Professional Development

Discover why conducting a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis is a valuable step in building a strong business case. This instructive course walks you through each component of a SWOT analysis and provides suggestions for refining your results for optimal impact. You will also learn how to use a SWOT analysis to promote and sell your business concept to decision makers. The 7-minute video takes you step-wise through a SWOT analysis, using helpful graphics and examples to highlight key concepts. Accompanying resources include a downloadable course summary and online quiz to test your retention of the material. Combine this course with others in the Gathering Data series for more techniques you can use to develop your business case. Run time: 7 minutes

This module explores key steps to help you build resilience in both your work and personal life. Run time:  5 minutes
 

You only have one chance to make a first impression. Your posture, facial expressions, the way you make eye contact and hold your posture can strengthen or weaken the way others perceive you. In the How to Make a Good First Impression course, you will learn how to use the first few minutes of any meeting to establish credibility, build professional rapport, and set the stage for future relationship building. This interactive module with accompanying video and downloadable worksheet is based on the business relationship principles of ‘The Connector’s Way’ by author and speaker Patrick Galvin. Run time: 15 minutes

Transform your daily routine to stay healthy, happy, and safe on the job with this training course offering simple, achievable strategies you can start today. In this course, we'll explore basic guidelines for boosting your overall health and optimizing your productivity in the workplace. You'll learn five steps to being more nutrition-conscious and how to take an effective, slow-and-steady approach to exercise. We will also review common-sense policies for on-the-job safety. The course begins with a short self-assessment so you can evaluate your current healthy living status. Informative, self-paced video lessons with audio narration will then guide you through valuable health tips and advice. A final test offers the opportunity to review what you've learned and assess your comprehension of the course material. Run time: 35 minutes

The Handling emotions within your team - Part A course explains how to accept your employees' emotions and work with them to prevent counter-productive behavior. The course touches on topics like how to use empathic listening to show your team you care about their concerns, how to identify when emotional unrest is brewing, how to detect the underlying needs behind employees' emotions, and more. By the end of the course, you'll understand your responsibilities towards your team and how to deal with displays of emotion professionally. Run time: 15 minutes

In this training course, you’ll learn effective techniques to help you manage stress, allowing you to be more productive and improve your overall sense of well-being. We discuss how stress manifests itself and how we contribute to our own perception of stress. With an understanding of this, you’ll be in a better position to manage your stress. You’ll learn how to perform simple breathing exercises to lower your stress-levels when necessary. This modular course is designed to help you recognize the signs of stress, understand how stress operates, and manage your stress through simple techniques and exercises. The module comes with an interactive menu, in-class quizzes and activities and printable supporting documents for easy reference. This version of the course is mobile friendly. Run time: 15 minutes 

Your employees perform best when they know exactly what's expected of them. This course for managers will help you to establish ambitious yet achievable benchmarks for your employees. Discover how to create effective performance goals with clear measurement criteria that will help your organization meet its objectives. Then, you will learn how to refine the goals and expectations by tailoring them to the employee. Lastly, you will learn how to evaluate the employee's performance and provide feedback and support. This narrated course includes links to supporting information, exercises and quizzes for an engaging learning experience. It also includes handy printable checklists, plans, and measurement tables to stay organized and on track. Take the final exam at the end of the course to earn a Certificate of Completion. Run time: 50 minutes

SkillBuilder and OpenSesame have partnered up to bring you 20 courses that will improve leadership skills. These Leadership Success courses will empower you to become a better leader in the workplace and in life. You will develop the key leadership fundamentals required for professional success. You will also learn effective communication techniques, team leader skills, and how to motivate employees for improved productivity. Become a self-guided leader that improves training results and eliminates costly leadership errors. Run time: 50 minutes

As a manager in any organization, you will inevitably have to handle human resource issues from hiring and firing to conflict management. This course bundle reviews those HR basics. You'll get a good grounding in hiring practices, handling company layoffs and downsizing, disciplining employees, internet and computer policy and sexual harassment management for both employees and their supervisors. There are 6 courses in the bundle with varying time lengths. Presented in audio-visual format, courses include in-line quizzes as you move along and final tests to assess your comprehension of the materials. Run time: 275 minutes

This online training course is comprised of four modules which discuss the three financial statements that are commonly used to understand a company’s economic performance: the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow statement. Accessible / 508 Compliant. Run time: 60 minutes