Welcome to the first edition of Professional Development News! We are launching this newsletter to stay in touch with you about all the latest, greatest changes and new directions at Professional Development. We also want to share our students' wonderful success stories about how their training at Professional Development has helped them to launch exciting new career directions.

The Silicon Valley's economic engine is predicted to heat up once again. It's an exciting time to rethink, reconstruct and reinvent. Professional Development students are readying themselves to provide fuel to fire this new economic engine.

For example, Tony Salangsang, Jr., found himself unemployed after 13 years in manufacturing management. He happened upon a Professional Development course catalog while at Fry's Electronics and decided to chart a new direction by enrolling in Professional Development's Purchasing and Supply Chain Management certificate program.

"It was all there for me - from courses in purchasing fundamentals to supply chain project operations management. The certificate program is good. The instructors are excellent and experts in their fields. It brings it all together!"

Building on nearly 150 years as a University and more than 20 years in offering Continuing Education to adults, we are in the midst of exciting new changes. Professional Development is committed to identifying leading edge trends in the workforce that will assist students in various ways from building their current careers to midlife career re-invention to learning new skills, thereby increasing marketability. Some of our new directions include:

Silicon Valley Executive Business Program: For those interested in a fast track curriculum for advanced business management training, we’ve added this intensive cohort-based program, which can be completed in only 12 weeks.
Business Management Certificate: This new certificate program will be launched in January. We will offer courses in business fundamentals as well as in leading edge topics such as offshoring and nanobioconvergence.
Management Communications and Technical Writing Certificate: As demand for excellent writing skills moves beyond technical writing and into broader business communications, we have expanded our curriculum to include a new certificate program.
Network Security and Availability: Changes in our world have made cybercrime and information infrastructure security increasingly important areas and are predicted to provide new job opportunities. We are modifying and developing our Network Security and Availability curriculum so that interested students can take full advantage of these job opportunities. These new courses will be available in the summer and fall.

Additionally, our re-designed Web site is new for 2004 (www.profev.sjsu.edu). We are also now aligned with a new service provided by CareerBuilder.com. This service helps job seekers find training programs that offer the skills and training required of specific jobs and career fields. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com. Choose Advice and Resources, then choose Continuing Education.

We welcome you to Professional Development's community of workforce professionals and look forward to playing a pivotal role in working with you along the road to career advancement.

Special thanks to our technical writing consultant and wonderful team of volunteers for partnering with Professional Development to launch this first issue!