Do you feel stuck in your career? A lot of people do – and the best way to get yourself “unstuck” is fairly easy: More Education.

The term “easy” is relative, though, as I’m sure you’re aware. Education might be something you control (unlike talent, for example, which you either have or you don’t), but if you’re trying to find a job asap, it might seem as though both time and money are standing in your way. No matter what your situation, however, more education is possible.  You just might have to think outside the box a little. Here’s how to get more education, even if you’re short on time and money, so you can advance to a better job or even a new career:

• Don’t overlook the power of short training programs. You might not get a degree if you spend a weekend at an educational conference or complete and online course, but these things still make you a stronger job candidate.
• Consider online degree programs. They’re usually cheaper and because your schedule will be more flexible than at a campus program, you can take classes even as you’re still working a full-time job or raising a family.
• Apply for scholarships and grants. If you do your research, you can go to school for little out-of-pocket money. Start with the Pell Grant and also check with local organizations, businesses, and groups that might offer financial aid for students.

Are you already working in a career you love, but are just unhappy with your place on the job ladder? Talk to your employer. Some employers will offer tuition reimbursement for employees who want more education and commit to working with the company after receiving their degree. If that’s not possible, you can also as your employer to provide more employee training by bringing in experts in the field just for a day or even an afternoon. Many employers are happy to at least consider helping you get more education in the field if you approach them!

Whether it’s because of the economy or just because you are looking for new challenges, reentering the work force after several months or years at home with your children can present a lot of challenges.

How do you appeal to employers who want candidates with up-to-date skills and fresh experience? Can you compete with other candidates who just graduated from college and have all the latest research at their fingertips?

Believe it or not, the answer is Yes! Even after 10 years out of the workforce, you can jump back in as long as you know how to package yourself and your experiences. Here are some things to consider:

1. Networking is key. How often do we talk about networking on this blog? Constantly, right?! And we’re always saying how important it is and that something like 60 percent or more of the jobs out there aren’t even advertised. Well, as important as word of mouth is to the average job seeker, it’s even more important to stay-at-home parents looking to reenter the work force. These job networking connections may well make the difference for you between a first response of “too old, out of the loop” and a reaction of “you know what? let’s take a second look”. Dust off your rolodex and start calling people. Contact old employers and colleagues, but also take a look at the carpool pickup lane – who do you know now that might be of assistance to you as you build your future?

2. Volunteer Your Time

Another great way to expand your work-free resume and develop more networking contacts (see #1) is to volunteer your time at a local or national non-profit organization. When you work for a nonprofit, you will be able to strengthen your leadership, organization, administrative, fundraising, management and other types of work-related skills within a professional environment.

3. Make a Functional Resume

Consider seven things you have accomplished in your adult life. Write a short paragraph about what you did in each scenario. Then translate each of these paragraph into a list of action verbs. From among those lists, you will sense a number of themes – leadership, organization, personnel management, interpersonal communication, etc. A functional resume uses those themes as the organizing principles. After your name and contact information, make a list of each of those qualities, with one line of description about how you define that quality. Under each quality, make a bulleted list of experiences through which you developed those skills.

For more information on how to develop your functional resume, read the quintessential career guide, What Color Is Your Parachute.

4. Consider Working From Home

Whether as a way to build up your resume for your “real job” or as the real job itself, working from home as a freelancer is a great way to transition back into the work force. If you have writing skills, you can work as a freelance writer or blogger. If you are crafty, you can sell your works on etsy. If you are a bargain shopper, you can leverage your good deals by reselling on eBay. If you have great typing skills, you can work in transcriptions or medical records. Find out more about work from home jobs here.

Have you made the transition from being a stay-at-home parent to working a full time job? What tips and advice do you have to share? Post in the comments section!

Summertime is barely halfway through and already the stores are advertising sales for back to school supplies. When I was a kid we got the requisite new shoes in July, because that’s when the shoe store in our town put them on sale.

But pens and notebooks? Not until Labor Day weekend. Now it seems to take six weeks just to go from store to store comparing prices on folders. Yuck. What a way to spend the glorious days of summer.

Still, it does make me think. I’ve been wondering about the amount of time we spend as a culture consuming the education experience, as opposed to actually learning things. We seem to knock ourselves silly buying supplies and outfits, shopping for colleges, arranging loans, and decking out dorm rooms. But do we put as much effort into absorbing information as we do setting the stage?

More to the point, have we turned the learning experience into a consumable product, rather than a personal process of synthesizing knowledge? The answer matters on several levels. First, if we allocate learning to a formal (expensive) setting, we disallow a huge segment of the population from accessing it. Never mind about student loans for college or grants – not everyone has the time or the temperament for a classroom setting, even online.

