The demand for certification has grown so great that Edwards plans to expand the center’s hundreds of courses into fields beyond the realms of technology and project management. She cites fields that touch banking — such as insurance, real estate, financial services and others — which all require specific professional designations. The PEC can also help meet the growing need for training and certification in law, medicine, architecture, engineering, executive leadership and construction management. Clients as diverse as the Texas College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Colorado State University–Pueblo have contacted the PEC about training or possible partnerships to create new courses. Edwards says the type of education and training the PEC can provide has the potential to help a wide array of job applicants and long-time employees alike. “Our mission is to help people get employed and stay employed,” she says. For Pease, simply finishing his PMP course this summer gave him an immediate boost in calls from prospective employers and job recruiters. He has higher hopes now that he’s passed the actual PMP test. “This certification has certainly made me a stronger candidate,” he says. “Just adding the keywords ‘PMP’ and ‘St. Edward’s PEC’ to my résumé and online profiles helped bring in new leads. Now when I get asked if I’m certified in an interview, I’ll be able to answer ‘yes.’”
aBi Justice ’04
aBi Justice ’04
in Pec classes, low student-teacher ratios and frequent performance assessments help students pass their certifications exams the first time out.
14
aggie it H o w t H e s t. e d wa r d ’ s Pec Became te x as a&m’s sole tecH trainer When it went looking for outside help in training its IT staff, Texas A&M University saw several presentations from providers. But the St. Edward’s University Professional Education Center was the only one whose crew set up two hours early to avoid any glitches. That kind of thoroughness impressed the university, which signed a five-year contract that makes the PEC the sole provider of IT training for all 15 of the university’s campuses starting in August. In an e-mail to his staff, Texas A&M Associate Provost Michael Caudle cited several factors that led to the decision, including the PEC’s experience with university IT training, its use of experienced instructors (including faculty members from St. Edward’s), and its track record for training students who pass certification tests the first time. Caudle also cited the PEC’s “mobile classroom,” a van packed with laptops preloaded with all the necessary software and other equipment to bring training to Texas A&M campuses as far away as Canyon. Another selling point was the PEC’s willingness to interview each department it will be working with to customize classes for their specific needs. “rudy rodriguez [PEC managing director] showed them that St. Edward’s would go the extra mile by assessing how well we can fulfill the needs of all their departments and tailoring the best package of education for them,” says linda edwards mBa ’08, director of Professional Education and Corporate and Government Relations at the PEC. “No other vendor they spoke with had the skill or willingness to do that.”