In the past, many employees and corporate administrators have sought out Blackstone Career Institute to meet their educational needs. They know that an investment in training is an investment in their future, which will pay off in increased productivity and retention for the organization as well as career advancement for individuals. They have also found that distance education is one of the most convenient and cost-effective methods of delivering training to a diverse and busy workforce.

Now, with the introduction of new corporate rates and the addition of hundreds of new online courses through a partnership with Education to Go, Blackstone Career Institute has even more to offer corporate customers who are seeking to upgrade the skills of their employees in topics ranging from paralegal and allied health studies to business administration and computer fundamentals.

To learn more about Blackstone’s courses in the paralegal and allied health fields, including career diploma programs, visit our corporate training Web site.

For more information about our dozens of six-week online courses in such areas as Microsoft applications, computer programming, project management, accounting and much more, visit our Ed2Go Pro Web site. 

Call us today at 800-826-9228 for more information on corporate rates! 

If you are a health care professional, it’s mandatory that you know the ins and outs of the HIPAA requirements that affect your job and your organization’s operations. Designed for every level of health care employee, Blackstone’s new online course, HIPAA Compliance, provides comprehensive training that will ensure your organization meets all of the requirements.

Focusing on the administrative simplification portion of HIPAA, the course discusses the development and enforcement of the law; the 12 types of electronic transactions covered by HIPAA; the code sets and identifiers used in each of the transactions; and the Privacy and Security rules.

We know that flexibility is important to today’s employees. This instructor-led six-week course offers you the convenience of completing the work at your own pace, from your home or office, at an affordable price. Enrollments start monthly! For more information, visit our Ed2Go Web site. Health care facilities and businesses receive a corporate discount. Call us at 800-826-9228 to learn more. 

According to the 2008 NALA (the National Association of Legal Assistants) National Utilization and Compensation Report, the average annual salary, including bonuses, for a paralegal was $50,953, up from $46,862 in 2004. The survey was based on almost 1500 responses (between October 15, 2007 and February 15, 2008) to a questionnaire that was posted on NALA’s Web site. It reveals a wealth of information about trends in the paralegal field and presents valuable data on the education level and experience of paralegals as well as job duties, billing rates, compensation, firm environment and utilization, and much more.

For example, the top five duties reported by paralegals are as follows:
• Drafting correspondence
• Conducting general, factual research
• Calendaring deadlines
• Assisting with client conference/contact
• Case management

When asked what specialty areas applied to their work, civil litigation was the top specialty area indicated by respondents, followed by corporate, contracts, real estate, personal injury and administrative/government/public.

For students considering the Blackstone paralegal diploma program, it is interesting to note that paralegals whose highest level of paralegal education was a certificate reported a higher average compensation than those who had received associate or bachelor’s degrees in the field.

To view a full report of the data collected, visit the NALA Web site. 

With Internet job searches becoming the norm, your resume may need some tweaking to ensure that it is “e-mail friendly.” Formatting, including basic items such as bullets or boldface, may not translate well when you are asked to submit an electronic resume, either through an online job board or via e-mail. Here are some tips to take your Word-formatted resume and turn it into a plain-text document that is universally acceptable:

• First, if you already have a resume formatted in a word processing program, remove the formatting by choosing the Save As button under the File tab. Save the document as Plain Text or Text Only. In the next dialog box which will automatically open, choose the option to insert line breaks.
• Close the resume and then open the text version in an editing software such as Notepad, WordPad or SimpleText. You will see that the resume will now be free of graphic elements, including fancy fonts, lines and bullets. The text will be flush left.
• When setting up an e-friendly resume, avoid fancy or serif fonts: choose Courier, Arial or Helvetica. Use a 12-point font (smaller fonts won’t scan well) and avoid underlining, boldface, and italics. You can use all capital letters to call attention to headings.
• Instead of bullets, use standard keyboard characters such as asterisks or dashes. Use the space key instead of the tab key to indent.
• Make sure all headings, such as your name and address, appear on separate lines, with a blank line before and after.
• Use keywords: Tracking systems scan resumes for keywords that match the job description. Use these words first since scanners may not view the whole document. Avoid abbreviations. For example, spell out bachelor of science or master of business administration.
• When you have reformatted your resume into a text document, test it out. Paste the resume into the body of the e-mail, rather than sending it as an attachment. E-mail it to yourself as well as friends who may use different Internet service providers. Finally, make adjustments if needed.