Have you been thrown a new challenge at work? Or are you looking to grow your skill set? Do you need an overview of Data Analytics, want advice on Managing the Hybrid Workforce or wish you knew techniques for Effective Business Writing?
For the past four years, the Professional Education team in the Collat School of Business has offered focused training with non-academic courses designed to help individuals meet their personal, professional and organizational goals.
“We make enrolling easy,” said Cori Perdue, Ph.D., director of Professional Education. “There is no application process, you can sign up in five minutes, and with many courses, you can get started immediately and finish at your own pace. We are a perfect option for people who want to jump right in and earn a tangible industry certification.”
Live-online short courses
Starting in 2018, Collat Professional Education debuted a series of in-person and live-online short courses using a cohort model led by Collat faculty and industry experts in Project Management, Agile Project Management, and Digital Marketing and Social Media Marketing.
UAB discount
Professional Education courses do not fall under UAB’s Educational Assistance benefit. But UAB employees receive a 20 percent discount for asynchronous courses. (See prices, estimated course lengths, and applicable continuing education/professional development units for all Professional Development programs here.) Employees can often use professional development funds from their units to pay course tuition, Perdue adds.
“Students like that our courses are taught by instructors who bring both academic and industry expertise,” Perdue said. And because workforce needs are constantly changing, new courses are always being added to the catalog, she added.
Self-paced courses
The Professional Education catalog includes a suite of self-paced, 100 percent online classes, with topics chosen based on “market trends, conversations with companies about their needs and skills gaps, and a great amount of research,” Perdue said.
For example, requests by employees and managers at UAB for data analytics training have been growing rapidly, Perdue says. In the Certificate in Data Analytics course, students learn the tools of data analysis, how to use data analysis for optimizing organizational performance and how to use statistics as a managerial tool, among other skills. All the modules in the course use videos, interactive exercises, games, quizzes and real-world case studies. “Good, crisp content for learning,” reads a course review from a recent participant. “[I] thoroughly enjoyed the course, as it was relevant and up to date.”
The courses, all taught by industry experts, fall under the following categories:
- Project Management
- Accounting and Finance
- Business Technologies
- Leadership
- Communication
- Human Resource Management
- Management
- Operations
“If an individual or unit on campus has professional business training needs, we would be excited to talk with them to design new courses,” Perdue added.
See a list of all Collat Professional Education courses.
Leadership programs
The Professional Education team also operates leadership programs for groups and departments across campus, such as the UAB Healthcare Leadership Academy.