Year in review

We’re off to a great start to 2010 at the aQuire offices! If you would, indulge me in a quick look back at 2009:

• We finished the December 31 deadline for additional content for our online CNA course on – you guessed it – December 31st! Funny how artificial deadlines come and go but the real deal somehow gets met. We also ended the year with a great influx of new training partners who provide the lab and clinical components of this online CNA training course: hospitals, private career schools, community colleges and nursing facilities. We achieved some great community partnerships, too, enabling unemployed individuals living in remote, rural areas to get their CNA training, the first step to a career in nursing.
• Our in-home care component has become one of our busiest business units yet. The growth of this phase of care is simply phenomenal. Fortunately, most providers know how vital it is to send only well-trained caregivers into the homes of their clients.
• We officially launched our own licensed online private career school, the Institute for Professional Care Education (IPCed). While we currently only offer a Certification in Marketing and Sales in Health and Senior Care and our Personal Care Aide Certification, many more programs are in development. We’re very excited about the coming year, especially about creating Personal Care Aide Certification programs that mirror our online CNA program, with community partnerships for skills and work experience components.
• EasyCEU.com, our professional continuing education website, continued to grow even as the economy didn’t. We heard from many, many administrators that having an affordable, accessible option simply saved their license this year – and that’s nice to hear!
• aQuire’s staff training program grew significantly as more and more assisted living providers joined in the technology revolution. I received an email just today from an assisted living caregiver who had just finished her first ever online course. She was so impressed, and enjoyed the course so much she took the time to write a thank you email. I know what kind of an effort this was for this individual; my profound thanks went back to her for that simple, but highly meaningful act.

In 2010 we will see many new partnerships that will open doors of learning and career growth to many, many people across the globe. We’ll see our school in Fiji continue to grow; and expand our reach throughout the US.

Personally, I’m looking forward to an excellent new adventure, helping create a new family caregiving resource site along with a high-powered team based out of New York City. I’ve grown to love visiting Manhattan (especially the food), and am truly honored to be a part of this very exciting project.

I’ll keep you posted with my journey in the coming year if you’ll do the same. Drop me an email and let me know what’s new – and exciting – with your company. We might as well keep each other company while we head into a new year – whatever it may bring!