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eBusiness Project Meeting Goals
2007-11-04
February 28, 2004 - With the completion of the delivery of workshops in twelve communities of the Northern Great Plains, the NGP project “Building an eBusiness Ready Workforce in the Northern Great Plains” is nearing completion.
The initial project goals were to deliver a series of workshops in ten communities and to stimulate continued training programs for small businesses in the business use of computers and the Internet. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, the project sought to provide 32 – 40 hours of training to over 200 people.
To date, over 170 employees and owners of small businesses have attended at least 32 hours of intensive workshop training. The workshops were presented by NGP staff exclusively in some communities and in conjunction with workshops and courses offered by high schools, community colleges, and other training resources in other communities.
Workshop Series
Workshop topics that have been delivered by NGP staff include:
- eBusiness for Small Business – An introductory workshop that discusses the potential the Internet holds for small businesses. The workshop reviews various small business websites and identifies elements of website design and information presentation that are considered “best practices”.
- Search Engine Technology – The broad range of Internet search engine and directory technologies is explored, with the intent of identifying best practices of website design, information presentation, and site promotion for optimum search service placement of small business websites.
- Selling on eBay – This powerful Internet sales tool has tremendous potential for small businesses interested in selling or buying online with a minimum investment risk. An in-depth workshop that serves to clarify the many options available to a seller or buyer.
- Internet Security – Understanding viruses, worms, and hoaxes is essential to maintaining healthy online communications and an Internet presence. This course will also cover basics of data encryption, firewalls, and other computer security topics.
- Digital Graphics – A hands-on course that covers the basics of working with digital graphics, including digital cameras. Using industry standard software such as Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop, participants will understand how to optimize graphics for quality and size, crop, touch up, recolor, brighten, and layer graphics as well as demonstrating many other common tools available in these applications.
- Digital Video – The ease of capturing and publishing digital streaming video is demonstrated in this course. Included are overviews of the technical aspects of digital streaming media as well as a review of a few of the free and commercial products available for editing and rendering video.
Participating
Communities
The
communities that are participating in this project are distributed throughout
the five state region.
Iowa ~ Centerville,
Cherokee, Lake Mills,
Jefferson, and Laurens
Minnesota ~ 5Comm (Lakefield, Round Lake, Lake Heron, Brewster, & Okabena)
Nebraska ~ Cambridge and West Point
North Dakota ~ Bottineau and Hettinger
South Dakota ~ Canton and Lemmon
Project
Successes
An extensive follow-up survey
of the project participants and committees has been conducted online. NGP has
gauged the impact of the training to the employee and the business in a number
of different areas, both intrinsic and concrete. Businesses and employees that
were involved in the earliest workshop are now seeing tangible positive results
that will serve as an example of expectations for future training initiatives.
Unsolicited feedback from both community project planning committees and participants indicates that the workshop training program has been well-received:
“Thanks again
for the class in Cherokee, I learned so much. I was so pumped up after
every class. Because of all the knowledge you instilled in me I know enough to
be dangerous!”
– Kris Witcombe,
workshop participant, Cherokee, IA
“If I haven’t
expressed my thanks to you for awhile regarding the Department of Labor
Training project, let me correct that. Thanks, Thanks, Thanks.”
– Mark Erickson, project director, Lakefield, MN.
“Thanks for
your part in proposing this project to the Department of Labor – it is so great
to have that driving force to help us accomplish our educational needs.”
- Andela Taylor, project director, Cambridge, NE
“Thank you once
again for the informative workshop you presented in West Point, Nebraska. I
found it to be very helpful.”
- Cathy Busse, workshop
participant, West Point,
NE
In addition, communities have made commitments to sustaining the training program and have promoted additional activities in conjunction with the project:
- Lake Mills, IA – purchased five laptops to be used for workshops in the Winnebago Telephone Co-op training center, donated by the Co-op.
- Lakefield, MN – presenters were hired from the metro area and a technology motivational speaker spent a full day visiting schools and businesses.
- West Point, NE – provided tuition assistance to participants to take a 24 hour website development course at the local community college.
For more information, contact Steve Hannah, Vice President of Technology Services at shannah@ngplains.org.
