Just Released: The 2024 State of the Arts Report - Your Blueprint for Arts Education Success

Program Spotlight

  1. The Top 5 Certificate Programs for Jobs With Growth Potential

    The pandemic created massive upheaval in the job market. In a short span of time, we saw a major shift to remote work, a surge in need for healthcare-related jobs, and jobs in some fields, like travel and entertainment, vanish almost overnight.  

    As we reported earlier this year in our post, the 5 Types of Workforce Training Programs Trending for 2023, the Great Resignation could more accurately be called the Great Talent Reshuffle. While “reskilling” is a popular buzzword, Daphne Kis, CEO of WorldQuant University, pointed out in Forbes, “Reskilling used to go by another name—lifelong learning. The best employees were always reskilling.”

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  2. What Is a Makerspace and How Can it Build Job Skills?

    Do you want to learn a new skill or try out a new tool? Want to work on a specific project, make something with your hands, or meet new people who share your interests of creating and building? Makerspaces are the perfect place to do all of these things and more. 

    Whether it’s a makerspace in a school, a standalone facility, or a library makerspace, these hubs of creativity are cropping up all over the country. Many makerspaces are open to learners and makers of all ages. Some require a monthly membership or paid classes, while others are free to the public. Find out more about what makerspaces have to offer. 

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  3. Finding Time in the 24/7 Learning Environment

    Welcome to our very first guest post on the CourseStorm website! (And we cannot express how excited we are about it!)

    If you run an education program that draws from a rural population, you’re in good company. Today, we share advice from a super-successful program in Salina, Kansas. Salina sits in the middle of wheat country alongside the Smoky Hill River, and with a population of about 47,500, isn’t a big city but is certainly a regional hub of activity. As part of the Central Kansas Library System, Salina Public Library‘s CLASS program serves mostly students from Salina but also attracts people from rural parts of the region seeking adult learning and community education opportunities.

    Since their founding in 2002, they’ve uncovered a scheduling methodology that prevents low enrollment, supports students, and is encouraging of their community. We invited Glory Benacka, Programs Coordinator at Salina Public Library, to write about how their thriving CLASS program creates and refines its schedule based on students’ requests, observations, and what’s happening in the community at any given time.

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  4. A Look Inside Corona Symphony Conservatory

    “Where are all the strings?” That was the question on the mind of Don Kindred while living in Corona, California in 2013.

    At that time, the musical education system in Corona placed most of its focus on teaching children band, rather than orchestral instruments, meaning that students in the area were trained in brass, woodwinds, and percussion, while stringed instruments were largely ignored. Kindred, a classically trained musician and founder of the Corona Symphony Orchestra, knew that if nothing was done, a great opportunity to expose students to the magic of playing stringed instruments might be squandered. So, five years ago, he decided that change needed to start with him and the Corona Symphony Conservatory was born.

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  5. Ready for the Zombie Apocalypse?

    Inspiring & Extraordinary Offerings from Around the Country

    Just browsing the fun, practical, completely unlikely possibilities in your local Adult & Community Education brochure makes one thing clear. Program directors in towns and cities around the country relish the opportunity to entertain new, original course ideas from talented community members. We traversed the nation, digitally speaking, to highlight some of the most interesting, inspiring and of-the-moment community education classes you can sign up for right now. Even if you can’t get to Arizona to join a Mariachi band or to Pima to prepare for the zombie apocalypse, this list will at least motivate you to take – or teach – a class in your own hometown.

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