Laker Nation News

Lake Land College is now offering a new business development certificate program focused on entrepreneurial skills. Lake Land College has partnered with Mattoon in Motion to bring this concept to life.

Mattoon in Motion’s business committee, chaired by Rex Barnes, received two state-wide grant competition awards by the Google Impact Challenge program totaling $325,000. The award came after the committee developed the idea of creating an Innovation Center that acts as a “business incubator” for eager entrepreneurs in the Mattoon community and surrounding areas. The Innovation Center will be located in the Cross County Mall in Mattoon and is set to open in mid-October. This will allow prospective business owners to have better access to resources and a solid foundation to develop their business ideas.

Lake Land College is committed to supporting participants of the Innovation Center and encourages members to complete Lake Land’s business development certificate program tuition free.

This program will appeal to many people who have various levels of experience dealing with small business endeavors.

“The program will allow those with prior business knowledge to fill in the gaps of knowledge they might be missing,” Scott Rhine, IT instructor/program coordinator, IT-network administrator, said. “It’s a low-threshold introduction to business curriculum that students can complete at their own pace.”

All courses throughout the first semester are entirely online and interested students can begin the first semester of class on any day of their choice. However, students of the program must finish all courses by the end of semester finals.

“Students set their own pace through the semester. If a student has years of experience in accounting and no experience in marketing, that student can accelerate through the accounting courses quickly and take time through the marketing courses,” Rhine explained. “Eventually all classes will be online. As of now, the only course that is on campus is the second semester management elective, Small Business Management.”

“The collaboration that led to this certificate opportunity has allowed Lake Land College to interact more comprehensively with Mattoon in Motion and the community,” Jim Hull, vice president for workforce solutions/community education, said. “The certificate collaboration will help quality business ideas receive the foundation and support they need to get started.”

For more information about the business development certificate, contact John Carpenter, business instructor and program coordinator, at 217-234-5347 or jcarpent@lakelandcollege.edu.

For more information about the Lake Land College Business Division, go to lakelandcollege.edu/academic-divisions/business-division/.