Lehigh Carbon Community College’s Center for Leadership and Workforce Development.

The Lehigh Carbon Community College’s Center for Leadership and Workforce Development is launching two new programs aimed at strengthening the business environment of the Lehigh Valley and the state of Pennsylvania.

They include a new assessment for businesses that helps with the creation of a cohesive and effective workforce team, and a new three-day course called “Introduction to Business Analysis.”

Business analysis involves understanding and defining capabilities needed to provide products and services to business stakeholders. The goal is to ensure projects are done on time, on budget, and within the defined project scope.

“Budget analysis makes sure that you’re doing the correct projects and that they meet a true business and client need,” said Tom Bux, director of the Center for Leadership and Workforce Development. “In most projects, project managers end up working for the business analyst, and this gives them the tools to work with the project managers so they can ensure they have what they need to have a successful project.”

In the course, students will discuss fundamental business analysis concepts, distinguish between the roles of a business analyst and project manager, describe how business analysts manages issues within a project, and discuss how business analysts work with stakeholders to identify their needs.

Bux said the course is new to the Center for Leadership and Workforce Development because the business analyst profession is fairly new itself, having existed for less than a decade. The course helps prepare for a certification exam, administered separately from the course by an outside institution.

The course will be held at the LCCC main campus in Schnecksville on April 7, 14 and 21, running 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Enrollment costs $635 per person, but is reduced to $595 if a student registers before March 15.

Tom Bux

Online registration for the course can be found at this link.

The new business assessment, called the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, helps a team understand how they score on key components of the Five Behaviors model: trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results.

The assessment also helps each individual on a team understand their own personality style and how that style contributes to the team’s overall success. The result is a productive, high-functioning team that makes better decisions more quickly, taps into the skills and opinions of its members, avoids conflict and wasted time, and creates a competitive advantage.

“It gives you an idea how people like to communicate, receive information and interact,” Bux said. “You do the assessment, it determines everybody’s style, and uses that information to assess who you are and how you work as a team.”

The assessment costs $115 per person, and includes a corresponding facilitated workshop to break down the results of the assessment and give the teams tools to improve them, Bux said.

For more information about these new programs, visit the Center for Leadership and Workforce Development website, or contact Bux at 610-799-1961 or tbux@lccc.edu. The center offers a multitude of other programs and courses, including such areas as leadership training, advanced manufacturing technology, computer software training, health and safety and custom workshops.