Course Catalog

The mission of Learning & Development is to support the professional growth of UCSC employees, responding to their needs through the increased availability of learning-related services in order to prepare them for long, successful and engaged careers with the university.

Workshops presented by Learning & Development focus on trust, communication, skill development and culture building.

To see and register for current offerings, please visit the Upcoming Classes page. If the class is not currently scheduled please contact us to check availability.


Workshops Presented by Learning & Development

NEW SERIES! L&D Management Skills Certificate Program:

EDGE Management Training: Explore, Develop, Grow, Engage

EDGE is a certificate program open to managers and supervisors. It consists of six workshops that address core management practices to encourage positive outcomes for your teams. Each course will be led by a subject matter expert in the primary topic area, to discuss and share knowledge and practical how-to tools about management at our institution.

EDGE is a community of practice that promotes the sharing of ideas between colleagues, and the best practices for management at UC Santa Cruz.

The workshops needed to complete the EDGE certificate are:

Key Components for Success in Management: People, Projects and Priorities
In this workshop, managers discuss concrete actions in support of a healthy culture for their teams including trust building, collaboration, and an organized approach to workflow. We review the fundamentals of project management to support your team's productivity, and explore tools for organizing and prioritizing your team's work. Finally, this session reviews the working populations at UCSC and the university’s work policies and procedures to keep them safe.

Managing for Employee Engagement: Communication, Goal Setting and Accountability
This workshop covers building an engaged workforce, including the value and structure of regular check-in meetings, practicing key communication skills in both listening and speaking, supporting the growth and development of those who report to you, and relaying your expectations to your employees with clarity. The session will discuss and practice setting SMART goals, and encourages professional development as an engagement tool, to promote retention and increase productivity.

Managing an Evolving Workforce: Hybrid Teams and Our Work
Over the past several years many of us have adapted to working from home, others have stayed on campus. This course examines the outcomes of the national shift to hybrid work, and how to support our UCSC teams as we continue to evolve. Discussion topics include an overview of organizational trends and results in the hybrid workplace, maintaining engagement across distance, tools for managers to battle proximity bias to evaluate all employees fairly.

Cultural Humility for Managers: Fostering Understanding and Inclusivity in Your Teams
This workshop introduces cultural humility as a comprehensive framework for cultivating an inclusive and collaborative workplace. It equips managers and supervisors with mindful practices and practical tools to enhance personal leadership, build cohesive teams, and foster a caring organizational culture. Incorporating a DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging) framework, the workshop provides practical strategies for addressing bias, stereotypes, and microaggressions. Through interactive activities and discussions, managers will gain valuable insights and leave with actionable steps to advance diversity and inclusivity within their teams.

Managing  Employee Success at UCSC: Setting Expectations, Corrective Action & Complaint Resolution (Presented by ELR)
This workshop reviews the responsibility of managers to recognize daily work successes and areas for improvement, establishes best practices in developing and communicating manager expectations, as well as providing guidance for documentation. Representatives from Employee Relations will then provide a general overview of the threshold for corrective action, the types of actions available to a manager, progressive discipline, and the corrective action process. 

Managing in a Unionized Environment (Presented by ELR)
Representatives from Labor Relations will provide a wide-ranging overview of a manager's responsibilities in working with union-represented employees. Material will outline the rights of Employees, Unions and the Employer. Includes overviews of the Skelly and Weingarten processes. 


Open Enrollment Courses (can also be provided for departments)

Best Practices for Remote & Hybrid Team Members: Negotiating Your Best Work Life
Over the past two years many of us, our team members have adapted to working from home, others have stayed on campus. Now we face another changing set of work rules, as many of us return to work in new ways. This course examines the outcomes of our efforts, the challenges of continuing to work in uncertain and changing environments, and how to support your team as your work life continues to evolve. Discussion topics include how organizations have adapted to the new workforce, and how working in a shifting workforce can generate benefits for us, and our organization.

