New CI certificate programs

[Craig S. Fleisher]

I'd like to use this forum to help create awareness of new, or recent, announcements of CI education programs. One I'd like to highlight is the SLA-sponsored one in their Click University format. You can read about this one at: http://sla.learn.com/learncenter.asp?id=178409 (or go straight to the SLA site and click on their Home Learn center programs.

Has anyone taken these? What are their thoughts? How do they compare with the programs offered by SCIP? ICI? ACI? Your university? Should this program be the foundational one for training in CI?

[Ellen Naylor]

Hi,

I just noticed this thread and do know that the CI program at SLA has been well received. Cynthia Cheng Correia was the instigator and trainer, and has teaching experience at Simmons college in CI, Knowledge Management and the like. She has geared the classes to help bring information professionals, the key target at SLA, into the CI world. That's the biggest difference I see: most CI members are not library sciences professionals, but come at CI from their various backgrounds of academia, sales, marketing, strategic planning and the like. Our SCIP-backed certification would need to go deeper in CI tools, techniques, counterintelligence and the like than the SLA program does. Also I envision that in order to be SCIP certified, you will have to pass an exam. That is not the case in the SLA program: there is no test at the end, so the focus is more about education than certification.

I can share a lot more off line if you would like as I was on SCIP's BOK committee and have some more insight as to what the 300 responses tell us.

Happy New Year!

[Nimalan]

Hi,

After going through multiple websites, forums and talking to people, I find that there are no University programs focused on CI per se. Most of the universities have CI as an elective (schools like the Leicester Business school are ofcourse exceptions) and more often these seem to be very basic introductions to CI. Only the certificate programs seem to be targeted at people with industry / CI experience. But they do not ofcourse grant a degree and the certification as Ms.Wright points out may not be valid globally.

I guess most of the members of this group are from the world of academia as well and would be aware of courses such as on advanced CI which I might have missed. Also the so called "top ranked" universities do not seem to offer CI even in their electives...!! I

[Ellen Naylor]

You are right. Most schools do not offer CI courses which is a source of frustration to many of us in the profession. There is one college I know of in the US that offers both an undergraduate and graduate degree in intelligence, Mercyhurst College. About 80% of the graduates take jobs working for the CIA, FBI and NSA and they do accept foreign students. You might want to check them out if you haven't already: http://www.mercyhurst.edu/academics/programs/undergraduate/intellig.... There are links to the faculty so you can find out all you want to know!

[Nimalan]

Thanks Ellen.

I was not aware of this program. Thanks for bringing it to my notice. Will check them out!

[Jeff]

There is another program offered via distance education from the United States and that is American Military University's, which is an accredited (member institution of the American Public University System which is regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association and nationally accredited by the Accrediting Commission, Distance Education and Training Council) university that was originally created to meet the needs of military servicemen and women stationed around the world, and so focuses on distance learning. They offer undergraduate and graduate levels of CI courses. The focus is, as you might expect, on the military, but the CI programs are aimed more at business and civilians. Anyways, here's their website:
http://www.amu.apus.edu/intelligence in general and the Master's
http://www.amu.apus.edu/Catalog/08/graduate/degree/master/intellige... specifically.
One of the good things about this school is that they do not charge you any extra for being out of state, or out of the US. You pay what everybody else pays, in US $$. No markup for international students.

[Nimalan]

Thanks Jeff.

I did check out this during my search but then did not pursue it further as it was through distance education.

I was looking at classroom courses only.. but I guess I'll consider these programs too.

Thanks again!

[Jeff]

Hi Nimalan,

This isn't a course, but you still might find it useful. It's a kind of "how to do it" guide on Competitive Intelligence on the Government of Canada ' Ministry of Industry (Industry Canada) website. If you haven't already seen it, here it is:

It has a lot of links in it, and is actually longer than it appears. Might be of interest, anyway

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/dir-ect.nsf/eng/h_uw00499.html

[Nimalan]

I came across one more course on Intelligence studies. The college of Intelligence Studies in Australia (http://www.intelligencecollege.com/college/). I however have no clue on the program and how relevant it would be for CI - though I picked this up on their website -

"The courses are offered across a wide spectrum of intelligence techniques and practice, including our unique and renowned programs in Strategic Intelligence & Analysis for government, enforcement and industry."

Anyone aware of this / taken up a course here? How would this compare to other programs (ACI / ICI)?

Nimalan