The Benefits of Certified Scrum Master Online Course for Women of Color

The Certified Scrum Master (CSM) online course is a transformative approach for individuals seeking to enhance their project management skills. For women of color, this course offers benefits that can contribute to their career growth and foster leadership empowerment in the workplace. This blog post explores the specific advantages the CSM online course provides women of color, emphasizing the potential for skill acquisition, network expansion, and leadership development.

Accessibility and Flexibility - One of the primary benefits of a CSM online course for women of color is the accessibility and flexibility they offer. Many women face unique challenges, like balancing self-care, work, and family; however, online courses allow women to tailor their educational journey to fit their schedules to pursue professional development without sacrificing other essential aspects of their lives.

Inclusive Learning Environment - Online CSM courses foster an inclusive learning environment where diversity is welcomed and celebrated. Women of Color often find themselves in underrepresented positions, and the online format of these courses provides a platform where individuals from diverse backgrounds can contribute, share experiences, and collaborate. This inclusivity creates an enriched learning experience by empowering women of color to bring their unique perspectives to the forefront.

Networking Opportunities - Building a professional network is vital for career advancement for Women of Color, and they can engage in networking opportunities by connecting with a global community of professionals, mentors, and fellow learners, expanding their support system, and gaining insights from diverse perspectives that transcend geographical boundaries. This interconnectedness becomes a valuable resource for career guidance, job opportunities, and collaborative ventures.

Skill Development and Empowerment - The CSM online course equips Women of Color with essential skills in Agile project management, leadership, and collaboration. These skills are instrumental in empowering Women of Color to take leadership roles confidently as they enhance their proficiency in Scrum principles, break through barriers, and contribute meaningfully to their organizations while challenging stereotypes and assumptions about their ability to lead.

Career Advancement and Recognition - Achieving CSM certification through an online course will enhance the professional credibility of Women of Color. They will stand out as capable leaders with a proven ability to navigate complex projects to lead to increased career opportunities, promotions, and a more prominent presence in leadership roles - ultimately contributing to a more diverse and inclusive professional landscape.

In conclusion, the CSM online course provides flexible learning opportunities to foster an inclusive learning environment by empowering women through skill development and paving the way for enhanced career trajectories. Women of Color who embrace the CSM journey can position themselves as influential leaders who can drive positive, lasting change in the workplace that contributes to a more equitable and diverse future.

Your Pathway to Cybersecurity Career

An increase in cyber attacks validates the growing need for skilled cybersecurity professionals. And hiring cybersecurity experts to mitigate cyber attacks is not a budget item for many businesses. However, helping employees gain cybersecurity skills (i.e., protecting people from harm and tracking the culprits who compromise their data) and certifications may be an effective way to address cyber attacks when they emerge.

The online CompTIA Cybersecurity Career Pathway Bundle with Labs course is a building block to earning cybersecurity certifications. Employers like the federal government and Fortune 500 companies value CompTIA as an authority in cybersecurity certifications, and upon successful completion of this course, students can sit for the following exams:

• CompTIA FC0-U61: IT Fundamentals
• CompTIA A+ 220-1001 (Core 1) and CompTIA A+ 220-1002 (Core 2)
• CompTIA N10-007: CompTIA Network+
• CompTIA SY0-501: Security+
• CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CSA+)
• CompTIA CAS-001: Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP)

Students who take this course and pass these exams will demonstrate their qualifications to do cybersecurity work to help businesses get and stay protected.

Don't Live Within Your Means

Living within your means is well-intended advice to prevent people from acquiring debt. But could this advice prevent individuals from believing and achieving a bigger and better life?

Mean among many definitions is average. Living outside your means spiritually, emotionally, and socially can lead to an extraordinary life. Here’s how:

• Write your big dreams and read them daily
• Create a vision board with images that coincide with your dreams
• Review, envision, and mediate daily of you achieving your dreams
• Surround yourself with people who have what you desire
• Strive for purpose and not security
• Live by faith and not fear

Entrepreneurship and Small Business Certification

The Entrepreneurship and Small Business (ESB) certification program prepares small business owners and leaders to succeed in today's competitive business landscape. An ESB certification will validate the skills and knowledge for individuals to work in a middle-skill trade profession, as an entrepreneur, or to pursue small business career aspirations with an understanding of core business principles and essentials to launch and sustain a successful business.