Navigating Difficult Conversations: Creating Shared Meaning
How can you shift high stakes communication from competition to collaboration? What is the path forward to creating shared pools of meaning, and common goals? This class will address these questions, and provide tools to help you create better interactions, including identifying crucial conversations, how to change “Battle Messages” to “Learning Conversations,” the role of the Heart, Brain and Gut in listening, and finding shared meaning.

Creating a Positive Work Environment: The Dignity Factor
This workshop will provide an introduction to the vital role of dignity in the workplace for strengthening relationships, resolving conflict, and making organizations healthier. Participants will learn practical guidelines for identifying elements of dignity, and behaviors that may compromise dignity; and discuss actionable steps to navigate challenging situations, and foster an inclusive workplace culture that values the dignity of every individual.

Cultivating Emotional Intelligence In Remote Workspaces
Enhance your remote work experience with the Emotional Intelligence framework. Address the unique challenges of remote and hybrid environments, and gain practical tips for personal growth and team development. Learn how to build trust, encourage open communication, and create a culture where every team member feels valued and empowered to contribute their best. Leave with actionable steps and strategies to nurture E.I. in collaborative virtual workspaces. 

Cultivating Mindful Practices for Personal Leadership in Turbulent Times
In these times of continuous change the world is calling us to respond and lead ourselves and others in a different way. Mindful Leadership is about consciously responding to life’s circumstances rather than reacting in automatic pilot and taking initiative in your roles and relationships with authenticity, awareness, and confidence. Practicing Mindfulness cultivates our ability to pay attention to our experience from moment to moment, teaching us to become aware of what is going on in our mind and body without judgment, reaction, and distraction. In this experiential session you will learn three body-mind practices to help introduce mindfulness in your every-day life and work, while further developing internally-driven leadership ability.

Customer Service In Higher Education
In higher education, our outcomes are often the result of people across departments coming together in mutual support. This training examines the customer service function in the university environment and practices the communication skills that will help us to navigate it successfully. What is a service attitude and why is it important? This training helps us come to a full understanding of service, and the window it provides to see our organizations in a new light. 

Embracing Differences: Fostering Cultural Humility in the Workplace
Cultural humility is a lifelong commitment to self-reflection, learning, and growth that fosters genuine understanding, empathy and respect for diverse others. This workshop explores the five pillars of cultural humility, which form the foundation for an organizational culture where every voice is heard, valued, and respected. Through engaging activities and discussions, participants will broaden their cultural perspectives, develop service-driven skills, and leave with practical strategies to foster diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the workplace.

Fostering a Safe Workplace for Grief 
his experiential workshop will assist participants in exploring the various components and dynamics of grief and loss within the context of their own experiences, and provide tools to help assess how they are currently coping and create a practical, balanced, and personalized coping plan. 

Fostering Creativity: Growing from Mistakes in Collaborative Spaces
The purpose of this workshop is to equip participants with practical strategies for reframing failures as learning opportunities, cultivating a growth mindset, and fostering creativity within collaborative spaces. Unpack the diverse reasons behind organizational failures, hone your skills in conducting debriefs for team accountability and growth, and elevate your team’s learning curve and resilience. 

Fundamentals of Project Management
In all of our jobs, we have projects, whether we’re leading a team over an extended period or addressing a small project that came up this morning. In this workshop, participants will explore fundamental skills, processes and approaches to project management. Understand the basics in approaching projects, assessing the scope of the work, the stakeholders and the steps to building a path towards successful completion.

Fundamentals of Time Management: Organizing your Work Life
This overview of time management discusses some of the tools and techniques for finding balance in your work life. We will discuss the challenges of time management in co-located and remote work, tools and techniques for managing your time, and how to remain productive, motivated and healthy.

Introduction to Google Suite, Part 1: Mail, Calendar, Forms & Hangouts
This workshop is designed to help newer Google users get introduced to and practice with “Google Workspace” applications. In this workshop we will navigate the interface, learn how to organize mail, set ‘out of office’ messages, schedule meetings, create forms and much more. This is an introductory workshop that will include instruction and practice as well as question and answer sections which can be helpful for new employees and the more experienced.

