Last spring, Instructor Pablo Romero shared his plans to take a cohort of students through the new BIW Medical Office Specialist program at College of the Desert. Now that the students have completed their first year, which included an internship at Eisenhower Medical, Pablo is excited to share important lessons learned along the way.

He’ll also share the course roadmaps established for all three of COD’s BIW Specialist programs: Medical Office Specialist, Legal Office Specialist and Marketing Specialist. And, he’ll give us some insight into COD’s newest certificate in development, the BIW Real Estate Certification.

Finally, the ICT-DM sector is getting ready to release Pablo’s report written for educators looking to create cross-disciplinary BIW certificates on their campuses. This is a valuable resource with tips on how to effectively collaborate with colleagues in other departments through the planning stages, curriculum development/selection, and creating stackable certificates.

Countless professional and business service industries use digital media tools to communicate their messaging through graphic design, advertising, social media campaigns, websites, digital images, videography, and more. Careers in this area continue to grow across the state. So how can community colleges help adult “upskillers” stay on top of technology in order to excel in their jobs or branch into something new?

Paul Flaharty from The Creative Group and Robert Half Technology will share employment trends in the creative and digital professions space, and the need for upskillers to acquire digital skills in order to remain marketable. He’ll be followed by Jay Seidel, ICT-DM Project Lead and Professor of Journalism at Fullerton College, who recently completed a statewide project with a digital media faculty focus group. Learn how this group developed a digital media skills pathway of courses that will allow upskillers to develop indispensable skills for tomorrow’s digital-centered workforce.