New topics offered in NRCC's "Sharper Skills Seminars" series

Feb 21 2013

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This article was published on Feb 21 2013 and was archived on Feb 22 2014. The information below may be outdated or inaccurate.

New River Community College will host more of its "Sharper Skills Seminars" for business at the college's New River Valley Mall site in Christiansburg. The seminars are designed and instructed by the college's corporate trainers, Laurel Schirr and Jeanne Symanoskie.

Schirr will lead seminars in customer service, selling skills, social media and management. Her "Customer Service" seminar focuses on the importance of great customer service, how attitude affects customer service, how to effectively identify customer needs and how to deal with difficult customers. In "Improve Your Selling Skills," Schirr helps participants learn to become more effective sales professionals by making a good first impression, establishing credibility and confidence, effectively handling objections and active listening. Her class "Social Media: The Basics" will show participants various social media platforms and help them understand the advantages and disadvantages of each along with discussing some of social media's business and marketing aspects. Schirr will also lead a course in management skills entitled "Management Skills: Basic Management" that will cover the qualities of a good supervisor, management styles and self-assessment.

Symanoskie's offerings include workplace technology courses such as "Getting Started with iPad," "Pivot Tables in Excel," "Getting Organized with Microsoft OneNote," "Social Media Marketing: Hands-On" and "MOS Certification: Practice Makes Perfect."

In "Getting Started with iPad," participants will learn to navigate their iPad, iPhone and iPod touch devices in addition to discovering how to sync them with iTunes, take and manage photos and videos, install Apps, and configure WiFi and other settings. "Pivot Tables in Excel" will help participants learn to create pivot tables and charts, use them to filter and analyze data and better understand how pivot tables can make large data sets easier to work with. In "Getting Organized with Microsoft OneNote," Symanoskie will guide participants through creating, storing and organizing notes in OneNote as well as integrating with other programs, password protecting notes and other key functions. Symanoskie's hands-on social media marketing class is designed as a complement to Schirr's "basics" class and will offer participants hands-on experience in creating pages on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and LinkedIn. She will also help participants identify pitfalls to avoid with social media, learn to create messages that will grab readers' attention and discuss using brands in social media marketing. Additionally, Symanoskie will lead "MOS Certification: Practice Makes Perfect," a seminar allowing participants to take the Microsoft Office Specialist practice test and ask questions regarding the material.

Symanoskie will also lead a free seminar on obtaining a Microsoft Office Specialist certification entitled "MOS Certification: Just the FAQs." Attendees will learn what the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification is, benefits to having the certification, competencies necessary to become certified and how to sign up for practice testing and examination.

The schedule for upcoming Sharper Skills Seminars is:Improve Your Selling SkillsThursday, February 28, 9 - 11:30 a.m. NRCC New River Valley Mall site, Christiansburg - room 123

MOS Certification: Just the FAQs (Free)Thursday, March 7, 9 - 10:30 a.m.NRCC New River Valley Mall site, Christiansburg - room 133

Getting Started with iPadMonday, March 11, 9 - 11 a.m.NRCC New River Valley Mall site, Christiansburg - room 119

Pivot Tables in ExcelMonday, March 11, 1 - 3 p.m. NRCC New River Valley Mall site, Christiansburg - room 133

Getting Organized with Microsoft OneNoteWednesday, March 13, 1 - 3 p.m. NRCC New River Valley Mall site, Christiansburg - room 127

Customer ServiceWednesday, March 13, 2:30 - 4:30 p.m.NRCC New River Valley Mall site, Christiansburg -