Introduction to Google Suite, Part 2: Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides
This workshop is designed to help newer Google users get introduced to the “Google Workspace” and practice using the applications. In this workshop we will navigate the interface, practice, creating, storing and sharing documents and drive folders. We’ll explore creating slide decks, spreadsheets, basic word processing functions and much more. This is an introductory workshop that will include instruction and practice as well as question and answer sections which can be helpful for new employees and the more experienced.

Listening Our Way to Success: Applied Active Listening
In order to make our best decisions, we want to be as informed as we possibly can be. In order to get things accomplished, we want to be able to understand how all the pieces fit together and where the needs and strengths of everything align. To do this most effectively, we start by collecting information. In this workshop, we’ll discuss active listening skills, practice those skills and then apply the knowledge gained to create productive, clear collaborations and smoother supervisory relationships while increasing overall workplace efficiency.

Manager-Assigned Professional Development (MAP) Tool For LinkedIn Learning
MAP is an easy-to-use tool to coordinate team learning and build a common language and approach across a spectrum of topic areas. Team learning can increase engagement, retention, knowledge, and productivity for your team. The process is simple:

  • Identify classes of interest for your team’s needs
  • Have your team activate their free LinkedIn Learning accounts
  • Set deadlines for the learning, and track progress 
  • Debrief material together, as a cohort 

Managing an Evolving Workforce
Best Practices for Managers & Supervisors Overseeing Hybrid and Remote Teams.
For many departments, distributed teams are now the norm. For people in supervisory roles, the responsibility has remained the same, while our approaches and the tools we have access to have changed. What are best practices for managing a distributed workforce? How can a manager ensure productivity, maintain employee engagement and decrease turnover while creating a culture of trust, innovation and inclusion?

Managing Organizational Change and Other Opportunities
Workshop the complex work world of today, understand our team’s natural, inherent resistance to organizational change, encourage employees in the change process, and strategize how to prevent change fatigue. Additionally, this workshop explores the development of a psychologically safe work environment to ease change, and provides tools to develop a growth mindset in assessing and developing processes.

Managing Student Teams for Productivity and Growth Across Distance

  • An overview of the trend towards distributed workforces, including the advantages and challenges of the model, and how it affects our student workers
  • A review of the changing work model and best practices for building parity and productivity across your team
  • Practices to establish a consistent team culture in a time of change

Opportunities to ensure engagement and safety for those whom you supervise Resources that may be available for your student workers

Managing Stress and Building Resilience with Mindful Presence
In today's fast-paced and ever-changing work environments, the ability to effectively manage stress and build resilience is essential for both personal health and organizational success. This comprehensive workshop offers an experiential opportunity for participants to explore their personal experiences of stress and resilience; raise awareness of somatic, emotional, and mental states; and learn practical tools to enhance personal resilience and thrive in the workplace.

Perspective Shifting: Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
In this workshop we approach solving problems and thinking critically as a shift in our habitual perspective. We will practice skills to cultivate curiosity and explore question framing to gather insights and information prior to moving into solving. We’ll discuss problem origin sleuthing and address our expectations and biases to gain understanding and create more effective solutions in our work environment and our work lives. 

The Power of Clear Communication: Building Daily Performance Management Practices
In this workshop, we address year-round approaches to performance management through the process of effective communication and goal setting. Creating a culture of clear expectations, with all parties understanding their roles and responsibilities, increases productivity and professional growth while building trust. We encourage supervisors and managers to participate.

Professional Writing Workshop
What is professional writing and should our language be affected when writing for the workplace? This workshop will focus on how to write clearly, concisely, correctly, and courteously. We will discuss differences when writing in our personal and professional lives, with particular attention to audience and context. The workshop aims to establish best practices for email writing, provide the opportunity for hands-on editing and explore questions on etiquette, approach and effective communication. 