Candidates of the ESB Certification will need to have a conceptual knowledge of entrepreneurial and small business principles with a minimum of 150 instruction hours. However, students are not required to have real-world business experience to take and successfully pass the ESB exam. The ESB core concepts are:

• Entrepreneurship
• Recognizing and evaluating opportunities
• Planning, starting, and operating a business
• Marketing and sales
• Business financials and funding

Exam criteria:

• Complete a one-year high school level course covering entrepreneurship and small business management.
• Acquire key conceptual knowledge of entrepreneurial and small business principles.
• Complete and pass a 50-minute, 45 question, scenario-based ESB exam.

ESB certification engages and prepares students to further their postsecondary training to enter the small business sector immediately after high school graduation. The entrepreneurial concepts validated by this certification will ensure these students are college and career-ready.

Don't Shoot The Messenger

Doctors write medical prescriptions to help patients heal. Training providers design or deliver training modules to meet the learning needs of their trainees. Patients must take their prescribed medicine according to their doctor's instructions. If they don't, the healing process may not reach its full potential. Trainees that participate in training and place their training material on a shelf will abort their potential to apply what they've learned in their training session.

Doctors and training providers are not perfect, but they are skilled in their craft. If patients and trainees do not use or apply the information given to them to heal or perform better at work or in business, the outcome does not rest in the hands of the physician or trainer. It solely rests in the hands of the patients and trainees.

Management Essentials

When you’re a manager, there are some basic, essential skills everyone should have. Whether it’s setting clear work priorities, building great teamwork, listening well to others, or performing a performance review. Each of the skills impact how effective you’ll be as a manager. The Management Essentials e-course will help you build these skills and others. By giving you on the job development exercises to evaluate performance, set clear expectations, and create the right level of challenging work, you’ll build the skills required to be a great and motivating manager for each of your employees. This bite-sized course includes:

• Giving Clear Work Priorities
• What Employees Need
• Reinforce Great Teamwork
• Valuing Employees
• Listening to Others’ Ideas and Opinions
• Problem Solving Expectations
• The Right Workload for Employees
• The Great Things Employees Do
• An Ethics and Integrity Discussion
• Perform a Performance Review
• Creating Challenging Work
• Receive Feedback From Your
• Creating a Great Work Situation
• Evaluating Performance in the Right Way
• Perform a Departure Review

After successful completion of this course, you will acquire skills to build basic management practices to coach employees, deliver valuable feedback, and recognize the achievements of others. Click here to learn more or to get started.

Getting Unstuck

Where are you? Where do you want to go? How are you going to get there? These are the questions a technical instructor asked to help trainees learn how to change directories using DOS (i.e., Disk Operating System).

Post-DOS days, the technical instructor realized these questions apply to our everyday lives, and we believe these questions can help individuals get unstuck in their careers, relationships, or finances. If you feel stuck, click here and download our guide that can help you get unstuck.

Technical Communication - an Emphasis in Project Management

There is a strong connection between project management and technical communication. The skills we refine as technical communication have a critical place in project management: communicating content, identifying audience needs, extracting knowledge from subject matter experts, and ensuring quality deliverables. Many technical communicators can step into a project manager role using these highly transferable, existing skills.

How can you work toward a broader role in your organization? What is project management? Why is project management important to the technical communicator? Using an interdisciplinary approach applicable across multiple programs of study, Technical Communication with an Emphasis in Project Management can enhance your understanding of project management and prepare you for a project management career using basic technical writing skills. Click here to learn more.

#ProjectManagement #OnlineCourses #WomeninTech

Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence

Immerse yourself in the fields of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence! With over 40 hours of expert instruction, you’ll have a firm grasp of core machine learning concepts and be positioned to apply this technology to your career.

