I am a strong believer in education and educating oneself. Whether the educational experience be through college, technical school, online courses or self-learning through books. Many professions require continued learning in order to maintain a professional license. While that is not currently the case for VAs, it really is a great idea to continue to learn new things, whether is be a new software program, programming language , or whatever else interests you.

With that being said,I would love to hear what the VAs here have been learning. I think this could possibly be eventually be a great educational resource for other VAs and business owners in general.

Some questions to consider:
Are you going to college? If so, what are you studying?

Are you taking an online course? If so, where and for what?

Are you self-teaching yourself a new skill? if so what?

Finally, what have you taken away the most from your educational experience?

Ok, I will start:

I am currently enrolled in college and I am studying Business Administration. I take courses online and on campus. This semester I took Eng. Comp II and Algebra. What I have taken away from my college experience thus far, is that, if I really apply myself to learning, I can be extremely successful. Even in a course such as Algebra, which I loathe.

I plan on taking an online course over the summer for PHP and/or MySQL.

Ok, who is next?

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Darlene Victoria Gonzalez
The Voice & Vision Behind Your Business

Hey Darlene,

I too am a big believer in education. I think when a person keeps their mind active by reading or learning new things, they keep themselves from getting stale and dull.

Recently, I took a course in copy editing, currently I am working on copywriting and next month I will be taking a course on 'How to become an Author's Assistant.' Of all the things I have recently done, the author's assistant is one I can't wait to get started on.

Once done, I will be able to target my niche market like crazy!

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Joni Snowden
A Novel Space
www.anovelspace.com

I have big educational plans for the future (I'm a constant learner) that involves both college and certifications. However at the moment am learning how to start a business and that's about all I can handle right now.

I'd like to take some entreprenureal courses, but I'm learning everything on my own at the moment. Sub-topics include: How to write a Business Plan, Marketing, taxes and other legal stuff, client relations, HTML, creating logos and other marketing materials...

All of this I'm learning on my own online and MOST of this I'm learning right here.

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase :daisy:

Joni - I would be very interested in learning how to become an author's assistant, where are you taking the course?

Stephanie - This forum is definitely a great resource for VAs. The internet is full of information, it is great you are taking advantage of it!

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Darlene Victoria Gonzalez
The Voice & Vision Behind Your Business

I actually found the info about this after reading this thread here on the forums.

I went to the site mentioned by Mary H. Ruth and realized this was exactly the kind of thing I had been looking for.

In this case timing was everything: I could cover the expense of enrolling, the next class starts sooner rather than later (June vs September) and I had been looking for something to help me target the kind of clientelle I want to eventually work with.

Just perfect.

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Joni Snowden
A Novel Space
www.anovelspace.com

Author Assistance is one of the things I'd be interested in as well. You'll have to let us know how it goes.

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase :daisy:

I too would love to assist author (I have been writing for years) ... I am currently expanding my knowledge of law. I was a legal assistant for years but I only have a Business Admin diploma (great for my VA practice). But a year ago I decided I wanted to be a paralegal ... so I am working on a second diploma part-time. I have 6 courses done and onther 12 to do ...its going to take a couple of years ... but as I proceed I can offer my target market (lawyers) more and more as time goes by.

To add more to the plate I take the odd HR course when I can ... to stay on top. Thats my other niche area and thats where my education is based. That said ... I want to stay on top!

My local tax commission has free business start-up classes that I plan to attend in the next month or so. I am also planning on taking a payroll update class. I have taken these before, but it's been a long time and I like to keep up to date on any major changes.

I also plan to attend a class at the local Metro Tech on PhotoShop.

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Rebecka Melson ~ Virtual Business Services

I just finished an online course through our community college for Photoshop Elements and will starting the Part II of this course next week.

I'm also planning on starting to learn website design and html.

My other goals include learning Adobe Illustrator and more on the elements of graphic design and desktop publishing.

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Kimberly
Facebook Marketing Magic!

Now that tax season is pretty much over I know that H&R Block will be coming out with their tax courses which I plan on taking this year. Other then that I continue to update myself on Excel, and specific bookkeeping for different industries. I also plan on looking into the certification that AIPB offers for bookkeepers.

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Deb Frawley
Gem's Virtual Office