Psychological Safety: Creating an Environment for Success
This course helps managers and supervisors understand the critical nature of psychologically safe work environments, and how they can affect the quality of team input and outcomes. At the end of this course, you will have an understanding of the stages of Psychological Safety, and recognize the primary components and effects of safe environments. Includes tips and tools for assessing team safety, and creating a safe workspace. Includes an introduction to tools that will help us to check our practices.

Recognizing, Understanding and Navigating Workplace Tensions: Building Skills For Effective Relationships
Conflict is an unavoidable reality in the workplace. This workshop provides participants with a comprehensive framework and practical tools to address workplace disagreements mindfully and constructively. Through deepening their understanding of conflict dynamics, exploring conflict-handling styles, and enhancing emotional intelligence and conflict management skills, attendees will learn respectful ways to de-escalate interpersonal tensions, fostering more authentic working relationships and promoting a positive work environment.

Reprogramming Your Self-Talk for Success
This workshop presents the practice of reprogramming your self-talk through a growth-mindset lens, to succeed in achieving your goals. Gain a comprehensive understanding of how internal dialogue impacts individual and collective outcomes; and explore practical strategies for cultivating constructive self-talk.

Resilience: Flourishing Through Challenging Times
Building resilience is an important skill for managing the stresses (big and small) that impact our lives. Resilience increases our ability to "respond" rather than "react" to unexpected events and set-backs. In this class, participants will explore what it means to be resilient and why it is an important skill/competency to nurture and develop in self and others. Participants will practice specific tools and approaches for building resilience in their own lives, and learn how to support cultivating a culture of resilience in the workplace. 

Wellness and Work
This offering examines the primary causes of stress, and the benefits of wellness for the individual and the organization. Reflect privately on your own stress factors, and become familiar with the tools you can use to remain healthy. Consider the three primary types of stress we encounter and how it affects us, the benefits of wellness and compassion, and reflect on what stress we can control and/or minimize. 

Conflict in the Workplace: Skills for Building Effective Relationships
Conflict is an unavoidable reality in the workplace. This workshop provides participants with a comprehensive framework and practical tools to address workplace disagreements mindfully and constructively. Through deepening their understanding of conflict dynamics, exploring conflict-handling styles, and enhancing emotional intelligence, attendees will learn respectful ways to de-escalate interpersonal tensions and foster more authentic working relationships.

Using GenAI Effectively, Enhancing Your Workflow
This workshop offers an introduction to integrating GenAI tools with essential human skills to enhance productivity and creativity in the workplace. Participants will explore some ethical and cultural considerations surrounding AI, with strategies for mitigating bias. The session will focus on six competencies that can streamline workflows, introduce foundational skills in prompt engineering, and demonstrate how GenAI can be effectively applied to everyday workplace scenarios.

Fostering a Safe Workplace for Grief
This experiential workshop will assist participants in exploring the various components and dynamics of grief and loss within the context of their own experiences and in the workplace; and provide tools to help support grieving colleagues, assess how one is currently coping, and create a practical and personalized coping plan.

Manager-Assigned Professional Development (MAP) Tool For LinkedIn Learning
MAP is an easy-to-use tool to coordinate team learning and build a common language and approach across a spectrum of topic areas. Team learning can increase engagement, retention, knowledge, and productivity for your team. The process that will be reviewed in this workshop is simple, you'll learn how to activate your team's free LinkedIn Learning accounts, identify the learning for your team, set deadlines, track team progress, and then debrief materials together as a cohort.

Navigating the UCLC (University of California Learning Management System)
Please join us for a tutorial on how to use the UCLC (University of California Learning Center). The UCLC is UCSC’s Learning Management System for employee training. In this tutorial, we will go through an interactive run-through as well as leave time for questions and answers at the end of this training. Here: are the topics that will be covered during the training: 1. Logging In 2. Finding a Class 3. How Classes are structured 4. Compliance and Assigned training 5. Express Interest 6. View Completed Training 7. Affiliate Accounts 8. Where to go for additional help.