Another reason the answer matters is a simple human tendency toward procrastination, and taking the easiest path. If learning is relegated to formal programs, most adults will find reasons to delay the process indefinitely. The concept of sifting through the course offerings, finding a way to pay, finding a way to fit the schedule, and actually showing up and doing the work can all be overwhelming.

What if we returned to an earlier era when people learned the things that mattered to them, with or without a classroom setting? Want to learn Spanish? You could take a class for that, but you could also find a tutor, volunteer in a Spanish nonprofit, buy some tapes or even just commit yourself to watching Spanish television. What about writing, or giving speeches, or building cabinets, or fixing bikes, or cooking Thai food? These are a few of the hundreds of skills you could learn on your own, with little or no cost or schedule hassles.

The ball’s in your court: Are you learning anything new these days? If not, why not? And when will you start?

I know, I know, your mother always told you to put down your video game controls and pick up your text books. I think the refrain went something like this, “Playing those *&%^ games isn’t going to pay the bills, young man!”

Well guess what, Mom? There is actually a whole profession that earns their living from those *&%^ games! And I’m thinking for those of you who are addicted to gaming, working in the video game industry would be a real dream come true!

Before you rush out to a job interview with your highest score as your only credential, I’m going to walk you through some of the educational expectations that future employers will have.

Bachelors Degree in Computer Science

You can choose from hundreds of schools in America that offer B.A.s or higher in computer science, all the way from your local two-year college to highly ranked four-year programs at prestigious schools like MIT. No matter where you choose to get your degree from, the key is to take courses that will help you develop the knowledge and experience in gaming. This includes courses in graphics, animation and of course, programming. There are even schools such as UC-Santa Cruz, that offer a college major in video game design.

Graduate degree programs in Computer Engineering

If you are looking to take the leap to a senior level programming job, you will likely need a graduate degree. The most common choice is an M.S. in Computer Engineering, although some top level gaming executives even hold a PhD. If you are more interested in the business and marketing side of the gaming industry, an MBA might be a more appropriate choice for you.

Online degrees in Video Game Design

If you are a game geek, odds are that learning online is a natural comfort zone for you. Online programs are a great option for people looking to make a mid-career change, which will necessitate them going back to school while continuing to work a full-time job. Read more about game design degree programs here.

Video Game Design Certificates & Two Year Degrees

If the traditional college route isn’t for you, there are still some great educational options for you. Video gaming insiders often recommend Full Sail as the ideal “real world education”. The school is located in Orlando, FL and offers Associate’s degrees in game development and computer animation. In less than two years, you can have an in-depth background in artificial intelligence, game networking, structures of game design, physics, and linear algebra. Learn more about gaming degrees and certificates from programs like Full Sail at the JobMonkey.

If you are interested in learning more about video game programming education and careers, check out this interview with gaming veteran, Bill Roper. Oh, and how cool is this? There is a gaming scholarship just for those of you interested in pursuing video game design.

If you are a recent college graduate, odds are you are taking the brunt of these tough economic times.

Two years ago, the unemployment rate among college graduates was less than 3%. Today it’s more than 9%.

And with a continuing lack of job creation, those numbers are likely to increase — since the ’08 and ’09 grads will soon be competing with the ’10 grads for the limited number of entry level positions.

According to a recent CBS report, the problem is being compounded by the growing debt loads most graduates now have. The average student graduates with $3K in credit card debt and $23K in student loan debt (of course, 1/3 of all college students manage to graduate without any debt!). Federal student loans provide a six-month grace period following graduation, after which students are expected to begin repayment.

One option, implies the CBS piece, is joining the Peace Corps, Americorps or Teach for America — all of which are seeing a record number of application and all of which offer some form of student loan repayment/forgiveness in exchange for up to two years of volunteer service.

If you are a recent grad who finds him/herself facing unemployment, check out these job search tips for the recession. You may also want to read this post from Financial Aid Finder about reducing your student loan debt through volunteering for AmeriCorps.

The state of New Jersey has developed an innovative program to help stem its projected nursing shortage: a $22 million scholarship fund known as the New Jersey Nursing Initiative.

The privately funded initiative provides tuition and living stipend to nurses going back to school for a MA or PhD in nursing. The catch is that recipients must commit to being nursing instructors at one of eight New Jersey schools for at least three years after they graduate.

According to a recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the nursing shortage problem is not due to a  lack of interested nursing students, but rather a lack of nursing faculty. The article quotes Linda Aiken, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who studies the nursing shortage, as saying that approximately 50,000 qualified applicants to nursing programs are turned down.

With a more robust faculty, more nurses could be trained every year.

