Extracts from 'Los Angeles Times' Article.

Reprogramming Yourself
Keeping abreast of technology is vital in ever-changing workplaces

By KEN CASTLE
For Special Advertising Sections

Whether it’s medicine or movie-making, sales or accounting, companies are more inclined to emphasize teamwork, said Burruss. That means understanding a broad range of procedures and applications, and being able to collaborate with your co-workers.

Your boss might ask you to prepare a PowerPoint presentation, transfer the annual report to a CD-ROM, change text or images on the company Web site, prepare your department’s budget on an Excel spreadsheet, launch an on-line procurement system, or e-mail digital images to a client.

“Repurposing information and content is a big deal,” said Burruss, “and digital literacy is now a vital skill.”

For those in the workforce, as well as those who are between jobs, taking courses in computer software programs and applications is time well spent that might lead to advancements or even lucrative career changes.

Victor Dawahare, for example, was a rock ’n’ roll musician who played guitar in various Hollywood bands, gigging from one nightclub to another. But as the Temple City man got older, doctors told him that the constant loud music was damaging his ears. In fact, his condition worsened to the point that he became hypersensitive to sound. Eight years ago, he had to quit his music career.

So Dawahare fell back on the only other avocation that he had pursued in college — art — and signed up for computer graphics classes.

After six semesters of courses, Dawahare, who is 43 and has a family with two children, is now a full-time graphics designer, making much more than his hardscrabble income as a musician, he said. Who are his major clients? Record labels that produce rock albums.

For most companies, the basic office skills that are now practically requisites for getting and keeping a job are the “Big Four” software programs of Microsoft Word (a word-processing program), Excel, PowerPoint and Windows (a widely used computer operating system), according to Kevin Haiem, founder and president of CompuMatix, a small Los Angeles company that was started in 1989.

(Some academicians would substitute Access, a database program, for PowerPoint.)

CompuMatix offers eight-, 16- and 32-hour classes. Starting every two weeks, the classes are available mornings, evenings and Saturdays to accommodate various people’s schedules. Prices range from $100 for an eight-hour course to $600 for a 96-hour package that covers the Big Four.

Haiem said that while his classes may be more expensive than those offered through colleges and electronics retailers, his ratio of seven students to one teacher ensures that enrollees will get a fair amount of individual instruction. CompuMatix also provides students with handy notes — instead of lengthy instruction manuals — that can be used as crib sheets for on-the-job reference.

Most of Haiem’s students are over 35, and about a third are in management positions, he said.

Although some companies will pay for the extra training, about three-fourths of the students come on their own volition at their own expense, Haiem said.

Given the strains on the economy, businesses are now less likely to call in outside consultants to do on-site instruction, although CompuMatix will still provide that service if requested, Haiem said.

Jennifer Blaney, purchasing coordinator with the regional office of a major American hotel chain, credits her instruction with CompuMatix in helping her land her current position.

“Three years ago I was laid off by a food distributor, and I didn’t know anything about computers,” said the Studio City woman. “So I took courses in Word, Access and Excel. I’m now helping to implement a new electronic procurement system that allows all of our properties to make their purchases on-line.”

That’s a major operational change — one that will require many hotel managers, from chefs to general managers, to become more computer-savvy, she said.

Haiem said that supervisors often lag behind the technology trends.

“They’ve always had someone else overseeing these things, but now they realize that they’d better understand what their employees are doing or they might be out of a job,” he added.

Other computer programs in demand are QuickBooks for bookkeepers, and the many-faceted planning and communication program of Outlook. For Web-oriented and graphics professionals, the hot programs are Dreamweaver and Flash, adding to basics such as Adobe Illustrator and PageMaker, Photoshop and QuarkXPress, according to local computer instructors.

Courses at community colleges are among the least expensive: from $11 a unit for average three-unit, full-semester programs. However, the class sizes may be as large as 35 students per instructor.

Talk to people who have made the commitment to even modest amounts of technology training, and you begin to realize that this has given them new energy and higher-paying positions.

“I feel a lot more confident,” said Stephanie Clayton of Pasadena, who works for a Los Angeles architectural and engineering firm and took beginning Access and intermediate Excel classes at CompuMatix.

“In my company, I went from just answering phones to doing project planning and implementation,” she said. “My work is more interesting than ever, and I’m convinced that my new knowledge base will help me get more promotions.”

Ken Castle is a freelance writer based in Burlingame.