Workshops & Facilitated Conversations for Department-Specific Needs
Learning & Development works with managers, supervisors and executives to present workshops, trainings and assist with facilitated conversations in individual units and departments, addressing issues, helping to build trust and more effective, productive teams. We provide guidance in a variety of topics and content areas and are open to developing content specific to your team’s needs.

Examples of topics and workshops we’ve presented for departments include:

  • Active Listening
  • Change Management
  • Communication
  • Conflict Navigation
  • Critical Thinking
  • Cultural Humility
  • Customer Service
  • Documentation
  • Effective Meetings
  • Expectation Setting
  • Dignity
  • Facilitation
  • Imposter Phenomenon
  • Managing Grief
  • Performance Management
  • Problem Solving
  • Psychological Safety
  • Resilience
  • Team Building
  • Wellness

We also offer training sessions with a Spanish speaking instructor and producer, as needed.

If you’re interested in having L&D work with your team on these or other topic areas, contact us at Learning & Development



Workshops Presented By Other UC Providers

UC Berkeley Power Skill Series & Certificate
Through this series of Zoom workshops, managers, supervisors, and team leads reporting to any campusof the University of California can obtain the power skills necessary to enable individuals on their teams to successfully interact, navigate change, and drive overall success in the workplace. Sometimes called soft skills, transferable skills or human skills, these non-technical, role-agnostic skills are necessary for navigating the parameters of our unique higher education system and for taking people management skills to the next level.

UC Managing Implicit Bias Series
The UC Managing Implicit Bias Series is a six-course online training series designed to increase awareness of implicit bias and reduce its impact at the University. The series reinforces the UC diversity, equity, and inclusion values that enable the University to attract and retain a top talent workforce, and it further supports the UC commitment to developing effective leaders and managers of people. It is intended to supplement existing location programs and resources.

Sustainability Certificate Program
Examine sustainability through multiple lenses and develop knowledge and strategies for building a more inclusive and sustainable campus. To complete the certificate, participants must complete the six core required courses and one elective within two academic years.

Risk Services: Faculty and Staff Wellness Programs
Risk Services strives to create a healthy campus community and work environment for faculty and staff through the Faculty & Staff Wellness Program by creating integrated programs and services designed to provide tools and skills for leading healthy lifestyles and preventing injury and illness.

My UC Career Portal
This online development portal is available to all UC employees seeking to advance their career.

Managing My UCSC Career
This is the first of three career development workshops offered by Learning & Development. The goal of this session is to introduce employees to the ‘My UC Career Portal’, a free online career development tool, available to all UC employees.

Financial Affairs: Contract and Grant Training
With successful completion of this training, the trainee has demonstrated a thorough understanding of their responsibility and accountability for processing any expenditure or budgetary adjustments involving Contract and Grant funds while using the Banner Financial Information System (FIS) to prepare, approve and locate on-line journals.

Benefits Workshops: UCSC Staff Human Resources
Including a Benefits Orientation, Retirement Savings Program Workshops, Fidelity Department Training, Pre-Retirement Planning Program and Medicare Health Plan Information Sessions.

Budget and Financial Management #1 The University Budget
This is the first class in the UCSC Budget and Financial Management Course Series A High-level Explanation of the University Budget. The class will review university funding streams and explain how funds are distributed and utilized on our campus. It is strongly recommended though not required that employees attend these classes in sequence.

Budget and Financial Management #2 Managing the Campus Budget
This is the second class in the UCSC Budget and Financial Management Course Series A general explanation of how budget is managed centrally and across campus. We’ll discuss the campus chart of accounts, elements of the FOAPAL, the financial calendar, campus financial systems, and what comprises the operating budget. It is strongly recommended though not required that employees attend these classes in sequence.

