Back To School

What courses should you take to find a job in this whacked economy?

by Alex Richmond

Even with interest rates fast on the rise, the economy is still in the toilet. So many talented people have been bumped from their jobs and are struggling to make a living outside of their chosen fields.

What’s the outlook in Philadelphia?

The future, at least in the short term, is in health care, says City Commerce Director Jim Cuorato.

"Philadelphia, like every other major city, has felt the recession," he says. "We’re not growing jobs, we’re holding our own and trying to maintain. The areas that hold strong for us include real estate, hospitality, health care and construction. Hospitality enjoyed a boom in the ’90s, and now that the Convention Center labor issue has been worked out, maybe it will make a strong return. Health care is probably the largest employment sector for us in the city, and of course construction, which are not permanent jobs."

What about the creative types? Cuorato is aware of Richard Florida’s book, The Rise of the Creative Class, and feels Philadelphia has "good opportunities to grow in those areas." A new board has been created, called Innovation Philadelphia (www.ipphila.com), to help bolster new areas of economic growth in our dusty industrial city. Cuorato says, "The president is Richard Bendis, who came here from Kansas City where he ran a station that brought a number of new businesses into that area, including IT." Great. But what to do until then?

Aside from real estate or the hospitality industry, what’s a person to do to turn his or her situation around in less than four years?

Lots. Many local colleges and universities have continuing education programs that allow you to refresh your skills in whatever your field may be. Or take an entirely different leap into unknown territory.

Many classes are designed to wrap around your current employment situation, designed for the working person. You’re here in town, why not take a class before you go home?

While the big guns like Temple and Penn offer lots of evening classes for college credit (or not), from subjects ranging from the sciences and humanities to wine tasting and fine arts, there are a few new programs out there that allow you to complete an unfinished degree, or get a certificate to help you launch an entirely new career.

Got an undergraduate degree you abandoned some time ago? You can properly finish it off now at a new program at Drexel University (www.drexel.edu). If you already have an AA, or need college credits that you haven’t wrapped up, Drexel offers degree completion; you attend on Saturdays and finish in just two years. Degree completion is a very new opportunity for people in this area; the program just started up in September 2002.

Drexel’s degree-completion option is still something of a secret, says Mira Lalovic, Ph.D., Drexel’s program manager for Saturdays.

"It’s not so widely known to people outside Philly yet," she says. "We get some New Jersey people too, which is really nice."

The university, says Lalovic, takes into account that degree-completion students usually have busy lives.

"We didn’t want them to go through the pain of being independent students. We take care of a lot of the details so all they have to worry about is their homework." Lalovic estimates 250 students will be enrolled this fall. "For a program that just started, it’s an amazing number."

Want to go Hollywood? University of the Arts (www.uarts.edu) is set to debut a fleet of new writing courses in the fall, including two certificate programs: one in screenwriting and one in TV-series writing. UArts Director of Continuing Education Diane Kae says, "There’s a range of instructors, and it will continue growing. We also want to draw from writers in the professional world."

UArts has had a few courses in screenwriting that were not structured into a certificate program until now. "Now our students have support, and can put on readings in venues that allow access to the public."

The writing classes aren’t just art, but commerce too. "One of the courses is pitching, or the art of the sell. For some people it’s a nightmare, others their time to shine. Brian Wade, who does pitching for the Philadelphia Film Festival, will be teaching."

Kae has strong opinions on the arts and crafts, too. "There’s a lot of personal fulfillment in creating something beautiful and functional."

Though not easy, it is possible, she adds, to turn an avocation into a vocation.

"People want to do manual, tactile, productive things, like jewelry, metal-smithing, glass blowing. It’s hard to find those kinds of programs in -- I don’t want to say a professional level -- above the church-bazaar level, a bit more like true artisan crafts."

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