This course includes:

• An Introduction to Deep Learning & Computer Vision
• Recommendation Systems in Python
• Machine Learning: Decision Trees & Random Forests
• Twitter Sentiment Analysis in Python
• Python Programming: From Beginner to Intermediate
• Quant Trading Using Machine Learning
• Factor Analysis
• Linear & Logistic Regression

Course Outcome

Upon successful completion of this course, you will have learned the following concepts & so much more!

• Discover Core Machine Learning Concepts & Build an Artificial Neural Network.
• Build a movie recommendation system in Python.
• Learn Intuitive Machine Learning Techniques by Exploring a Classic Problem.
• Use Python and the Twitter API to build your own sentiment analyzer.
• Go from beginner to intermediate level Python user.
• Apply Machine Learning techniques to Quant Trading.
• Use Principal Components Analysis to Extract Factors.
• Build Regression Models with Principal Components in Excel, R, Python.
• Understand the risks involved in regression and avoid common pitfalls.
• Use simple & multiple regressions to explain variance & predict an outcome.
• Project Files & Supplemental Material included with each course.

This course may be completed earlier than indicated and students retain access for one year from the date of enrollment. Click here to get started.

Choose Yourself

Industrialized jobs have depleted in America, and if you want to stay afloat in today’s economy, you need skills that people want and what they’re willing to pay for. Essentially, your work will be based on your key strengths, accomplishments, self-marketing, connections and your performance. And that’s authentic connections, not pretentious ones to simply make a sale or to gain a client.

Social media is falsifying some efforts to connect. Some people think they’re gaining connections based on their followers. If followers aren’t being acknowledged or valued, there’s no connection. But information sharing to an audience that can relate to their content.

The realities of today’s workforce have changed. Job security no longer exists, and safe careers are simply a myth. To achieve a successful career, entrepreneurial (i.e., always exploring opportunities) skills are a must. You have to rely on your inner resources to be self-managing to plan and execute your own career. No one can do this for you; the only security you can depend on is your ability to market yourself through the ups and downs of this work climate.

Be a careerist! Learn how to navigate through the changing landscape of work, know what you have to sell, know how to live with uncertainty, and have optimism and belief in yourself.

Do Not Worry!

There are struggles in life that can become emotional strongholds – things that hold you hostage and keep you from wholeheartedly serving and trusting God and experiencing the abundant life He has promised. One of the most damaging strongholds is worry. It is available for every age and is an obstacle to moving forward. When it is a stronghold in your life, it is a way of life.

We worry about so many things – what do people think about us, do we look fit, are we healthy, and do we have enough money. If you are prone to worry, there is no limit to the possibilities to worry about.

People cope with worrying in a number of ways – some drink to dismiss it, others shop for a distraction, some take naps or go to bed early to avoid it. None of these remedies work because the panic still sets in. In Matthew 6:25, 31-34, Jesus stated three times, “Do not worry!” The Greek word used for “worry” is the concept of being strangled or choked. It leaves you frustrated when you ought to be free and if you are His disciple, then you should stop it.

Worrying is a sin because it is doubt in the power and goodness of God. Some people don’t like to call worrying a sin – they are just “concerned” about something. How do you distinguish concern from worry? Legitimate concern is when you are in control of your thoughts and feelings and illegitimate worry is when the matter controls your thoughts, actions and emotions.

Jesus said, “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” (Matthew 6:25-26)

The reason we worry is that we are focusing on the wrong authority. If our Father feeds birds that have no soul, how much more will He take care of us since we are worth even more to Him? Remember His promise that He will never leave you nor forsake you as the first antidote to worry.

This post is from Dr. Tony Evans’ sermon, Stop It! No More Worry. It will provide you with a deeper knowledge of overcoming worry in your life. Please visit http://go.tonyevans.org/no-more-worries.

