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This page displays current Learning & Development class and workshop offerings designed to serve the needs of UC Santa Cruz employees. We also collaborate with the campus community to advertise and support professional development and training opportunities offered by other Departments.
The upcoming classes listed below provide only abbreviated descriptions, and are arranged in chronological order. Please note that some classes may have multiple sessions, as noted in the class description. Be sure to register for each class in the series!
HOW TO REGISTER
You can register for all Learning & Development courses through our UC Learning Center, UC Santa Cruz’s online learning management system for staff. Remember to use your CruzID and gold password to log in. Be sure to disable your pop-up blocker (or add uc.sumtotalsystems.com to the list of allowed sites in your pop-up browser settings). Contact our UC Learning Center team for assistance.
Please register via the UC Learning Center. Zoom meeting links will posted in the UC Learning Center and shared via Google Calendar to registered employees. Please ensure you are logged into your UCSC Zoom account before joining.
If you call into a Zoom training, please identify yourself or email us directly to ensure you receive credit for attending. For questions on how to attend a Zoom meeting and for technical difficulties, please visit the ITS Zoom page or open a support ticket by emailing help@ucsc.edu.
Thank you for your understanding!
For accessibility-related inquiries, or if you encounter issues with the UC Learning Center, please contact LearningCenter@ucsc.edu.
Navigating Difficult Conversations
December 16, 2025 10:00am-12:00pm
How can you reframe 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.
EDGE Management Skills Certificate Workshops
EDGE 1: Key Components for Success in Management: People, Projects and Priorities
January 14, 2025 1:00pm-3:00pm
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.
EDGE 2: Managing for Employee Engagement: Communication, Goal Setting and Accountability
January 21, 2025 1:00pm-3:00pm
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.
EDGE 3: Managing an Evolving Workforce: Hybrid Teams and Our Work
January 28, 2025 1:00pm-3:00pm
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.
EDGE 4: Cultural Humility for Managers: Fostering Understanding and Inclusivity in Your Teams
February 12, 2025 1:00pm-3:00pm
An equitable and safe workplace increases organization and individual production as well as upticks in overall job satisfaction. With five pillars and three skills, Cultural Humility empowers individuals to effectively engage in more authentic and respectful interpersonal relationships, creating a more inclusive and collaborative work environment. Through engaging activities and discussions, participants will gain insights to expand their cultural perspectives, and will leave with practical skills and actionable steps to advance a trusting workplace culture that embraces diversity and promotes dignity.
EDGE 5: Managing Employee Success at UCSC: Setting Expectations, Corrective Action & Complaint Resolution
Presented by ELR
February 17, 2025 10:00am-12:00pm
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
EDGE 6: Managing in a Unionized Environment
Presented by ELR
February 24, 2025 10:00am-12:00pm
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.
Managing Organizational Change and Other Opportunities (Supervisors & Managers)
February 10, 2026 10:00am-12:00pm
Workshop for managers and supervisors exploring our team’s natural, inherent resistance to organizational change, encouraging employees in the change process, and strategizing 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.
Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
February 26, 2026 10:00am-12:00pm
In today’s changing organizations, creating a supportive and successful work environment requires emotional intelligence—the ability to understand and manage your emotions and relationships. Developing emotional intelligence helps individuals respond thoughtfully rather than impulsively with the goal of improving our workplace connections and culture. This workshop will equip participants with practical skills to build self-awareness, communicate effectively, manage conflict, and foster a respectful, collaborative workplace.
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.
Psychological Safety: Creating an Environment for High Performing Teams
March 10, 2026 10:00am-12:00pm
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.
Fundamentals of Project Management
March 18, 2026 1:00am-3:00pm
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 best practices in approaching projects, assessing the scope of the work, the stakeholders and the steps to building a path towards successful completion. This class does not include review or use of project management software.
Customer Service In Higher Education
March 20, 2026 10:00am-12:00pm
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.
The Power of Clear Communication: Building Effective Performance Management Practices
March 26, 2026 10:00am-12:00pm
Creating a culture of clear expectations, with all parties understanding their roles and responsibilities, increases productivity and professional growth while building trust.In this workshop we address approaches to performance management through the process of effective communication. We encourage supervisors and managers to participate.