BREI Certification Classes

BREI recognizes three training courses for those seeking the designation of Project Coordinator. Completion of any of these courses also counts as one of the required courses needed to attain the designation of Business Retention and Expansion Professional. Two of the courses are offered live and one is offered on-line.

BREI offers two face-to-face training courses: the Basic Course and the Community Leaders’ Course. The Basic Course is offered annually in conjunction with the BREI conference and “on-demand” when a community or organization wishes to sponsor a local training. The Community Leaders’ Course is offered any time a community or organization wishes to sponsor a training course. Find out more about sponsoring a course.

In addition to the face-to-face version of the Community Leaders’ course an on-line version is offered by the University of Minnesota. The frequency of course offerings and start dates are determined by the University of Minnesota.

The third face-to-face course is offered through the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. A select number of municipalities in Ontario have implemented some form of a business visitation program. However smaller municipalities generally have not had the resources to initiate such an economic development strategy. In 1997, the Rural Programs Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs took steps to develop business retention and expansion (BR+E) resources for use by rural communities. This course is only offered in the Province of Ontario for and participation is limited to Provincial residents.