Budget and Financial Management #3 Managing Your Campus Budget
This is the third class in the UCSC Budget and Financial Management Course Series. This class covers best practices for managing a budget on campus. Topics covered include appropriate fund use, the process for establishing fees and recharge rates, the short-term interest pool (STIP), central benefits pools, composite benefit rates, budgeting for cost increases, and available resources for budget managers. The differences in managing core-funded budgets versus recharge/auxiliary budgets will be explained throughout. It is strongly recommended though not required that employees attend these classes in sequence.

Budget and Financial Management #4 Demystifying Financial Transactions
This is the fourth class in the UCSC Budget and Financial Management Course Series. This class dives into the minutia of the Financial Transactions Report. (a.k.a. “the general ledger”). Participants will get a better understanding of the timeliness of budgetary and financial transactions, how to read the financial transactions report, where to get help if something is unclear, and commonly misunderstood transactions. It is strongly recommended though not required that employees attend these classes in sequence.

Using Campus Financial Systems
Topics will include using chart of account reports, using the budget and finite universe in InfoView, ledger review & fund restrictions. Learning outcomes anticipated include increased financial acumen, data analysis skills using UCSC financial systems, a better understanding of fund accounting, UC policy compliance and UCSC business processes.

Budget Management Best Practices
Topics will include managing the staffing list in financial managers workbench, using UCPath InfoView reports, types of transfers and their restrictions, & planning for expenses. Learning outcomes anticipated include increased budget management skills, resource stewardship knowledge, awareness of personnel management financial tools and a better understanding of financial controls.

Case Study - Financial Management
Attendees will work together to solve financial issues using common budget language, terminology and concepts, reading and using common financial reports, evaluating financial risk/return tradeoff and illustrating how decisions impact bottom-line financial results. Learning outcomes anticipated include strategic insights, effective financial communication skills and resource prioritization knowledge.

ITS Training
This resource page includes drop in sessions, training for specific Google suite apps and information on general ITS support and help requests.

eCourse Resources & Recommendations

Academic Impressions
UC Santa Cruz is excited to collaborate with Academic Impressions to bring higher education-specific professional and leadership development to our institution. As members, faculty and staff can now access a wide range of online professional development opportunities in areas such as Diversity & Inclusion, Advancement, Academic Affairs, Leadership and Student Success.

To explore hundreds of learning opportunities at no cost to the user, log in using your UC Santa Cruz email address and password. For instructions on how to log in, please visit this step by step guide

LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning is an award-winning industry leader in online training, with a digital library of over 20,000 courses covering a wide range of technical, business, software and creative topics. You have the opportunity to refine or develop your professional skills, learn new software, and explore other areas as you plan your career growth. LinkedIn Learning also offers tremendous potential for managers and employees to create development plans as part of the performance review process.

For help accessing the Learning Library, and instructions for UCSC’s Single Sign On, please refer to our How to Access LinkedIn Learning page. Please note that you must use your UCSC email-your personal email will not provide free access to this resource.

If you don’t have experience with this resource, here’s a great video tutorial on how to use LinkedIn Learning

Consider these Pre-curated LinkedIn Learning Bundles for staff employees:

Pre-curated UC Core Competency Model Bundles for Staff Employees:


Compliance Training

Critical, mandatory trainings that you must complete on a regular schedule. Your specific job function may have other mandatory trainings as well.

General Compliance Briefing: University of California Ethical Values and Conduct
This briefing is designed to raise continued awareness of the University of California Statement of Ethical Values and Standards of Ethical Conduct, and to convey University employment obligations with respect to ethical and compliant behavior. The purpose is not to teach University policy or ethics but to familiarize UC employees with important ethics and compliance information, issues and resources.

UC Abusive Conduct in the Workplace
This training provides an overview of the University of California's Abusive Conduct in the Workplace Policy. Topics include:

  • An overview of what is and isn't abusive conduct
  • Guidance on how to prevent abusive conduct
  • Guidance on how to respond to and report abusive conduct, if it occurs
  • Resources and reporting options available to UC community members who have experienced or witnessed abusive conduct

UC Cyber Security Awareness Fundamentals
Cybercrime happens far more often than you realize, and you are a target! This interactive Cyber Security Awareness training course provides information on some of the most common threats facing the University and facing us as individuals. The course is led by a social engineer who uses real life examples to highlight how we can minimize the risks to ourselves and the University from these cyber threats.

