April 5, 2010
Power Learner Excels Using eCornell
 |
ACDI/VOCA’s Rang Kalameard thought staying in Iraq might slow his pursuit of higher education. In fact, online classes through eCornell University have allowed Kalameard to pursue new skills and learning at a breakneck speed.
“Many businesses and organizations are growing quickly and face different kinds of transitional and staff challenges in Iraq today,” Kalameard says. “At ACDI/VOCA, our local offices face many of these same issues, and it’s been a great help to me to be able to learn new ways of looking at problems and designing solutions for the team.”
Kalameard has completed 32 classes through eCornell, and under the guidance of Cornell University professors, Kalameard has earned all five of the available certificates in the human resources track:
- Strategic Human Resources Practices
- Systems and Processes in Human Resources
- Human Resources Practices
- Human Resources: Benefits and Compensation
- Human Resources: Performance Management
These types of trainings also are part of how ACDI/VOCA builds local capacity through local projects and hires. ACDI/VOCA’s employees in Iraq have completed 80 courses over the past year, earning nearly 20 professional certificates through Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Through its membership with LINGOS-Learning for International NGOs, ACDI/VOCA offers its employees a package of high quality and globally accessible learning resources, including access to Cornell.
“Our field staff, spread over 45 countries, is hungry for learning and career development opportunities,” says John Leary, ACDI/VOCA’s director of training. “They have dedicated their lives to helping others less fortunate, and so it is particularly satisfying for me to be able to provide them with the best distance education resources available.”
Kalameard concurs: “Throughout my career I have sought opportunities for post-graduate education, both inside and outside of Iraq,” he says. “Unfortunately, many circumstances, including the conditions that followed the events in Iraq in 2003, prevented that from happening.
“But that has all changed.”
