ROBERTA BHASIN is the author of Mastering Management-A Guide for Technical Professionals which is published by Miller Freeman Inc. She also conducts seminars and speaks on management for technical professionals.

Hitting the books

As students across the U.S. settle in after the annual “back-to-school” frenzy, it may be time for you to consider doing the same. There are at least three good reasons to continue your education.

The first reason to consider in furthering your education is that labor statistics reveal most professionals have more than one career—with six being the current average—during their lifetimes. Things like mergers, acquisitions, and, of course, technology, have driven this trend. Second, even if you are not in the new job or career market, chances are you need to keep up with technology, which is changing the way we work almost daily. And finally, we are told that, in order to live long and productive lives, we need to consciously challenge our brains. In the personal edition of Bottom Line, Thomas T. Perls, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, reported “cognitive capacity” to be one of the most critical factors among the survival secrets of the more than 150 people aged 100 and older who participated in a longevity study.

Here are some of the options that you need not wait until next fall to take advantage of:

FOUR-YEAR INSTITUTIONS. Business schools at traditional colleges and universities have long offered short, intense programs in general management. In their efforts to capture the adult market, four-year sponsoring institutions are offering more and more weekend, evening, and continuing education seminars on workplace specifics such as project management and many aspects of information technology.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES. Founded for the most part to help GI’s returning from WWII get back to work, community colleges have always been workforce development specialists. Their myriad of certificate and degree programs are almost all developed with guidance from local employers to make sure their curricula is state of the art. Most offer internships, cooperative education, and independent study that enable students to work in their chosen fields and go to school part-time.

ONLINE LEARNING. Traditional institutions are offering online degrees in addition to campus-based classes, and some colleges, such as Jones University, offer nothing but online degrees. Still others, like the Fielding Institute in California, offer distance learning that is a combination of online and face-to-face experiences. This anytime, anywhere approach to education is designed specifically to fit busy workday schedules.

PRIVATE RESOURCES. Trade, proprietary, and private educational resources typically focus on specific career areas, and are intense. Often accredited, they have solid relationships with employers. Some cater to people who already have degrees, offering programs in technical specialties that may or may not be related to the academic area previously studied.

INHOUSE UNIVERSITIES. Some corporations have the equivalent of inhouse universities available not only to their employees but to outsiders as well. Your company (or a neighboring one) may not have the equivalent of a “university,” but it is a good first stop in your research for work-related training opportunities. If these departments do not offer the training that interests you, chances are they can guide you to another source, and one with whom they may even be partnering.

THE INTERNET. The Internet is the number one choice of people seeking information about new jobs and careers, so you can find these and many other resources very quickly. Keywords such as training, education, college, job skills, and careers, together with your location, will produce myriad sites to explore locally. Adding “online” or “distance education” will help you find opportunities in cyberspace.

The selection you ultimately make will be affected not only by subject matter, but by the financial aid, counseling, credit for prior learning, and other study-related services offered, so check them out carefully. Don’t forget to check into tuition aid offered by your employer, but remember that this is usually restricted to studies related to your current job.

FINAL THOUGHTS. A final thought from Dr. Perls’ study: Your cognitive challenge need not be work-related to be longevity-related. He suggests writing, learning to play a musical instrument, painting, and learning new languages, all of which require a variety of mental skills, such as simultaneous reading, listening, and memorization. Music in particular, he says, has been shown to reduce stress—another good reason to consider going back to school—which, of course, may be work-related.