New Horizons Southern California

Независимо в коя част на света са разположени, центровете на New Horizons отговарят на едни и същи високи изисквания и спазват установен корпоративен стандарт по отношение на качеството на предоставяните обучения, квалифицираност на инструкторите, комуникация с клиенти и партньори, техническа база. Благодарение на това, оторизираните обучения, които можете да получите в център от учебната мрежа на New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, имат еднакво висока стойност по целия свят.  

Всяка година представянето на центровете на New Horizons се оценява по редица критерии и показалите най-високи резултати се отличават с награда за 5-звезден център (Five Star Center of Excellence Award). Учебният център на New Horizons в Южна Калифорния е носител на тази и на други престижни награди.  

New Horizons Southern California
Web: http://www.nhsocal.com
 
Awards:
2010-2011 Five Star Center of Excellence Award Winner
2010 Best Places To Work in Orange County
2010 Microsoft Learning Partner of the Year
2010 Overall Outstanding Achievement in Cisco Training  

Authorized Training: Computer Application Courses (Windows 7, Microsoft Office, Adobe Courses, Crystal Reports, QuickBooks), Technical and Certification Courses (Microsoft Technical, Cisco, Citrix, CompTIA, Information Security, ITIL, Oracle, VMware, Novell, Red Hat Linux), Business Skills Courses, Project Management Courses, Six Sigma Courses, Healthcare Information Management Program  

General Manager: Kevin Landry  

Mr. Landry, what were the most popular courses in your center in 2010?
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is a huge draw for the consumer business.
• Microsoft SharePoint is the hottest product Microsoft has put out in the last 5 years.
• Cisco CCNA also has a large consumer draw.
• Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Dreamweaver is popular in the consumer market.
• Microsoft Excel is not an intuitive program for an end-user, so we can offer tremendous benefit to those who need to learn gain the most of its functionality.  

Was there a demand for courses on new technologies?
Southern California has small pockets of companies that embrace “cutting-edge” technology and want to be part of change.  More so, we see heavy use of new technology 18 months after it has officially launched. Additionally, we saw increased interest in SharePoint 2010.  

What were the most important changes in IT in 2010? How did your center respond to these changes?
To meet the needs of companies with less budget and a lean staff, we added accelerated Boot Camps to the schedule, which shorten an employee’s stay with us on traditional five-day tech classes; increased our Mentored Learning environment in two locations allowing for flexible class delivery and night classes, and have in review the ability to deliver remotely from the desktop with dual exchange of student and instructor visual so as to eliminate company travel.
One of our most important changes was in our offerings for VMWare and Microsoft Hyper-V technologies.  

What were your most successful activities in 2010?
• Winner and recipient of the New Horizons 5-Star award
• Delivery in Excellence Cisco Award
• Delivery in Excellence Microsoft Award
• Exclusive delivery partner for Red Hat in the Southern California which increased sales 600%+  

On the Career Development side, we have held a career day at two of our workforce centers. Also, using students for referrals has worked very well. We have forged strategic partnerships with Veterans groups along with presenting and speaking at Veterans meetings. We have also been effective with our non-profit organizations. Lastly, our new relationship with Cyber Defenders (computer recruiter) for placement has also given us credibility in the Information Technology industry.  

Your center has recently won prestigious awards, including: New Horizons Five Star Center of Excellence Award and Microsoft Learning Partner of the Year. What is the key to top performance and utmost customer satisfaction?
A passion for the technology and a passion for the people ingesting the new technology. Performance, across the board, from instructors to sales people, is a primary focus of the management staff at all times. We, as a company, implemented an idea to strive for excellence and not be pleased with anything less. This has become part of our company culture.

In the Career Development world, the key to our success has been responding to student needs. Also, ongoing honesty regarding enrolling students who are the right fit for placement has exceeded expectations. Our credibility with our customers has been earned by looking for proper placement when offering programs. These practices have contributed to our Best Places to Work and Small Business of the Year awards.  

What were the most popular learning methods in 2010?
Instructor-Led Training (ILT) – there is a significant segment of the population who need the physical presence of the instructor in the room with them. These are the individuals that are generally new to technology and struggle to some degree.  OLL has seen a huge insurgence in the last year as well. People who are comfortable with technology embrace this as a delivery medium and appreciate the fact that they can attend a class without the hassles of combating traffic or long distance. It’s helped many people eliminate or greatly reduce their travel budget and get the same high-quality training.
We find that many of our students enjoy the flexibility of Mentored Learning. Each of our locations is equipped with state of the art equipment and environment that increases the satisfaction of the student experience.  

Which of your customers prefer Online Live?
Most of our students are comfortable with this delivery modality. Maybe, perhaps most comfortable are our Technical Professionals who typically work alone and are less likely to need additional assistance.  

Companies vs. individuals. Was there a change in the percentage rates in 2010?
Approximately 70% of our training in 2010 was from companies, whereas 30% was individual training. We typically see companies at 80% and individuals at 20%.  

Do you communicate with your customers through social media, blogs, etc.?
Yes, our Social Media strategy includes connecting with clients on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Our Account Executives receive about 15 prepared status updates every week that correspond to our monthly promotion or other topics of interest. Each Account Executive posts these updates as often as they wish throughout the week. Clients often contact us to inquire about the status updates and we’ve seen increased training because of LinkedIn, in particular.  

Is your center involved in any Green activities?
NHSoCal has embraced the green technology offerings available to any New Horizons franchise, including Connected Classroom Learning (CCL), Online LIVE (OLL) and Online Anytime (OLA).  
Beginning February 1, 2011, we will provide our students with digital or eCourseware when it is available for any class.  We believe the increased functionality of digital books will be well-received by our clients and it aids in our inventory processes and productivity.   

In what aspects do you expect 2011 to be different from 2010 for your center?
We are keyed-in on advancing our market share through innovative approaches.  We enjoy a good, solid relationship with the vast majority of our vendors and look to continue that relationship.
Our government segment will double in 2011 for two reasons:
1. We acquired San Diego, which has this market share over all other locations, and in 2010 we had a dedicated government Account Executive selling in the market.
2. Our company acquired a second government representative in 2011.  

We are working with Veterans Affairs organizations to position ourselves to take advantage of the VA funding as a new source of revenue. Our Career Development team is diligently working to assure that we are well positioned as the leader in IT training.  

 According to you, what IT skills will be in high demand in your region within the next 3-5 years?
The ability to work with cloud technologies.  Slowly the market is moving away from locally based technologies and moving them into the cloud.  That will drive demand for more developer skills and remote management skills of the IT Infrastructure.
We feel that is best to offer marketable skills such as, Help Desk, Database Business intelligence, ITIL, Virtualization, Cisco and Network technologies, and will continue to do so in the future.  

In what ways will IT training change within the next 3-5 years?
More certifications will drive the classes we put on our schedule, and additional mobile solutions will be adapted.  In the future, there will be more demand for cloud computing and less demand for equipment and resources.  

What would you like to say to New Horizons students in Bulgaria?
NHSoCal commends you for making a smart investment in your future.  Data shows that the Information Technology industry is expanding at a rapid pace and will continue to sustain growth in the future.  New Horizons’ products and services are the best in the world.  As a training industry leader recognized by Microsoft and Cisco, there is no better place to increase your skills than with New Horizons.