UC Ethics and Compliance Briefing for Researchers
This briefing is intended for all University extramurally funded researchers, including faculty and staff researchers, as well as postdoctoral scholars. Through it, you'll receive a summary of what is expected of you as a researcher at the University and of the various obligations this role entails.

UC Preventing Harassment & Discrimination: Supervisors, Faculty, MSP
This training is for supervisory employees and faculty at all UC locations. It provides information on preventing and responding to sexual violence and sexual harassment and what each of us can to do to make our UC culture safer for all. It will take a minimum of 2 hours to complete and meets the legal requirements of AB1825 and AB2053. This course includes a section specific to requirements under Title IX and the Clery Act. This course contains information on sensitive topics that include sexual violence; if you find that you need an alternate activity to meet this requirement, please contact your location Title IX officer.

UC Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Prevention for Non-Supervisors
Overview of how to prevent sexual violence and sexual harassment in the University of California. Topics include: recognize, prevent, respond and resources.
This course meets requirements of 2 CCR 11024, California Government Code 12950.1, AB 1825/2053, 34 CFR 668.46 Violence Against Women Act, and UC Policy on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment, Abusive Conduct, and Anti-Discrimination.

UC Workplace Violence Prevention
This training was developed in accordance with the training requirements established by California Senate Bill 553. Its goal is to help members of the UC community understand and report workplace violence, and to be able to recognize and respond to escalating behavior.


Leadership Programs

Leadership Academy
The Leadership Academy is offered once per year, with participants meeting weekly over a three month period between January and March. Each session highlights specific issues and challenges faced by leaders at UC Santa Cruz. Through presentation, discussion, and experiential learning, participants will broaden their understanding of how the campus operates while honing their leadership skills and abilities. The Leadership Academy provides a unique opportunity for participants to create new networks, and for dialogue with the Executive Vice Chancellor and other campus leaders. A few sessions each year are held jointly with the Graduate Student Leadership Program.
For more information on dates, eligibility, and the application process visit: Leadership Academy 2025

Management Skills Assessment Program
Returning in 2025, the Management Skills Assessment Program (MSAP) is offered in two cohorts, Fall and Spring, each year. MSAP is a four-day residential program designed to strengthen the engagement and preparation of high potential UC supervisors, managers, and professionals early in their careers. The program offers an intensive assessment and behavioral feedback experience. The goal of the Management Skills Assessment Program (MSAP) is to address skill deficits and grow competencies to prepare internal employees for future opportunities in their UC workplaces.
For more information on dates, fees, eligibility, and the application process visit: Management Skills Assessment Program

UC People Management Series & Certificate
In 2017, UC Office of the President instituted the UC Systemwide People Management Series and Certificate (PMS&C), a free online resource that enables UC employees to develop and improve leadership skills. Those who successfully complete the full program are eligible to attend the annual UC People Management Conference.

UC employees may sign up for the PMS&C via the UC Learning Center.  To successfully complete the whole program, learners must complete the following:

  • 10 Core courses
  • 6 Implicit Bias Courses
  • 4 Electives

For more details on the program, please visit the UC Office of the President’s webpage:

UC Women's Initiative for Professional Development
The UC Women’s Initiative for Professional Development (UC WI) is a unique, experiential, system-wide professional development program to support the success and advancement of mid-career, woman-identified professionals and is open to all employees who support and are committed to this mission. The program brings together participants from every UC location. Participants represent faculty, academic personnel and staff, people managers and non-people managers.

Management Development Program
The Management Development Program is a dynamic system-wide training program designed to enhance and strengthen your leadership capabilities in the UC Core Competencies and ensure you have the skills, knowledge and resources to effectively lead, engage, and develop your team. The program consists of completing four modules focused around the UC Core Competencies of people management, employee engagement and change management.