Ten D’s of Women Trailblazers

1. Dreamers – Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18a). You have to envision where you want to be so your actions can follow.
2. Destined – Always begin with the end in mind. Women trailblazers predetermine how they want to end their struggle and work towards ending it.
3. Driven – What's the force behind your actions - your spirit, struggles or faith?
4. Determined – Women trailblazers have the will power to carry out their mission to improve the social, economical, and educational stance of women.
5. Devoted – Whatever you do, have a passion for it. When you have a passion, you’ll work without wanting anything in return.
6. Disciplined – Women trailblazers prepare themselves to face challenges and/or obstacles.
7. Dignity – Women trailblazers think highly of themselves and present themselves with high regard and honor.
8. Diligent – Women trailblazers are perseveres. They stay on course regardless of the challenges they may face in life.
9. Daring – Women trailblazers have unshakable faith and aren't ashamed to be different.
10. Decisive – Women trailblazers do not waiver in their decisions and actions to advance the lives of all women.

You Can Have a Great Career

Do you have a great career? How do you measure your greatness? Is it measured by what you acquire or what you contribute? A great career is more than working in a profession to collect a paycheck. It’s about using your unique skills, gifts, and talents to serve (i.e., add value). And, a great career is achievable to anyone who wants one. Here are three ways to get started:

1. Take Inventory of Your Strengths - What are your current strengths and how have you added value to your clients through your place of employment or business? If you can't answer these questions with clarity or certainty, a career assessment can help you develop a framework to discover your true passion, personal, or vocational traits.
2. Develop a Contribution Plan - Once you’ve discovered your passion and strengths, create a plan to determine the contribution(s) and impact your passion and strength will make in the lives of others.
3. Invest in Your Strengths – When you invest in yourself, your strengths will come into fruition and grow stronger as you elevate others. You can read books, periodicals, take an online course, enroll in a non-credit course, or join a networking group. Just don't tell yourself you don't have time or money to invest in your greatness.

Feelings vs. Facts

Feelings can be a challenge to prove in the workplace. They’re challenging because some feelings aren’t based on current realities, but on experiences that can cloud the truth.

If you’ve experienced an offence at work, think before you respond or react. And if you want an apology or resolve from the offender, here are a few things to consider:

• Was the offence intentional? If so, can you prove it?
• What was your emotional state when the offence occurred?
• Are you viewing the current offence through the lens of your past?
• What impact does the offence have on you and the company as a whole if it’s not addressed and resolved?

Telling someone how we feel in the workplace may be impossible to validate without tangible proof. One sure way to get heard is to measure offensive behaviors against the company’s mission and core values which should be outlined in the company’s employee handbook. Also, make sure you have the ability to show your value to the company as a problem-solver, not a complainer or whiner. You can do so when you speak more about what your company does and less about how you feel.

Twelve ways to ‘C’ your way through 2015

1. Clarity – Get clear on who you want to become and what you want to achieve.
2. Completion – What will be the positive or negative result if you achieve or don’t achieve your desired outcome?
3. Confide – Tell at least one person that will hold you accountable to creating change in your life.
4. Commitment – Create a plan and system to be steadfast and unmovable.
5. Chase – Pursue only your dreams; not the dreams of others.
6. Control – Take control of the forces (e.g., habits, people, or substances) that can create barriers to achieving your inner-most desires.
7. Confidence – You have everything within you to succeed. Do not base your success on external conditions.
8. Condition – We are what we think. Defeated thoughts will lead to a defeated life. Train your mind to win.
9. Courage – Be audacious and create your own path for success.
10. Contentment – Be satisfied with what you have and don’t compare yourself to others.
11. Character – Who are you or who will you become as a result of you reaching your goal(s)?
12. Contribute – Sow into the lives of others as you strive for success. You will be amazed of what you will reap.

Invest in yourself

"I only take classes my job pays for."

"If my company wants me to stay, they should pay for my training."

"As soon as I get my MBA, I’m out of here!"

"I only enroll in workshops or classes that are free."

If your company pays for training, who’s investing in your professional development, you or your company? If your company pays, what do they get in return? If you pay, what’s the ROI (Return on Investment) for your growth and development?

Imagine hiring a contracting company that specializes in home renovations showing up at your doorstep without the skills, tools, or resources to perform the job. Would you pay for the training and resources the contracting company needs to complete the job? Or, would you hire another contracting company equipped with resources and expertise to meet your requirements and deadline to renovate?

