New TGGD Wiki Resource: T.O. Tech & Design Schools

This is a guest post by Rachel Young

I've added a list of technology and design schools in Toronto to our wiki. Check it out.

I looked for schools that offered more than just MS Office training and specifically looked for those with a wealth of courses in areas such as Web Development, e-Commerce, Networking, Information Technology, Recording Arts, and Graphic Design, as well as accredited certification programs in Cisco, Novell, MCSE, etc.

Here's how this list breaks down:

Community Colleges and Universities
- These post-secondary schools are publically funded and offer fulltime, part-time, and continuing education or professional development programs. Many programs offer a rounded education that include more supplimentary courses (usually listed as electives) than the specific objective of a degree, diploma, or certificate.

Career Colleges and Trade Schools
- These institutions are governed by the Private Career Colleges Act and differ from the more common colleges and universities because they prepare students for a specific job or gives them specific skills. Programs offered at a private college or career college may be condensed to deliver training over a shorter period of time, and can be taken as fulltime, part-time, or professional development studies.

Professional Development
- This section is meant for contracted study through off the shelf or custom instructional design. Corporate training companies and new media centres offer a range courses, often without the prerequisites in place at the first two sections, ideal for those who want intensive training on something very specific or for companies to train larger groups of employees at once.

Online Studies
- If location or scheduling are issues then perhaps self-paced and distance study would be more appropriate. Many colleges and universities offer full programs online, and since there are so many this is the short list of resources to find the schools and programs offered online.

Taking classes in these schools is a great way to meet new people in your field while you learn something new or keep your skills up to date.

Happy learning!

March TGGD with Michal Berman founder of EmbarkOnIt

Hello to all Toronto Girl Geeks! Registration for our second Toronto Girl Geek Dinner of 2009 is open at our new place at Meetup.com! Sign up now.

11th TGGD with Michal Berman
Fionn MacCool's
Adelaide & University (181 University Ave.)
Toronto
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009, 7 pm

Our speaker is Michal (Mic) Berman, founder of EmbarkOnIt.

Mic will share her experiences and perspectives:

• strategies and tips for start-ups and entrepreneurs
• lessons learned from two web giants (Yahoo!, Mozilla)
• how companies can do more with less

Please take a couple of seconds and vote on our poll at Meetup.com to let Mic know which themes appeal to you the most.

About our Speaker

Michal Berman is dedicated to fostering successful entrepreneurship in Canada. She began her career with McKinsey & Company, after spending a super almost 4 years there, she started her first company, B‐Innovative, Inc., building software for clients like Bell Canada. B‐Innovative grew to launch several Enterprise Performance based software products and then was sold to itemus, an Incubator founded in 2000. She joined itemus as part of the deal as their Chief of Staff responsible for product synergy across our investments.

After itemus, she launched Avatar, a peer to peer knowledge discovery tool (think StumbleUpon+IM+Facebook). CGI was interested in the technology and so she took a deal to develop the product further within the Telecom space while working for CGI. Following that, Michal worked for Yahoo as Head of Products to re‐build their Canadian operations. Next, she worked with Mozilla to launch Firefox in many more languages and now as part of the founding team of Embarkonit.com enabling companies to achieve more with less.

photo: Michal Berman by Will Pate

Meetup.com, Our Wiki and Sponsors Needed

We've migrated registrations for this month's event to Meetup.com. With over 300 Toronto Girl Geeks in our community (and more coming out to each event), I was finding managing registrations on our wiki a tad unwieldy. Meetup.com should help us manage better. As always, I'd love your thoughts and feedback.

Don't get me wrong. I still love our wiki. In fact, Rachel Young just built out a job resource page for us. I'm confident we'll continue to use our wiki for collaborative projects and sharing.

Your organizers are on the hunt for a sponsor for this event. Sponsorship of TGGD is very reasonable and keeps our events accessible to everyone. Details about sponsorship are available on the wiki. Please drop us a line if you're interested.

TGGD Job Resource Board

This is a guest post by Rachel Young

After a TGGD a few months ago some of us were chatting about projects to implement for the community. One of them was a job board for girl geeks, and given the economic climate we're facing, this is a good time to launch a list.

I've added the Toronto Girl Geek Job Resource Board to the wiki. It is a list of job search sites and other resources to help you find the perfect job. While there are some well known job sites listed, these are typically not just classified listings. As well, this list is not meant to advertise for recruiters. As a starting point I wanted to keep this strictly to where you can find a job now to guide your career in the appropriate direction.

Here's how it breaks down:

Tech/New Media jobs
- we meet once a month because we all have one thing in common: we're geeks

Other industries
- your dream job could be found in any industry

General job listings
- a short list of the more common general job search sites

Twitter feeds for tech jobs
- find a job in your field in under 140characters

Job search resources
- tips and guidance for job hunting, as well as a link to an extensive list of upcoming career fairs

This list is always evolving as great new services become available. Maybe you have some you'd like to add?

All the best in your job search!