If you feel like you’re stuck in a dead-end job, continuing education may be the answer. The high costs associated with advanced training and education, however, prevent many people from seeking the additional education they might need in order to improve their earning power or move into a more desirable field. But with the help of continuing education loans, many working individuals find that they are able to pursue the advanced training or degrees they need to finally achieve their career goals.

Adults seek to further their educations for a variety of reasons. Some are simply finishing their degree programs. Others are looking to enrich their lives with continued learning. Still others are interested in mapping out an entirely new career path. There are even benefits to pursuing continued education if you’re already working in your chosen field. An advanced degree or additional training may put you in a better position for advancement within your own company or may provide you with more leverage when negotiating for a raise.

Opportunities for adults to pursue continued education are everywhere. From night classes to correspondence courses to online degree programs, a variety of options are available to working individuals. Unfortunately, however, pursuing an advanced degree or vocational training in a new area can be an expensive proposition. Online degree programs may help you reduce your costs by eliminating the need for textbooks and transportation, but the credit hours themselves may be just as expensive as they would be at a regular 4-year college. Most people can help to make their costs manageable, however, with the help of continuing education loans.

Available from a variety of sources, continuing education loans exist to help adults manage the costs associated with the pursuit of continued education. Many private lenders offer continuing education loans; and, assuming that you have a good credit history, approval rates for these loans are generally high.

When you apply for a continuing education loan, your lender will let you know how much money you will be able to borrow. This amount may cover a portion of your school fees or you may qualify for the entire cost of your degree program (including books, equipment and other requirements). Some lenders will also allow you to choose whether to begin payments while you’re still in school or to defer your payments until you’ve completed your program. By choosing to defer your payments until you’re finished with school, you may be able to reduce the amount of time you’re currently working, helping you to finish your degree more quickly.

As your new degree begins to open new career doors, it is hoped that the costs associated with a continuing education loan will be far outweighed by your improved earning potential. By helping you to manage the costs associated with furthering your education, continuing education loans may ultimately mean the difference between staying in your current job and finally pursuing the career path you’ve always dreamed about.

Staying current with your profession is a way through which many professionals today are opting to stay ahead of the constantly growing curve of the health care knowledge. In a world of rapidly changing technology, it is becoming mandatory for care givers to broaden their knowledge on their profession. Nursing continuing education classes ensure that nurses are able to provide the best level of care and medical attention to their patients. Human beings in their quest to make themselves better constantly get the urge to improve on what they have to offer. Being stagnant in a profession may thus cause boredom and a feeling of insufficiency. For those that are already in the this profession, nursing continuing education is made available.

Today it is used by RN to enable them to advance their careers and keep up with the ever-competitive medical field. Keeping up with the board of nursing requirements ensures that a registered nurse is able to keep advancing in his or her career. In some situations, ongoing education in is necessary for any registered nurse to maintain his or her license. A nurse might even find it necessary to get an ADN. There exist both the traditional institution methods of the nursing continuing education and the online type of education. Both of these, depending on one’s availability, result in a qualified nurse becoming more competitive and in a better position to offer the best form of medical attention to their patients.

How a Nursing continuing education program is built

A Nursing continuing education program can include self study, on the job training, academic courses and seminars or conferences. In most cases, a continuing education certificate is issued upon the conclusion of a course. The nursing continuing courses exist in a number of forms. One should give consideration to courses that fit his or her learning style and career goal as at the end of the day. Thus depending each individual’s requirements remain unique from the next person’s. On the institution, one is able to benefit tremendously from the programs put in place.

Some of these programs include the follow the evidence to up to date practice. This program is put into place to ensure that nurses are given the opportunity to get equipped with knowledge about evidence- based practice and strategies so as to increase evidence based practice in their clinical work environment be it in a hospital, nursing homes, specialty doctor hospitals, private care agencies or even in physical therapy settings. Another example of a program of the Nursing Continuing Education is the ‘From Distress to De-stress’ with stress management. The goal and aim of this is to enable nurses to handle stress in their working environments in a better way.

