QuickBooks is the leading accounting software suite. From startups to established enterprises, millions of businesses use Quickbooks to balance their finances, track sales, manage budgets, and get useful financial reports on the state of the business. Anyone looking to break into the accounting or bookkeeping career, or build value in the bookkeeping career path, can benefit from honing their skills using the QuickBooks software. 

Learning QuickBooks could be the first step to a long and prosperous career. Software proficiency in a program as complex and diversely applied as QuickBooks doesn't happen overnight. One of the best ways to improve your prospects as an accountant or bookkeeper is to take a few courses in QuickBooks operations based on the specific digital bookkeeping skills you want to develop. 

Programmers are a diverse bunch, ranging from individuals who taught themselves a single useful coding language because it was helpful as an additional skill to extensively-educated programmers who can seamlessly work in many different programming languages and contexts. In general, however, programmers who want more upward mobility and to stand out among other candidates can add new languages and platforms to their repertoire as a way to grow.

One of the most impressive places to increase your skills is learning app development for the Apple App Store. The coursework needed to learn iOS Mobile Design and Development is surprisingly quick to learn and has many different applications. In a world where everyone from insurance companies to restaurants is trying to get their app designed to command more attention and commitment from their customers, app design and development are a highly applicable set of skills. You learn it through a two-part non-credit course offered at Portland Community College. If you've never considered learning how to code for iOS or build apps for iPhone, consider these applications of this skillset.

Updated March 18, 2022.

Yoga's popularity is undoubtedly spreading. What could have been a fad in the wellness and health industry has become an established practice for millions of people worldwide. It's no wonder studies have linked yoga to a variety of health benefits, from better blood pressure, higher endurance and strength, flexibility, and self-perceived lower stress. Anecdotal evidence has shown that people with various body types and states of wellness can benefit from the many variations of yoga's intentional breathing work, movements, and held poses.

If you're a long-time yoga instructor, you probably understand these benefits for yourself, and you have taken a 200-hour yoga teacher training registered through the Yoga Alliance. However, in pursuing a deepened practice, yoga teachers can take further training, a 300-hour course that prepares them to become registered yoga teachers at the 500-hour level (RYT-500).

Among the many benefits of this programming is training others to be yoga instructors yourself. Here are a few ways this certification can benefit you and teach you how to become certified to train yoga teachers.

More and more, people are turning their efforts to engage with the internet from laptop or desktop web browsers to app-based programs on smartphones and tablets. This shift has made what was already an essential app development field into an even more valuable area of focus. People are creating full-time positions and freelance roles with unprecedented flexibility simply by understanding how to design and code for Apple's iOS.

Whether you're an experienced coder in other contexts or new, a Portland Community College course in Apple iOS can help you jumpstart your career and enter new spaces of app development. Here's how to build iPhone apps using this knowledge!

Anyone actively involved in higher education in the past two years has had a wild ride. From instructors to students to administrators, no one had an easy time making choices, adapting courses, or learning in a new setting. Many prospective students continue to wonder how COVID-19 changed the college experience in 2020 and 2021 and beyond. They are looking to the future and asking, “When the pandemic ends, will school change forever?” 

The past few years have shown us that more education is possible online than anyone ever thought possible. With rapidly expanding tools, professors who are growing in online teaching proficiency, and substantial savings in costs, online education has become an advantageous and valuable option.  

Portland Community College has also seen value in the idea of a local online experience, offering a variety of hybrid courses that are primarily online but with practical or hands-on components here in Portland, Oregon. Whether you're considering online college vs. traditional college or trying to choose between online colleges themselves, you'll be impressed with the options available now. You should also weigh the online college pros and cons to make an informed choice and be ready for the benefits and drawbacks of this kind of program.  

The turbulence of the pandemic has caused a shift in the way we think about work. After the pandemic ends, 26% of employees are planning on switching jobs, 80% of those are doing so out of career advancement concerns, and 38% of workers feel stuck in their careers during the pandemic. That shouldn’t be too surprising since a year prior a worker survey found 58% of those switching jobs were willing to take a pay cut to do so. People want to make changes that aren't just moving within the same field; instead, they require switching industries, responsibilities, and working knowledge altogether.  

The internet is key to so many companies and industries, and every single website has to be created and maintained by someone with knowledge in web design. Learning web design, unlike some other computer-related fields, is incredibly straightforward. After a short course, you can launch a variety of careers in web design. After establishing expertise, web designers can continue learning new programming languages and new elements or software, building your skills to be more versatile and keep up with the times.