Trying to increase your salary or hourly wage is hard enough without finding out that you were passed over for a promotion or pay raise by someone who took a few extra college courses. You can level the job market field and make yourself a valuable commodity if you know what courses to pursue. Here are several adult education courses you can take in the evenings, on weekends or online that can help you further your career and get that prized pay raise.
"Next Step Up" Classes
These courses are necessary for you to move up into the next pay bracket and the next career title bracket. For instance, if you are currently a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant), you would take courses towards becoming an LPN, (Licensed Practical Nurse). Sometimes just taking the right courses affects how much responsibility you are entrusted with at work. An example in the nursing field is taking a course on pharmaceuticals and their administration. This means that even if you are not a full-fledged LPN yet, you would be certified to administer medications in the absence of an LPN on staff.
Other "Step Up" classes include:
There are multiple other courses that probably apply to your current career, but you need to know which ones are relevant to the current job market. If you enroll in an adult education program at a college, university or technical/vocational school, be sure to talk to your advisor about which courses you can complete the fastest and which ones will have the biggest impact on your current career and level of pay.
Certifications Versus Licensing
If you plan to go beyond the "next step up" classes, certifications and licensing courses will get you there. Certification courses are a bundle of classes you take to become certified in a specific field and are usually less than a full term's course load. Licensing courses will require a lot more of your time and usually take anywhere from a year to five years or more to complete, depending on the program. For example, you can get a couple of different certifications as an HVAC contractor, but you will need an HVAC license first. The license is achieved through a couple of years' worth of schooling through an accredited program.
All of the above can help lift your salary or hourly wage up higher, so talk with an advisor and a university or college that offers adult education classes, such as NKU PACE, today.
Share28 August 2015
College is an expense that typically pays off. If you take the right courses, you can find a career that you enjoy and can earn a decent living from. But, how do you know what courses to take? Will going to one college give you a better leg up than going to another? I had so many questions about college that I had to find the answers to before I could decide which colleges to even apply to. This blog contains the answers to all of the questions that I had to find before I could take the next step in going to college.
