North Central Health District employee Regina Andrews attends the first pilot session of remote computer training at her desk in Macon.

On Aug. 23, North Central Health District employee, Regina Andrews attended an Excel Formulas & Functions class from her desk in Macon while Lisa Miller instructed the class from the 2 Peachtree computer lab in Atlanta, initiating the first pilot session of remote computer training for Microsoft classes.

After two successful pilot sessions and feedback such as "The training was almost as good as having Lisa in the room," remote computer training was officially launched in September and is available to all non-Atlanta public health employees.

"The feedback back for the remote training has been better than expected. I'm excited that amongst all the budget cuts, leadership has decided not to cut training for our employees," said Lisa Miller, Microsoft computer instructor. "And this tool makes the training that has been mostly only available to Atlanta employees available to everyone state-wide without incurring travel costs."

Janet Eberhart, Northwest Health District nurse, said the training has helped her immensely.

"Being a nurse, you don't get much training with Microsoft Word or Excel even though you find that you need to use it in your job.  Having the opportunity to take a course remotely from my district office makes it possible for me to get the needed training... to expand my training knowledge on those Office computer programs. It has been very beneficial not to have to travel to get this much needed training,"

To register for the remote training computer classes: log on to SABA, click "Browse by Category", and then select "Virtual." When you see the class you want to attend, click the "Register" link to the right.

-Story by Lisa Miller, Division of Operations