Corporations are discovering better ways to yield returns on their resources and investments. And unfortunately, this doesn’t include ‘human’ capital because too many corporations have witnessed and experienced their education and training investments walk out the door.

If your career has come to a screeching halt, evaluate where you invest most of your time and money. If you plan to excel in your current or future place of employment, you have to transition to self-directed and life-long learners. The library is replete with ‘free’ resources for professional or career development and some organizations are replete with ‘fee-based’ resources. The resource you choose would be based on what you’re trying to achieve and why?

Education has been recognized as an integral path to economic empowerment and wealth. Not designer bags, shoes, or acrylic nails. If you’ve been blessed with these things great! But, if you invest more in these things than yourself, evaluate how these things have positioned you to create the foundation to your financial independence and stability?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, “We buy what we want and beg for what we need”. Education is a needed commodity to evolve and thrive in today’s society and your growth will be measured by what you endow to yourself.

Hate your job, what are you doing about it?

If you’re not happy with your job, whose fault is it? Is it your manager’s, co-worker, the economy, your bills, or you? What impact does your hatred have on the people you serve through your job? To show up every day to a job you hate doesn’t benefit anyone but your creditors. Hatred is difficult to hide. It will resonate through your attitude and your work.

Staying at a job you hate may seem logical with the high percentage of unemployed and underemployed people. But if you choose to stay, why hate it? Why waste your time and your employer's? It’s challenging to have a servant attitude through hatred. If you’re not willing to serve, you’re not willing to work at your best capacity.

Work isn’t solely about us! It’s about service. If we’re filled with hatred about our work, does it mean we’re too full of ourselves? Sure, people can be difficult and challenging, but their actions should not contribute to our hatred. Every day we show up for work, we should know our purpose and the contribution we will make on our employer's bottom line and their clients.

Don’t allow finances and fear hold you hostage to a job you hate. You have the power to transform your job into a career you enjoy and love. If you're ready, you can start here.

The Power of The Tongue

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. This idiom has been quoted by many children to indicate name calling or words will never hurt them.

Proverbs 18:21 states, Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. So, words can hurt or empower!

How will you use your use your tongue today? Will you speak life or death into the lives of others? What will you speak into yourself? If you choose death, why bother speaking?

Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

Emotional Intelligence is linked to an ability to identify, assess, and control emotions. Depending on a woman’s estrogen level or her season of life, controlling her emotions can be a challenge – even in the workplace. Here are some tips to strengthen your intelligence:

• Get Real With Yourself - Identify and deal with the source of negative emotions because nothing positive derives from them. Suppressing or camouflaging these emotions with shopping, smoking, or eating are temporary coping mechanisms that can lead to other challenges.
• Know Your Role – Be clear on your purpose for working; the benefits and impact your contributions have on your employer’s bottom-line, and how your role coincides with their mission and core values.
• Don’t React, Get the Facts – There are many women reacting to events based on their emotions instead of facts. Feelings should never be used as a deciding factor in the workplace because they aren’t tangible and cannot be validated.
• Define Your Outcome – For every task you perform, you should have a desired outcome that links to your personal mission and your employer's. Working without a personal mission is like accomplishing empty victories because there isn't a connection to your uniqueness.
• Begin with the End in Mind – Start your day with a clear vision of its direction and destination. What you envision in your mind (direction) will lead to your destination. This is achievable when your emotions are under control.

Want more help to chart your course to emotional intelligence, visit SOFEI Online.

What's the Secret to Success?

Discovering and crafting your gift and sharing it passionately with greatness! In our How to Create a Great Career workshop, we teach people how to build great careers from their innate qualities; not from skills they’ve learned to make a living, but from their God-given gifts to make a life.

During the workshop, we demonstrate how people like Serena and Venus Williams, Tiger Woods, and Michael Jordan were able to get corporate sponsorships because of their ‘greatness’ in their respective sports, not because they had good marketing skills to promote Nike, Hanes, or Buick.

God created us to succeed so others can experience Him through our work. And, He cannot accomplish this through people that know how to wear or drive success; but through people that are willing and spiritually fit to do the work He has called us to do.

Success is a divine right. Don’t allow the definitions or opinions of others hold yours hostage.