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Helms College partners with Third Wave Digital for new college mobile website solution

On the occasion of its 100th anniversary in 2002, Goodwill Industries launched an international workforce development initiative designed to get millions of people into the workplace and up the career ladder by the year 2020. As part of this initiative, Helms College – a division of Goodwill Industries, today announces the launch of a new mobile website aimed at providing career training opportunities to an increasing mobile audience.

Helms College was established with the sole focus of creating an educational model that provides training in culinary arts, medical/health, automotive technology, construction, and other occupational areas. This unique educational program needed a web presence that allowed Helms College to attract future students, educate contributors and engage the community and in early 2012, the College turned to higher education web development firm Third Wave Digital for the creation of their main website www.helms.edu.

While the desktop site is optimized to perform on any mobile device, Helms College wanted to provide mobile users with bite sized information before driving them to the full site experience. Partnering with Third Wave Digital again on the mobile component was the logical choice for Helms College, said Susan Everitt, Director of Communications for Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia.

“The mobile component of helms.edu is another extension of our mission to make career opportunities and skills training available to our community,” Everitt said. “We are very pleased with the Helms College mobile website.”

Research shows that in today’s marketplace it is crucial to provide quicker and more efficient ways to reach potential students. A recent study found that mobile communication devices are in the hands of 98% of the population and have become the mainstay of daily communication and information sharing for this high-tech generation.

“We know that for many students smart phones are often the primary means of internet access. By empowering Helms College to communicate their core admissions message to both desktop and mobile users we have helped them reach a new level of online marketing effectiveness.” said Bart Campione, President of Third Wave Digital.

Third Wave Digital set out to create a mobile solution that would keep the same branding and overall information conveyed in the college’s desktop site while limiting the amount of data required to consume the information on a smart phone.

The new mobile option maintains the same menu structure as the desktop site, but formats with large visible icons for quick one-touch browsing. The mobile site also strips any images that may be contained in the desktop site while giving users seamless transitions to “view full site” at any time.

Third Wave Digital also created backend functionality that allows Helms College staff to update the mobile site from the same Content Management System (CMS) used to update the full website. This feature allows updated content on the main site to automatically sync with the mobile application. The new mobile CMS feature also allows Helms staff to specify what content should appear on mobile, on desktop or both from any page within the full site.

Throughout the development of both Helms college mobile and the desktop admissions website, Third Wave Digital has continued to provide website hosting and support.

About Helms College

In 1996, Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia, Inc. expanded its territory into Augusta, Georgia and Aiken, South Carolina, increasing the number of service counties to 35 to become Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia and the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA). There are three other Goodwill organizations headquartered in Georgia and two other agencies in South Carolina. Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia and the CSRA have been recognized with numerous international awards and is one of the fastest growing Goodwill organizations in the world.

In response to the Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia and the CSRA President/CEO’s concern for meaningful skill training and education for individuals seeking employment, a concept was born to further fulfill the mission of the organization, “to help people discover and develop their God-given gifts through education, work and career development services.” In July 2007, Helms Career Institute was established with the sole focus of creating an educational model for Goodwill Industries that provides skills training in the culinary arts, medical/health, automotive technology, construction, and other occupational areas that lead to middle skills careers and a path out of poverty.

About Third Wave Digital

Third Wave Digital is a comprehensive web design, development and support firm specializing in complex web presence creation for small to mid-sized businesses and higher education institutions. Third Wave Digital is a division of Colbarton Corporation which offers full service advertising agency services through Third Wave Advertising, and complete Web hosting solutions through Third Wave Host. Third Wave Digital is headquartered in Macon, Georgia with satellite offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Orland, Florida. For more information about Third Wave Digital, call 888-578-7865, click www.twdcampustours.com or email info@thirdwavdigital.com.

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