A ngela Criscoe, ’04, ’06, MFA, interim executive director of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies wants to help Georgia College alumni flourish in their chosen professions and passions. But she needs your valuable input in selecting educational and enrichment opportunities to benefit you, or ones you may want to teach. 

“Georgia College is growing its continuing education programming to support workforce professionals who need to upskill and advance their knowledge for professional development, career advancement or leadership opportunities,” Criscoe said.

The Department of Continuing and Professional Education provides workforce development, as well as enrichment, educational and children’s programming. Programs are offered in a variety of formats to include virtually, in person or hybrid.

“The enrichment programs are opportunities to explore new interests and hobbies,” Criscoe said. “Alumni are able to share their hobbies with community members by teaching them through continuing and professional education. The more you teach others your hobby, the better you get at it.” 

Enrichment programs also benefit the people in the community who have an interest in discovering their creativity and expanding their knowledge.

“Alumni can share their hobby by contributing to established Georgia College programs or proposing a course or program idea,” Criscoe said. “We are always looking for diverse and unique program ideas and for people to teach these courses.”

“I’m sure we have alumni who are working as accountants, computer programmers or business professionals who are really good artists,” she said. “If they want to come back and teach an art class, then I ask that they contact me. We will work through a program idea to develop what they want to teach and how they want to teach it. Then, we'll make it happen.” 

In preparing for the course, the Department of Continuing and Professional Education at Georgia College provides advertising, reserves space, runs registration, pays the presenter and evaluates the program. For example, Criscoe recently brought Reva Alexandra Hawk, a six-time Food Network cake baking champion, to Georgia College to teach 10 individuals how to decorate six cupcakes in six different ways.

“We first came up with a course idea developed the curriculum, identified what supplies she needed, then I hired her,” Criscoe said. “Reva also completed Georgia College training. Now, we're going to send a survey to attendees to evaluate the course.”

Gaining new knowledge is a need that’s growing extremely fast.

“In today's rapidly changing world, workers may have over 20 different careers over the course of their lifetime and are in need of short-form credentials,” Criscoe said. “We have job recruiters who indicate they see a value in short-form certificates.”

“Returning to Georgia College to upskill is an opportunity to gain a quality education that is afforadable, accessible and accelerated,” she said. “Many of our online graduate certificates are taught by Georgia College faculty and can be completed in less than a year.”

Criscoe believes that it will be beneficial to have as many alumni as possible complete the Continuing and Professional Education (CPE) Alumni Survey.

“The survey will inform alumni of some of the online graduate certificate programs we recently initiated,” Criscoe said. “It will also provide our department with information to better serve alumni who are seeking educational and enrichment opportunities for personal growth or to teach.” 

Alumni and workforce professionals are important to Georgia College’s Department of Continuing and Professional Education.

“We hope, as alumni explore their options to continue their education, they will reach out to us, share their program ideas and participate in our continuing and professional education programs that are ingrained with Georgia College’s quality education and experience,” Criscoe said.

Share your continuing and professional education needs and suggestions for workforce professional development or enrichment activities to Georgia College’s Department of Continuing and Professional Education by completing the CPE Alumni Survey by Jan. 31, 2022.

To learn more about continuing and professional education opportunities currently available, visit Georgia College's Department of Continuing and Professional Education.