Importance Of Nursing continuing education

The importance of engaging oneself continuing education for nurses has for years, actually since the beginning of the profession, been increasingly emphasized. The advantages of the same can be stated as majorly revolving around improvement of knowledge and skills in the nursing field. The challenges existing include keeping the nurses up to date with the changes in their field of nursing and ensuring that patients get to benefit from the skills gained from the same. The nursing profession measure continuing nursing education on the basis of Continuing Education Units (C.E.U.s) it is worth taking note that one C.E.U is equivalent to about ten hours of approved further education.

Online classes in Nursing continuing Education are more flexible thus make them attractive to nurses seeking to upgrade their qualifications, deepen their knowledge of the profession or even get specialized in a given segment of the nursing profession. From the above, it is evident that more nurses will decide to further their knowledge through his program, Nursing continuing Education, will definitely enrich their career paths.

Continuing education for counselors (LPC, LPCC, LCP, and MHC) not only enriches the licensed counselor’s practice but also satisfies individual state requirements for counselor CEUs for license renewals. These requirements are not only intended to keep the counselor up with the latest trends in the field but to update them on the latest risks and treatment options regardless of when they first began to practice or their field of expertise.

The focus of licensed counselors can vary greatly from one practice to another. For example: a licensed counselor in a school situation faces many different issues with at risk clients than that of a LPC whose practice focuses mainly upon the challenges of the aging population. Continuing education courses can reflect the different challenges faced by professionals in their areas of practice and the situations they and their clients face.

Whether or not there are formal counselor CE requirements depends upon the state issuing the license; however, many individuals who work in a government or a state agency may have CE requirements set by their individual agency. For example: state agencies may require a specific number of CEUs for counselors practicing under their auspices. Even if there are no continuing education requirements in place, the challenges of a counselor’s client population and the techniques for approaching these challenges are constantly changing. It takes more than just the occasional periodical to keep up with these changes. Online continuing education for counselors can assist the extremely busy professional counselor in keeping current with these changes and the needs of their target population while allowing them to leverage their available time in a more efficient fashion.

The minimum continuing education requirements in most states is from 20 to 40 hours depending upon the US state. Some states will also have additional requirements that set a specific number of hours in a course requirement such as ethics or risk assessment. Renewal of the license will usually involve providing proof of completion in the applicable areas. License cycles for counselors run from one to four years in length, again, depending on the state.

Satisfying Continuing Education for Counselors Requirements for License Renewal

Depending upon the individual state the continuing education requirements can vary. Many states will permit a combination of educational experiences to count toward the renewal of their counselor CEUs. A LPC working on a doctorate or whose has papers published may also apply this experience to credit against their license renewal requirements. Traditional classroom courses may also be applied toward the State’s CE requirements.

Perhaps one of the most innovative changes in continuing education for counselors is that of allowing credit for online courses. Many professional counselors are in private practice and the demands on their time are relentless. Most find that keeping up a personal life as well as a practice can be challenging and the requirements for CEUs may be simply one more thing on an already too full schedule. However, with online courses from a state board approved educational organization the burden of CE is notably less onerous, since courses and study takes place on their schedule. Selecting a continuing education class need not be a matter of taking what is available regardless of the content or its applicability to their practice.

Methods and challenges are constantly changing and the focus of the LPC must change with it. Additionally, changes in individual state laws require the licensed counselor be aware of their legal obligations as well as the ethics of sometimes entirely new situations. There are rarely grey areas in the laws that apply to the professional counselor and their responsibilities in reporting, and it is imperative they keep up with changes in the laws and current requirements. Continuing education for counselors in ethics and legalities is almost a professional necessity regardless of whether the state requires them for license renewal.

It is entirely possible to combine online counselor CEUs with offline seminars and other educational experiences to satisfy a state’s requirements for renewal of the counselor’s license. This can be particularly useful when the professional’s state or employer’s requirements include courses not available locally. In the real world very few professionals can take off on someone else’s schedule to attend coursework in another city or across the state.

Continuing education usually refers to any form of post high school education, used to earn additional certification or as a requirement to maintain a professional license. This form of education is entirely meant for individuals who already have degrees.

