Here’s a sneak preview of five of the critical income-generating new things participants in the Advanced Programming Institute will learn in the big annual LERN Institutes program April 16-19, 2015, in Savannah. The Institutes are being held in the historic district, home to over one hundred blocks of centuries-old original homes, like the one in the photo.
Your top programmer position is one of the most critical positions in your lifelong learning program, demanding high skills and training. Too many programs see programming as routine administration activities. The reality is that your program makes money in only two ways: marketing, and creating new classes and events.
So your programming staff have to literally support other staff in program by creating enough successful new courses and programs to generate the income necessary to keep your program going. Lack of enrollments is the #1 problem in lifelong learning. And training your programming staff is one of the best ways to address lack of enrollments.
Most programs need to rewrite the job description for the top programmer, because current job descriptions are part of the reason why you don’t have enough, or the right kind, of offerings.
And too many programmers are unable to identify their top divisions, the divisions with the lowest cancellation rates, and the divisions with the highest operating margins.
Too many programmers are also not able to do critical thinking about programming, creating new growth areas for your program. Instead, most programmers focus on low dollar courses rather than developing new growth areas that can generate $100,000 or more over three years, the kind of programs your top programmer should be working on.
Here are the top five programming reasons why organizations have low enrollments:
1. No divisional analysis.
Programmers often do not know in what divisions should have more new courses, and which ones should have no new courses.
2. Few new growth areas developed
Programmers often focus on developing single courses, rather than new divisions and new growth areas with the potential to generate $100,000 or more over their first three years.
3. Lack of brainstorming and critical thinking
Programmers often do reactive programming, running courses that are suggested by teachers. Proactive programming involves lots of brainstorming, critical thinking that goes outside of your existing ‘box,’ and research into new growth markets.
4. Staff time misallocated
Programmers often spend way too much time on activities that do not generate new income. A simple rewriting of job descriptions can increase staff productivity and lower stress levels on all staff, without any additional staffing expense for the organization.
5. Not enough new courses.
With programmer staff time misallocated to all sorts of other non-income producing activities, there’s not enough time to develop enough new courses to keep programs on the cutting edge of what your audience wants and needs.
Clearly top programmers have the ability and ‘smarts’ to generate more income for their organizations. All these issues can be solved with professional development in our Advanced Programming Institute. The program offers an optional Certified Programming Professional (C2P) designation to enhance your career and demonstrate your program’s quality to your institutional leaders.
To get more information on the Advanced Programming Institute, just email Tammy at info@lern.org.
