peace building, public health, journalism and many other fields.  For those who are interested in having an alternative degree, this write-up will also attempt to offer a guide on such angle.

To start with a field I have penchant for (computing), I will recommend people who are interested in developing their capacities or replenishing their skills in the area of database management, artificial intelligence and machine learning to consider the possibility of registering with Stanford University USA (one of the top most ranked university in the world). The University has recently announced the free course gesture scheduled to commence anytime from September.  Successful candidates will be awarded with the “statement of accomplishments”.

In the area of peace building, I will also recommend for people to consider the possibility of signing up with United State Institute of Peace to obtain certificates in Conflict Analysis, Negotiation and Conflict Management as well as Interfaith Conflict Resolution. The Institute also awards certificates to successful candidates on completion.

For those that are interested in Public Health or want learn some specific skills in that field, I will recommend them to consider the possibility of signing up with Global Health Learning Centre. The website is enriched with courses that include among other thing: Ante Natal Care (ANC), Cervical Cancer Prevention, Essential New Born Care, HIV Basics, M&E Fundamentals, Pneumonia, Infectious Diseases and lots of courses that want of space will not allow us to list them here. The courses here are also free and completion certificates are also awarded.

OSH Academy also offers free certification courses in the field of Occupational Safety and Health Training in at least twenty-five (25) fields.

As for those in the Public Administration arena, I believe that United Nation Public Administration Network website will be a very good place for them to boost their capacities. In that website, people can take course on Public Administration Illustration, Building A Community of Practice For Electronic Governance, Introduction to Electronic Government, Ontology Semantic Web and Electronic Government, Strategic Planning for Electronic Governance, Guideline for ICT Strategic Planning in Parliament, just to mention but a few.

For those interested in Journalism and writing skills related fields, a Bubble cow website is a good place to start. The website provides a link to at least sixteen (16) websites where interested candidates will register and get started with.

E-learning centre also provides free courses for people interested in certification courses ranging from Free A+ Certification Training Course, Networking (CompTIA A+ Essentials 220-701 – Course 10), Free JavaScript Training Course, Start Using JavaScript (JavaScript – Course 1), Free Business Management Training Course, Management in Perspective (Fundamentals of Business Management – Course 1 , Free Visual C# Training Course, Introducing Web Forms (Visual C# Web Applications – Course 1), Free PHP and MySQL Training Course , Programming with PHP (PHP and MySQL – Course 3), Free Customer Service Training Course , Communicating – (Customer Service – Course 2), Free HTML and XHTML Training Course , Basics of HTML and XHTML (Web Publishing and Design with HTML & XHTML – Course 2), Free Windows Server 2008 Training Course, Server Deployment (Windows Server 2008 Server Admin – Course 1), Free Excel 2010 Training Course , Performing Basic Workbook Tasks (Excel 2010 – Course 2), Free Leadership Training Course , Creating and Communicating Vision (Leadership (Business Skills Videos) – Course 1) are provided.

People that are longing to obtain degrees in one field or are interested in changing their field of study could do so free or with low tuition in free online university –the Open University, Al Madinah International University as well as Islamic Online University. Other sites worth perusing and exploring include among others open culture and Free Ed.

It is my ardent belief that every one of us has one or more engagement to battle with, but experience shows that one of the sign of highly effective people includes among other thing ‘creating time out of no time’ in order to achieve a goal. A wise saying postulates that procrastination is the lazy’s man apology.