Continuing education can take the form of online degree or certificate courses, seminars, conferences, workshops or self-guided study. Unlike other types of education, continuing education has no specific format or duration. Some programs may take a day while others span several weeks or months.

Students pursuing continuing studies for personal advancement usually do not receive college credits as the courses are not considered part of the formal training. Attending a conference or seminar that is open to the public, for example, does not give you any education credits.

Continuing education programs enable people who have already earned a college level degree to pursue additional education or advanced training.

Many careers require individuals to enroll for continuing study from time to time so as to keep up with emerging development in the field. This form of learning is referred to as mandatory continuing education.

Because of the highly competitive job market, professionals whose careers do not require continuing education often undertake it as a means to make themselves more marketable to potential employers.

Thanks to the advancement of the Internet technology, it is possible to complete continuing education online from the comfort of your office or home – providing you have a computer and reliable Internet connection.

Online continuing education programs are ideal for individuals who need an extremely flexible learning schedule. The main advantage of these online programs is the fact that student’s can access them during their free time – meaning professionals don’t have to give up their full time jobs to pursue higher education.

These programs usually provide the student with all the materials needed to complete a certain course: books, lecture notes etc. The students are supposed to complete the coursework at their own leisure, including sitting for the final exam.

While most online programs are entirely based online, some programs provide a low-residency format where most of the work is completed online, but the students are expected to go to the college for a week or two every semester to get practical experience and network with their faculties and peers.

The State of Florida requires all certified and registered contractors licensed by the Construction Industry Licensing Board (CILB) to complete 14 hours of continuing education biannually to renew their construction trade license. Those licensed contractors who fail to complete their continuing education requirements by the license expiration date may face non-renewal or disciplinary action. This requirement has been in effect since December of 1993 for Florida construction contractors.

First you will need to write or compose 14 hours of continuing education courses in total. One hour is defined as 50 minutes of classroom-course work excluding breaks or recesses.

The following are the core or required construction continuing education courses and are one hour in length: workplace safety, business practices, workers’ compensation, laws and rules, an advanced module approved by the Florida Building Commission, and wind mitigation (This requirement is only for the General, Building, Residential, Specialty, Roofing, Glass or Glazing construction contractors). The remaining 8 (or 9) hours can be of any general topic that would be of interest to a licensed construction professional. Any course topic that is a sales presentation or promotion will be denied approval.

Next you will need to register with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) on form DBPR CILB 4354-1. This form requires the usual information about the business name, address, telephone number, type of business organization, etc.

The registration form wants you to detail for each individual construction continuing education course the following information: the course syllabus, course description, course topic, course timeline, course objective, and the evaluation method. Next the DBPR and CILB require the name of each instructor and their qualifications. Typically this is five or more years of trade experience detailed on a resume for each instructor submitted with the registration application. An exception is made for instructors with less than five years of experience; they must have a 4 year University degree or graduate degree in their field of study and be an active licensed contractor.

The fees are $250 for the continuing education (CE) course provider application and $25 for each hour of CE course instruction.

There is a section inquiring about any individual’s criminal background, any court judgments regarding dishonest dealing or fraud, and if you have ever been denied a State license or if you have had any State license revoked or suspended.

Upon receiving your approved course-provider number and course identity number(s) you can begin to offer your continuing education courses to construction contractors. Any promotion materials must list your continuing education course provider number and each assigned number identifying the individual CE course.

After a student completes a course you will be required to keep the following data:

The time, date and place each course is completed
The name & address of each instructor and their qualifications
Name, address and registration/certificate number of each course participant
Sign in/sign out sheet used at the site listing name, license number and signature
Internet courses require the registration information, access logs, and completion date in lieu of sign in sheets
Internet courses need proof of student’s identification verification data, password, and mother’s maiden name
Course syllabus for each course
After a contractor completes a CE course you will be required to issue a certificate of completion. This must have their name, their contractor certification or registration number, the course provider name, the course name, the date course offered/completed, the total continuing education hours and if the course included workers’ compensation, workplace safety, business practices or wind mitigation. All continuing education course attendance records are required to be kept for 4 years.