Academics

OFFICE ASSISTANT COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Diploma Program
Program Description & Job Opportunities
Course Listings
Course Descriptions

AC106 ACCOUNTING FOR SMALL BUSINESS I (2.0 credits/36 clock hours)
An introductory course in accounting, the purpose of which is to acquaint the students with the relationship between accounting and business and to define basic accounting terminology. This course introduces the students to the following: double-entry accounting, journalizing and posting entries, combination journals, work at the end of the fiscal period, preparing financial statements, and adjusting and closing entries. Prerequisite: None.

AC107 ACCOUNTING FOR SMALL BUSINESS II (2.0 credits/36 clock hours)
Accounting for Small Business II expands on the groundwork laid in Accounting for Small Business I. The major emphasis of the course is on the actual basis of accounting as it applies to a merchandising enterprise. Topics covered include purchases and payments for merchandise, sales and collections for merchandise, accounting for cash, payroll, worksheets, financial statements, adjusting, closing and reversing entries. Prerequisite: Accounting for Small Business I with a minimum grade of C-.

WP205 ADVANCED WORD PROCESSING (3.0 credits/60 clock hours)
This course is designed to further the student’s knowledge of the current version of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Windows. Students learn advanced features such as macros, electronic forms, and document collaboration. The course includes integrating Word and Excel. Prerequisite: Word Processing.

LE115 BUSINESS LAW (2.0 credits/36 clock hours)
Provides the student with a basic understanding of the principles of law and its application to business. The student is introduced to the definition of law, why and how government regulates business, and the aspects of contracts and their relationship of law. Review of legal principles in the areas of business, contracts, and individual rights in business are discussed. Discussion will revolve around how business and law work and how law benefits the business organization and the consumer. Prerequisite: None.

CP114 COMPUTER FUNDAMENTALS (3.0 credits/60 clock hours)
This course in operating systems is designed to introduce students to the terminology and concepts that are required for computer literacy and for future computer related courses. Topics to be covered include hardware, software, DOS, Microsoft Windows, and a brief history of computers. Prerequisite: None.

SS207 EDITING & PROOFREADING (1.0 credit/24 clock hours)
This course is designed to further develop the student’s ability to edit and proofread accurately and to use traditional proofreading symbols correctly in order to produce business communications in mailable form. Prerequisites: Keyboarding I and II, Word Processing, and English I and II.

EN101 ENGLISH I (3.0 credits/60 clock hours)
Students will learn the current practices of effective oral and written communication skills necessary for success in business and industry. Prerequisite: None.

GE127 ENGLISH II (3.0 credits/60 clock hours)
Students will continue studying and practicing the four bases of writing (unity, support, coherence, correctness). Students will write paragraphs, essays, summaries of short articles, continue to write in their journals, and a write a research paper. Prerequisite: English I.

GE135 ENGLISH III (3.0 credits/60 clock hours)
In order to prepare them to be successful writers of business correspondence, students will, via individual and group practice, apply the skills learned two writing effective business messages. Students are required to develop and implement a plan of action for composing memos and letters for typical business situations. Additionally, students will prepare a resume, letter of application, and a thank-you letter. Prerequisites: English I and II.

GE141 INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS MATH (2.0 credits/36 clock hours)
This course is designed to refresh the student’s knowledge of math fundamentals and to apply these fundamentals in business and everyday life. The concepts covered are a review of decimals and fractions, bank reconciliation, percentages, payroll, cash and trade discounts, and related areas. Prerequisite: None.

CD204 JOB SEARCH SKILLS (1.0 credit/24 clock hours)
This course instructs students in job seeking skills. Topics such as informational interviewing resume development, application completion and job interviewing will be covered. Students will identify work and personal skills, role-play mock interviews using the video camera, and start to develop a list of prospective employers for which they would like to work. Prerequisite: None.

KE101 KEYBOARDING I & LAB (3.0 credits/60 clock hours)
This course is designed to teach the student correct keyboarding techniques and to help the student operate the letters, numbers, and symbols keys. Introduction to letters, memorandums, centering, tabulation, simple reports, word division, and business forms are stressed. This class will also provide time for students to increase their speed and accuracy through drill work and timed writings. Prerequisite: None.

KE143 KEYBOARDING II (2.0 credits/56 clock hours)
The Keyboarding II class will reinforce the format for letters, memorandums and reports, itineraries, agenda, minutes, and press releases, and further develop speed and accuracy on timed writings. Production tests will be taken to develop speed and accuracy on business documents. Prerequisite: A grade of "C" or better in Keyboarding I and Lab.

KE144 KEYBOARDING II LAB (1.0 credit/28 clock hours)
This course is designed to build speed and accuracy by providing extra time to work on drill work and timed writings. Prerequisite: A grade of "C" or better in Keyboarding I and Lab.

SS106 OFFICE PRACTICE (3.0 credits/60 clock hours)
This course is designed to give the student a broad overview of the secretarial profession and its expectations through work assignment projects, lectures, field trips and demonstrations. Areas covered will be the role of the secretary, public relations, preparing final documents, processing incoming communications, composing assignments, outgoing communications, reprographics, communication systems and services, travel arrangements, and meetings. Prerequisites: English I, Keyboarding I and Records Management.

AC109 PAYROLL ACCOUNTING (2.0 credits/48 clock hours)
Payroll accounting introduces the student to the history of employment laws in the United States, the requirements for maintaining employees’ payroll records, the computations necessary to determine proper wages and appropriate tax withholdings, the procedures for remitting the taxes, and the employer’s responsibilities for reporting payroll information to the various governmental agencies. Current Federal and Pennsylvania requirements will be discussed. In addition, the student will be exposed to an overview of the process necessary to record payroll transactions in a manual and computerized payroll system. Prerequisites: Accounting I or Accounting for Small Business I, and Business Math I or Mathematics.

PD119 PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT (1.0 credit/24 clock hours)
This course is designed to explore the fundamental building blocks to a student’s success in school and ultimate success in the workplace. The focus is on building success through goal setting, motivation, personal responsibility, self-discovery, and change. Prerequisite: None.

SS101 RECORDS MANAGEMENT (1.0 credit/24 clock hours)
This course teaches the fundamentals of filing through a series of instructions, exercises and quizzes. Using a practice file kit, the student will apply correct procedures for filing records. Alphabetic, numeric, correspondence, subject, and geographic systems will be used in accordance with the popular ARMA rules. Prerequisite: None.

CP104 SPREADSHEETS (3.0 credits/60 clock hours)
This course uses a problem-solving approach to teach spreadsheet functions. The student will be introduced to beginning and intermediate level spreadsheet functions that will be used for creating, manipulating and enhancing a worksheet, for creating graphics based on the worksheet, enhancing a worksheet, integrating worksheets, and graphics. Prerequisite: Computer Fundamentals or Introduction to Computing(Accelerated).

SS103 TELEPHONE & RECEPTIONIST TECHNIQUES (1.0 credit/24 clock hours)
This course is designed to give the student formal training on how to answer the telephone professionally and greet the office visitor in a businesslike manner. Prerequisite: None.

KE115 TRANSCRIPTION (1.5 credits/30 clock hours)
This course stresses aural communications correctly transcribed into mailable business letters. Prerequisite: Keyboarding I, Word Processing. WP202 WORD PROCESSING (3.0 credits/60 clock hours)
This course is designed to provide students with the basic understanding of word processing keyboarding applications, concepts, and terminology. The purpose of the course is to develop an ability to use the current version of Microsoft Word for both professional use (simple business correspondence) and for personal use (report writing). Prerequisite: Keyboarding I & Lab or exemption.