Display options from HABTM

I have a large certifications table that I would like to have a little
more controll over, it is part of a HABTM relationship.


db’s (simplified)

certifications
id
course

employees
id
department_id
type_id
name

departments
id
name

types
id
kind

certifications_employees
certification_id
employee_id


Models

class Employee < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :type
belongs_to :department
has_and_belongs_to_many :certifications
end

class Department < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :employees
end

class Type < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :employees
end


Using the following code in my employees view _form.rhtml produces
output from my certifications table, it works. The problem is, its a
large table and this will potetially produce hundreds of checkboxes.

Certification

<% for certification in @certifications %> checked="checked"<% end %> ><%=certification.course%>
<% end %> ----------------------------------------------------

I think I really have two questions.

Is there a way, by way of a the employees_helper.rb to format the result
of <%=certification.course%> may be into 3 or 4 columns ?

And

How could I display just the records I wanted from the table ? For
example, I tried the following, which produced this erorr - undefined
method `apparatus_pump_testing’

<% for certification in @certifications %>

<%=certification.apparatus_pump_testing%>
<% end %>

Kindest regards and many thanks.