Waterloo - There was a time when a degree, some experience, a good work ethic, and a positive attitude could garner you a good job and a series of promotions. Today, our futures are not that clear-cut, and many of us are realizing that if we want to get employed or stay employed, we need to continue our education.

University of Waterloo Continuing Education recognizes the growing training needs of our community and, as CE’s associate director Michael Hunt explains, they are giving the public what they need to succeed in today’s workforce.

“We are seeing a rise in students asking us for career-specific training. Many of these students are upgrading their skills to remain competitive in their current line of work and many more are retraining themselves for a new career,” says Hunt.

Nick Houston is one of the many students who came to Waterloo looking for a career change.

“After more than 27 years in the telecommunications and IT world, I became another statistic during the downturn in the economy. After searching for a new position for several months from Toronto to Niagara Falls to Waterloo, I realized that I needed to upgrade my skills,” says Houston.

In January, 2009, Nick began taking courses in one of Continuing Education’s classroom certificate programs. After a few months, he graduated with a Certificate in Project Management.

“This certificate led directly to several interviews and two job offers on the same day! I highly recommend it,” says Houston explaining how he is a newly-hired project manager with the City of Hamilton.

He credits the success of Waterloo’s certificate programs to the “quality of the instruction and their facilities and flexibility.” He also adds that “the people at Waterloo Continuing Education made the process convenient and enriching.”

Continuing Education has three certificates that students can take in their Gage Avenue classroom: project management, leadership, and business analysis. Each certificate consists of a series of classroom training modules and, when complete, they give students knowledge and skills that can be immediately applied to the business world.

“Though relatively new, as you can see from Nick’s story, our classroom certificates are already getting results,” says Hunt adding that the Continuing Education began offering certificate programs in Fall 2008. Besides the three classroom certificates, CE also offers an online certificate in project leadership.

“To fulfill more immediate needs, CE also offers corporate training and over 130 innovative online courses including fast and convenient training for many software programs.”

“Our role in the university is to provide innovative and relevant lifelong learning to everyone in our community. To do this, we continually improve our programs to keep current with the latest trends and work with industry experts to see what the future will bring.”