What is an Applied Technology Degree?

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If you already have experience as a plumber, electrician, HVAC technician, or welder, an applied technology degree can complement your skills with knowledge about the business side of what you do. The program teaches you how to develop and implement projects, take a customer-first approach to management, and communicate professionally. Once you graduate with the degree, you’ll be ready to transition from a technical role to a professional position in the trades.

What Courses Will I Take in an Applied Technology Degree Program?

Customer Focused Management

In business, the customer is king. Happy customers can help build your bottom line. Unhappy customers can ruin your reputation. In this course, you learn how to provide effective customer service, meet the customer’s needs, and build strategies to handle difficult customers. You also gain a better understanding of how customer service contributes to your company’s value, and how it can affect profits and operations.

Developing and Implementing Projects

Project management can look easy from the outside, but there are many details that can be overlooked or forgotten. This course teaches you the steps of project development and implementation, from projecting costs and mapping out a timeline for completion, to assigning tasks to the right team members and reporting on the results. You learn to use project management software to keep track of an assignment from start to finish.

Written and Oral Communication

Effective communication is critical to any business or organization. You need to be able to send professional emails, persuade customers to return, and motivate your employees. With a course in written and oral communication, you learn to improve your skills in reading, writing, speaking, and the use of critical thinking. Throughout your coursework, you strengthen your grammar and sentence structure, practice writing and delivering speeches, and research pertinent topics.

Ethical Principles Across Societies

Even when you know right from wrong, there may be some gray areas or situations that make doing the right thing difficult. In those times, you lean on your sense of ethics to guide your steps forward. In this class, you discover different societal perspectives of ethics, the types of ethical issues that are relevant today, and how to think critically and apply ethical reasoning to workplace problems.

To earn a degree, you also need to take general education classes such as math and sociology.

What Can I Do with an Applied Technology Degree?

An applied technology degree can prepare you for a supervisory role in the trades. Here are a few examples of the jobs you could apply for:

Construction Foreman

As a foreman, you oversee the activities of construction workers on site. You assign workers to different areas, handle personnel issues, and ensure that you have appropriate coverage when a worker calls out. And inspect the team’s work each day to ensure that specifications and safety standards are met.

HVAC Service Manager

As an HVAC service manager, you manage customer accounts and train new technicians at a commercial or residential HVAC company. You order equipment, ensure your branch is properly staffed, and ensure compliance with safety regulations.

Fabrication and Welding Supervisor

You could also find work at a piping technology or manufacturing company. You could oversee the fulfillment of work orders, ensuring that both quality and safety are met during the fabrication process. You would hire and train staff, monitor their performance, and implement improvements to the team’s workflow.

Are you ready to improve your knowledge base and plan for the future? Charter College has an Associate of Applied Science in Applied Technology that can help you get there. The program is offered online and can be completed in as few as five months. Call 888-200-9942 or fill out the form to learn more.

888.200.9942