Sarasota PC Monitor
Get to Know our Advertisers (12/02)
Goodfriend Computer Training
by Pete Theisen, Assistant Editor
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.Monitor readers have often seen the Goodfriend Computer Training advertisement, and no doubt recognize that this is a place for Computer Training. But where did the name Goodfriend come from? Is there a person named Goodfriend? There is indeed.
Steve Goodfriend is the Director and CEO of Gulfcoast Institute of Technology and Goodfriend Computer Training. He began teaching in Sarasota in 1983, and for 12 years Steve was the Manager of Sales Information Systems at Tropicana in Bradenton. He holds an MBA from the University of Tampa and has spoken at technology conferences across the country. In 1999 the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce named Goodfriend Computer Training "Young Business of the Year". Steve is a Distinguished Toastmaster with Toastmasters International. He is a board member of the American Society for Training and Development, and the Suncoast Technology Alliance.
I visited the Goodfriend Computer Training facility some time ago and found it unlike any school I had ever attended, and I have been attending school most of my life. To begin with, the d?cor and housekeeping are impeccable. Not only that, there is more computer hardware than I have seen anywhere in Sarasota. Goodfriend Computer Training has room after room of PCs, row upon row, probably more PCs than in the old Tech Park. Students don't have to "look on" with their neighbor at this place! Since the classes are limited to 12 students, there is more than one screen per student. You could think of it as sort of "this is what you are doing" on one screen and "this is what you want to do" on the other! There is also a one-on-one instructor opportunity available. The instructors include James Tarala, Ryan McFadden and David Lapides.
You can study online at this school. The web site is <www.GulfcoastIT.net>. Online courses can be had for as little as $3, and there is a free sample online course as well. The formal classroom courses vary from $95 for a single topic course to $2000 for the really involved certification programs. If you attain such a certification, chances are that none of your friends will have it!
This facility also has an ideal location, a couple of doors east of the Fruitville and Honore Publix. If you are hungry before or after your lesson, there are several restaurants right there. If you are low on gas there is a filling station right there, too. You can fill your tank on the way home.
Goodfriend Computer Training teaches computer skills to ordinary folks - you and me. Gulfcoast Institute of Technology is located in the same facility and uses the same equipment and some of the same faculty, but teaches computer professionals the skills they need for Microsoft and other certifications. There are even testing rooms dedicated to giving the certification tests. One of the professional courses has the students taking the computers apart and putting them back together. The computer has to work correctly after the student is done, and there can't be any parts left over!
So, if you find that you need professional computer training, check out the offerings at Gulfcoast Institute of Technology. For more ordinary home computing courses, look at the curriculum of Goodfriend Computer Training. :
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Copyright 2002. This article is from the December 2002 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,300+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
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