University of Wisconsin announced a program Wednesday to help working professionals who want to further their education but sometimes can’t due to additional job obligations.
UW’s Advance Your Career program, which launched last month, aggregates the university’s online and flexible courses available on campus on one website, Jeffrey S. Russell, dean of continuing studies and vice provost for lifelong learning, said.
Advance Your Career will offer two new online certificates, one in geodesign and one in power conversion and control, in the fall, according to a UW statement.
The website is intended for adults in the community with bachelor’s degrees who are already employed and don’t have the flexibility to attend a residential campus, he said.
“The idea is to try to make sure that the working adult can continue their education in a high quality educational experience through an institution like ours and remain in their local community and active in the workforce,” Russell said.
There has been an increasing demand for courses as Advance Your Career has developed more programs in science, nursing and social work, Russell said.
The university has also seen this demand in the computer, technology and engineering fields, where people have an interest in continuing their education but don’t want to quit their job and move to Madison, he said.
The website will make it easier for potential students to see what kinds of programs are available, Russell said. Often times, people get “buried” into an academic department’s website because it difficult to find these programs, he said.
“The portal is to be an access point for this narrow audience to understand what kinds of things we have available here at UW,” Russell said. “A lot of times they’re not sure where to start.”