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Showing posts with the label Professional Growth

Build a Career, Not Just a Job

For many women, starting over after a life-changing event like a divorce, spousal abandonment, job loss, or caregiving can feel daunting, and finding work to pay the bills might seem like the immediate goal. Through our partnership with E&Y Talent Outreach Services, The SOFEI Group encourages women to think bigger to build a career, not just a job. Through our partnership with E&Y Talent Outreach Services, we provide resources, training, and the career opportunities women need to transition from economic instability to sustainable independence. The Difference Between a Job and a Career A job focuses on short-term goals - earning a paycheck or meeting immediate financial needs. While necessary, jobs can sometimes feel like stepping stones that lack long-term growth. A career , on the other hand, is a long-term professional journey. It’s about identifying your passions, growing your skills, and achieving goals that bring financial security and personal fulfillment. With ...

Discover Your Path to Success with SOFEIOnline

At SOFEIOnline , we believe in the transformative power of education. Whether advancing in your career, starting a new venture, or looking to develop skills that make you stand out, our comprehensive course offerings are designed to help you achieve your goals. With programs tailored to empower women and other learners to rise above challenges, we provide the tools, resources, and flexibility you need to build a brighter future. Why Choose SOFEIOnline? Empowerment Through Education Our courses help learners at every stage of their journey. Whether re-entering the workforce, changing careers, or starting fresh, we provide practical, skills-based learning to set you up for success. Flexible Learning Options Life is busy - we get it. That’s why SOFEIOnline offers self-paced courses you can access anytime, anywhere. You’re in control of your learning schedule. Expert-Led Courses Learn from experienced instructors who are committed to your success. Our content meets industry standard...

Dear Black Women, You Are More Than Enough

Kamala Harris’s presidential loss doesn’t define your worth or the value of your dreams. Her historic journey to the vice presidency proves that Black women belong in spaces long denied to us. Though this chapter didn’t end as many hoped, it is not the end of the story. Remember, your power is rooted in your resilience, brilliance, and ability to rise, not tied to the outcome of elections - Harris’s journey reminds us that breaking barriers isn’t always about winning; it’s about paving paths for others to follow. When doubt creeps in, remember your ancestors who endured unimaginable struggles and still found ways to thrive. You are their wildest dreams realized. Hold your head high, and know that your contributions matter, your voice is vital, and your dreams remain valid. Rise, Black women - your story continues, and it’s more powerful than ever. Keep persevering; the world needs your light.

Unlock the Power of High-Impact Communication

The ability to converse effectively is more than a skill - it is our superpower. Our message can be the difference between success and missed opportunities when speaking to stakeholders, leading a team, or negotiating a deal, and making your communication style a "High Impact" is essential. Why High-Impact Communication Matters? Effective communication goes beyond speaking clearly; it is about connecting with your audience, influencing decisions, and inspiring action, and this course dives deep into the principles and techniques to elevate your communication style, making you more persuasive, confident, and impactful in every interaction. What Will You Learn? The High Impact Communication course will equip you with tools and strategies to enhance your communication with: Crafting Compelling Messages: Learn how to structure your ideas to resonate with your audience, leaving a lasting impression. Mastering Nonverbal Cues: Discover the power of body language and how...

Ways to Cultivate a Spirit of Excellence

The biblical story about the Queen of Sheba's visit to King Solomon is an intriguing and memorable encounter between royalty. It depicts a tale of wisdom, wealth, and the relentless pursuit of understanding, all set against a royal meeting that has captivated minds for centuries. The Queen of Sheba was impressed by the wisdom of King Solomon (not merely intellectual prowess, but a gift from God) and the excellence depicted throughout his kingdom, and this biblical story offers several lessons we can use to cultivate a spirit of excellence in our daily lives: Pursue knowledge actively: Like the Queen of Sheba, we should go out of our way to seek wisdom and understanding (e.g., reading widely, engaging in challenging conversations, or seeking mentors). Ask probing questions: Don't be afraid to ask difficult questions to pursue knowledge and truth. The Queen of Sheba came prepared with "challenging questions" to verify Solomon's wisdom because learning can ...

Empowering Your Comeback: A Guide for Women Re-Entering the Workforce

Life can take unexpected turns - a job loss, illness, divorce, or spousal abandonment is one of those challenging detours. This can be a tough season, but it can present an opportunity to rediscover yourself and create a new future. Re-entering the workforce can be difficult, but you can have a prosperous career with a new mindset and the following strategies: Embrace Your Emotions - Embrace your feelings. The emotional aftermath of a job loss, illness, spousal abandonment, or divorce can be overwhelming. Give yourself time to grieve and heal, and consider obtaining support from a therapist or counselor who can help you process your emotions and rebuild confidence. Assess Your Skills and Interests - Take an assessment to learn your skills, strengths, and aptitudes. The assessment results will provide a wealth of information to help you find the right career that matches your assessment profile. Update Your Resume and LinkedIn Profile - Your resume and LinkedIn profile ...

Inspiring Strategies to Achieve Your Dreams

Oprah Winfrey is known for her wisdom and insights on personal development and motivation, and the following are our interpretations of her inspiring ways to get motivated to achieve your dreams: Define Your Goals: Being specific about what you want to achieve and why gives you direction and purpose. Visualize Success: Imagine yourself achieving your dreams and goals to help you create powerful images in your mind to stay focused and motivated. Believe in Yourself: Trusting and believing in your abilities to achieve your dreams and goals will empower you to overcome obstacles and stay encouraged. Take Action: Break your goals into smaller, manageable steps and take consistent action to keep you moving toward your goals. Stay Positive: Maintain a positive mindset by focusing on solutions, not problems, and stay surrounded by positive influences. Learn from Failures: Treat your mistakes as lessons learned and move on because setbacks are not the end but stepping stones ...

Unlock Your Project Management Potential with an Agile Project Management Course

Mastering agile project management in an evolving business environment is more critical than ever, and we are excited to offer the Agile Project Management Training online course as a comprehensive solution for individuals and organizations looking to enhance their project management skills and deliver projects more efficiently via our online platform, SOFEIOnline. Here are seven reasons why this online course can benefit individuals seeking to become Project Managers: Flexible Learning for Busy Professionals SOFEIOnline courses allow trainees to start anytime or with a fixed start date (i.e., you can learn at your own pace, on your schedule). Whether you are a working professional, a student, or a busy parent, this flexibility ensures you balance your professional development and other life commitments. Comprehensive Curriculum The course provides an understanding of agile methodologies, including Scrum and more - it covers everything from the basics to advanced techniques...

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 environm...

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: Ad...

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 cours...

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...

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 ...

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 ca...

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 an...

Ten D’s of Women Trailblazers

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. Destined – Always begin with the end in mind. Women trailblazers predetermine how they want to end their struggle and work towards ending it. Driven – What's the force behind your actions - your spirit, struggles or faith? Determined – Women trailblazers have the will power to carry out their mission to improve the social, economical, and educational stance of women. Devoted – Whatever you do, have a passion for it. When you have a passion, you’ll work without wanting anything in return. Disciplined – Women trailblazers prepare themselves to face challenges and/or obstacles. Dignity – Women trailblazers think highly of themselves and present themselves with high regard and honor. Diligent – Women trailblazers are perseveres. They stay on course regardless of the challenges they may face in life. Daring – Women trailblazers have ...