The American Samoa Community College (ASCC) takes pride in collaborating with the Territory’s public and private sectors in their efforts to raise their level of internal effectiveness and public service. Towards this goal, the College offers a variety of professional development trainings, which range in content from technical instruction to workshops on best management practices. The most recent collaboration between ASCC and the private sector has been a series of workforce professional development trainings provided for staff members of BlueSky Communications and conducted by Mr. Ernie Seiuli, chairman of the College’s Computer Science Department.

In consultation with BlueSky, Seiuli formulated the training to accommodate the specific needs of the company, covering computer application skills, such as Intermediate/Advanced Excel, and their effective use in the working environment. Trainees include staff from BlueSky’s customer service, marketing, finance, and administration departments. “Application of the course content will assist the trainees in many ways,” said Seiuli. “They will be able to effectively and expediently collect data, create real-time reports, and assist higher management with marketing, to give just a few examples.”

With a number of different areas to cover, three separate training sessions were scheduled. The first commenced in early May, followed by a break before the second later in the month. The third session began in early June and will conclude this week. Each session took place for three hours a day for a full week, in order to fulfill 15 contact hours, a standard established by ASCC for its professional development trainings. Each BlueSky employee who attended one or more of the trainings will receive a Certificate of Completion.

Instructing employed professionals over the last few months gave Seiuli an opportunity to compare their learning style to that of regular students. “The BlueSky staff connected immediately with the course content because it was geared specifically towards their company,” he observed. “However, I would still say their level of computer skills was advanced compared to the average student.” Seiuli noted that the general knowledge of computers and their associated technology varies greatly among the Territory’s people, whether young or old. “Some students are absolute beginners,” he reflected, “but we also get some who already know their way around computers and require very little supervision.”

Seiuli said that he and his colleagues can easily formulate professional development trainings which cover advanced material, as they did for BlueSky, or which focus on more basic material aligned with their Introduction to Computers (ICT 150) course, designed to familiarize students with the hardware and software components of microcomputer systems, basic network commands, fundamentals of email, navigating the internet, word processing, Spreadsheet or Excel, and presentation graphics.

For assistance throughout the BlueSky training, Seiuli acknowledged Mr. Victor Ualesi from the ASCC Academic Affairs Office.  For helping to make the training a success, he also thanked ASCC President Dr. Rosevonne Makaiwi-Pato and Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs Mrs. Letupu Moananu. He also acknowledged Mr. Sonny Leomiti, Director of the College’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness, and his staff. At BlueSky, Seiuli expressed his gratitude to Mr. Raj Deo, Country Manager, and Mrs. Lisa Gebauer, Human Resources Director. For more information on the professional development trainings offered by ASCC, call the College at 699-9155 and ask for the Office of the President.