Free Business Classes in San Francisco

Your first stop when looking for free business classes in San Francisco should be the City College of San Francisco, which offers an astounding amount of business classes at no tuition under their "non-credit" program. You won't gain college credit for attending them, but there are no fees and the structure is usually looser than that of a credit class. A quick look at the schedule for the fall semester shows that even in our current budgetary nightmare there are still a ton of free business classes on offer. You can take accounting, Quickbooks, MS Office, business math, customer service skills, business English, keyboarding, document formatting and production, business vocabulary, Excel, MS Office, Access, desktop publishing, PC upgrade, Dreamweaver, Flash, Powerpoint, Photoshop, International Business, Small Business, Green Business and word processing classes, all for free! That's a complete set of skills for a number of jobs and small businesses in and of itself. Credit classes at CCSF are only $20 per unit and open up even more options. If you made a low income in the previous year, usually less than $15,000 or so, you may qualify for the Board of Governor's Waiver, which gives you free tuition for the academic year to take as many classes as you want to. Consult with a counselor at CCSF for further details on that.

The San Francisco One Stop Career Center, which operates several "drop-in" job search centers throughout the city, offers several options for business classes. For those looking for formal training, the One Stop Career Center can potentially link you up with Workforce Investment Act funds which will cover tuition at a number of training providers such as Heald College, Arriba Juntos and City College. Arrange to speak to a counselor at one of these locations for further information. The centers also offer periodic workshops in business skills, call or visit to check their upcoming calendar for the next several months.

Jewish Vocational Services offers a free "Business Basics" program that provides general office skills training for all job seekers (you don't have to be Jewish to use their services!) They can be found at 225 Bush Street in downtown San Francisco, just off of Market Street near the Montgomery and Embarcadero BART and MUNI stations.

The Small Business Administration offers a lot of free online courses (http://www.sba.gov/services/training/onlinecourses/index.html) on starting up a small business, preparing a business plan, the basics of franchising, loan packages, Federal contracts, crime prevention, marketing, and guides to technology for small businesses. Additionally, you can visit their San Francisco offices at 455 Market Street #6 and see what else they currently have on offer as far as local resources.

The San Francisco Public Library offers a number of free classes at various branches throughout the city, all year long. Stuff like the basics of computer and internet use, keyboarding and mouse use are offered all year long. They also periodically offer word processing and MS Office, business counseling sessions, and internet marketing. Check their public events calendar for further details. The Business Center on the fourth floor of the main library branch at the Civic Center is also an excellent DIY business resource.

The Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center specializes in serving low-to-moderate income people in the Bay Area with a particular focus on women looking to start their own businesses. I am not sure if all of their classes and services are free but one would assume they are affordable given the focus on low income empowerment. Their orientations are free and held regularly and will give you information on all the other programs they offer. The Center has locations at 275 Fifth Street in downtown San Francisco, 3801 Third Street in Bayview, and 1848 Bay Road in East Palo Alto. Orientations are usually held once a month at the Fifth Street location from 6 to 7 p.m., you can find the schedule for the year here.