BOMA: A ticket out of the engine room.

In survey after survey employers agree: professional education and development is not only one of our most rapidly growing business sectors, it is also a major determinant in hiring decisions and critical to career success.

As the guardian and administrator of the programs, services and resources that advance the commercial office building industry, education has always been the heart of BOMA/NY. Today, more than 30 years after our founding, it remains our number one goal and highest priority. And as more than one student has remarked--taking a BOMA/NY course and working towards a professional designation such as the Real Property Administrator (RPA), has been the ticket out of the engine room.

Each year and with every advance in our profession and the technology that drives it, we expand and update our educational offerings. This Fall, as we mark our sixth year of offering BOMI designation coursework directly through the BOMA/NY office, we will be offering many of the courses necessary to complete your designations. (In addition to the RPA they are the Systems Maintenance Administrator (SMA), Facilities Management Administrator (FMA) and the Systems Maintenance Technician (SMT).)

Textbooks are always being updated with new information, or the curriculum undergoes improvements such as combining the two heavily, inter-related subjects of risk management and law, as was done this past semester, to enhance understanding of the subject. Through our luncheon speakers program and seminars series, we provide timely updates in a lecture or workshop format that address not only the material being taught in class, but the issues confronted in daily practice.

BOMA/NY seminars also mark the evolution of the industry. Security seminars are now among our most popular as we delve into issues as diverse as retinal scans and other cutting edge technology, to crisis management and the latest techniques for handling bomb and other life-threatening events. Our aging infrastructure has also made the modernization seminars amongst the popular, and our annual Codes & Regs Ssymposium and Energy Awareness Day, held each fall, are "must-attend" events for industry professionals--designation seeking and otherwise.

Since we began offering courses in-house six years ago, there has been a dramatic change in the student body as the designations are now seen as a way not only to get out of the engine room, but move out from behind the secretarial station, as well. Approximately 20% of our student body is now comprised of women and the numbers grow each year.

More than 1,000 students have attended our annual BOMA/NY education programs in the past six years and each year, the number--and the level of achievement--grows. This past Spring at graduation, four students received all four professional designations--a very difficult and laudable achievement, let alone a record for BOMA/NY. Multiple designation graduates continue to increase.

The attractiveness of our educational programs is two-fold: whether one has a related college degree or not, the designations and additional knowledge is recognized by employers as the strongest indication of professional proficiency. And if one does hold a degree, the additional education opens even more doors to professional opportunity.

BOMA/NY has always considered itself a partner to its members, and it is that spirit of partnership that education lies. Providing our members with the best tools possible to make the most of themselves and the most of their careers, makes us a true partner in success.