The state of Pennsylvania responded to the nursing faculty crisis in 2004 with the Independence Blue Cross Nurse Scholars program, which provides grants to graduate students planning to become nursing educators. The program is set to continue through 2011.

So why do nurses need a push to enter academia? One reason is the nursing salary. According to the Inquirer article, nurses in clinical settings can earn $50,000 a year more than those in faculty positions.

If you are interested in going back to school to become a nurse (faculty or otherwise), I recently came across this list of nursing scholarships that you might want to check out.

If you are interested in earning green by going green, there is good news for you, according to a recent USA TODAY article: Students can choose from a variety of new “green” degree programs. The growth of the green collar job sector has led a number of colleges and universities to incorporate sustainability into their course offerings.

David Soto of The Princeton Review says student interest is driving colleges to create programs that offer training in sustainability. Two-thirds of students surveyed for the company’s recent “College Hopes and Worries” survey said a college’s “environmental commitment” would be a factor in where they applied.

According to the article, Arizona State University now has a School of Sustainability, which graduated its first class this past May. The School offers Bachelors of Arts, Bachelors of Science and Masters degrees, all of which take an interdisciplinary approach, blending science, economics, social studies and more.

Other schools, such as Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, are expanding their core requirements to include at least one class related to the environment. And at community colleges, such as Kalamazoo Valley, students are being trained for green collar jobs like installing and operating wind turbines.

Other popular green degree programs include:

• BA and BS in Sustainability

• MBA focused on operating sustainable businesses

• Combined MBA and MA in Environmental Studies

• Agricultural Technology with concentration in sustainable design

We reported back in March that enrollment in online degree and professional certification programs is booming during the economic recession. For those who have been laid off (or fear being laid off), working on an online degree has proven to be an easy and convenient way to enhance their resumes while still having plenty of time to job search.

Many would-be online learners have been deterred, however, by the concern that an e-degree will not be respected or accepted by future employers. That tide is turning.

Recently a number of experts have joined the distance learning bandwagon. From career recruiters who say that online degrees are just as reputable as ones from brick-and-mortar schools to legendary former GE CEO Jack Welch, who just announced his plans to launch an online MBA.

Today, the news got even better for online learners, with the release of a groundbreaking meta study by the United States Department of Education, which lauded the superior outcomes of online learners.

Online students performed better, on average, than those taking the same courses in face-to-face instruction. The best achievers, however, were those students who experienced blended learning — elements of both online and face-to-face learning.

The biggest benefits of online learning, according to the study, are derived both from the use of new technology…

Studies indicate that manipulations that trigger learner activity or learner reflection and self-monitoring of understanding are effective when students pursue online learning as individuals.

… and from the benefit of more time to concentrate on tasks.

Studies in which learners in the online condition spent more time on task than students in the face-to-face condition found a greater benefit for online learning.

If you are considering an online degree, here are some past JobMonkey blog posts you may want to read through:

• Is An Online Degree Right For You?

• Accreditation of Online Degree Programs

Also be sure to check out JobMonkey’s sister site Online Degree Zone. With over 11,000 online degree programs to choose from, it has everything you need to know about distance learning.

If you are about to graduate from college, you are probably feeling a bit nervous about finding a job in the current climate. The Boston Globe recently answered a question from one such student — a January ’10 grad with concerns about making himself attractive to would-be employers. Some of the Globe’s suggestions included:

• Taking full advantage of your campus career services office

• Networking with professors and other on-campus professionals in your field

• Setting a quantitative goal for your job search — for example, five face-to-face networking meetings before the end of fall semester

• Joining a professional association in your field

In addition, I’d also add that if you have just a semester of school left, now is the perfect time to look for a college internship. And you can build up your resume (and your networking connections) by volunteering  over the summer and throughout your job search.

Hungry for more job tips on finding a job post-graduation? Check out this jobs for graduates blog post from last month, where a New York native contemplated moving to Boston and launching her job search there.

Are you interested in becoming a video game programmer? Most programmers have degrees in computer programming, including the special field of computer and video game arts. According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), there are plenty of qualified Caucasian men interested in these jobs post-graduation, but women and minorities aren’t as prevalent in the field.

That’s why the ESA is offering a sweet, $3,000 scholarship to women and minority students who are pursuing their degree in Computer & Video Game Arts (or a related field).

The Foundation has thirty total scholarships available, 15 for high school seniors and another 15 for college students.

To be eligible, you must be enrolled (or plan to enroll) as a full-time student at an accredited four-year colleges or university. The application deadline is May 15, 2009, so there’s not much time left.

To learn more about the scholarship, visit the Entertainment Software Association website. If you want to learn more about pursuing a career in video game industry, the JobMonkey is your #1 resource. You might also want to check out these articles on Video Game Design Schools and Computer Game Education.