Where do you want your career to go in 2025? At UW Professional & Continuing Education, we have a fresh batch of new programs in store for the new year. Whether you want to refresh your skills in a specific area or build a new area of expertise, there’s a path for you.
1. Technology
Web & Digital Accessibility
- Type: Specialization
- Starts: January 2025
- Duration: 12 weeks
- Where: Online (Online Asynchronous)
Making websites and other digital content accessible isn’t just a good idea — it’s the law. An April 2024 federal ruling gives state and local governmental entities two years to make their digital content compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. At the same time, companies and other private and nonprofit organizations are striving to make their digital content and software more inclusive for everyone, which promises to spark increasing demand for roles related to accessible content.
In this specialization, you’ll learn techniques and strategies for developing digital content that meets accessibility standards and reaches the widest audience possible. You’ll explore the concept of disability justice and study the web and mobile accessibility standards that are part of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
You’ll also study universal design, assistive technologies and different accessibility tools and resources. The course includes hands-on exercises, including creating a real-world accessibility plan that meets the latest legal standards.
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Advanced Java Programming
- Type: Specialization
- Starts: January 2025
- Duration: 11 weeks
- Where: Online (Online Synchronous)
Java is among the most popular computer programming languages, underpinning a diverse variety of applications. The language is common in full-stack web development, server-side or back-end application development and cloud-based development.
This specialization allows experienced Java users to go deep into building and maintaining web services in Java and get up to speed on Java 21. You’ll explore new and advanced features of the language, discover how to implement event modeling and abstract functions, and deploy your own Java-based application.
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Visual Design for Digital Media
- Type: Course
- Starts: February 2025
- Duration: 9 weeks
- Where: Online (Online Synchronous)
In today’s hyperactive digital media environment, brands and organizations have mere seconds to capture your attention before you scroll on by or click away. That's why engaging visual design is a must to stand out from the crowd.
In this course, you'll get the skills to develop compelling design assets for use on various digital marketing platforms. You’ll learn proven tools and techniques for creating content for web and social media channels that delights users and leads to further engagement and conversion. We’ll explore content hierarchy and composition, discuss issues of brand consistency, and investigate iconography, animation, interactive design elements and more. You’ll also practice using generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in your design workflow.
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2. Marketing
Brand Management
- Type: Specialization
- Starts: January 2025
- Duration: 11 weeks
- Where: Online (Online Synchronous)
“A brand is a living, breathing thing,” says Jonah-Kai Hancock, an experienced marketer and instructor for the UW Specialization in Brand Management. “It has its own identity. It has a color scheme, a font, and a look and feel to it. It all starts with the brand.”
This specialization gives you the skills to build, manage and optimize a standout brand that inspires loyalty and drives sales. You’ll investigate major brand marketing principles — including brand architecture, brand trust and brand resilience — and study how branding and marketing practices work together to maximize effectiveness. We’ll examine unique aspects of branding in the digital age and study practical techniques for managing a brand across different channels and consumer touchpoints.
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Product Marketing
- Type: Specialization
- Starts: January 2025
- Duration: 11 weeks
- Where: Online (Online Synchronous)
In this specialization, you’ll explore how to drive customer adoption and product sales with compelling marketing campaigns. We’ll cover essential concepts for product positioning, learn how to research market trends, investigate consumer behavior, discuss market segmentation and practice creating messaging frameworks. You’ll also learn to use digital tools and analytics platforms to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.
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Marketing Foundations
- Type: Course
- Starts: January 2025
- Duration: 7 weeks
- Where: Online (Online Synchronous)
Are you thinking about pivoting your career toward marketing? Or perhaps your role suddenly includes pitching in on marketing efforts? If you’re new to the field, getting professional training can make all the difference.
In this introductory course, you’ll dive into the fundamentals of marketing. We'll explore different marketing channels and frameworks, discuss consumer behavior and investigate market segmentation techniques. You'll also develop creative marketing collateral and learn how to write an effective marketing plan.
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Social Media Marketing
- Type: Specialization
- Starts: April 2025
- Duration: 11 weeks
- Where: Online (Online Synchronous)
“Social media is the only marketing function that flows seamlessly across every touch point in the consumer ecosystem, whether you work for a nonprofit, a small business, an enterprise-level organization or in academia,” says Kelley Myers, director of social for the software company Autodesk and the instructor for the new UW Specialization in Social Media Marketing.
In our new specialization, you’ll discover what it takes to succeed in the fast-paced world of social media marketing. You’ll learn the techniques for engaging your audience, creating and managing social content and calendars, fostering community and measuring outcomes. We’ll also cover common legal and ethical considerations in social media and the dos and don’ts of cultivating a powerful bond with your brand’s followers.
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3. Health Care
Speech, Language & Hearing Foundations
- Type: Certificate
- Starts: June 2025
- Duration: 12 months
- Where: Online (Online Asynchronous)
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) help people of all ages and backgrounds cope with speech, language, hearing and swallowing impairments. Given the growing awareness of these challenges faced by everyone from young children to aging adults, there is increasing demand for well-qualified SLPs across various educational and health settings.
This nine-course certificate program enables you to complete the undergraduate coursework and clinical observation hours needed to apply for graduate study in speech-language pathology. You’ll get an in-depth overview of the social, behavioral, physical and biological bases of speech, language, hearing and swallowing. You’ll also study the clinical processes used to identify, prevent and treat the various conditions that people experience related to communication and swallowing disorders, including evidence-based and ethical clinical practice methods.
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4. Business
Recruiting & Talent Acquisition
- Type: Specialization
- Starts: January 2025
- Duration: 11 weeks
- Where: Online (Online Synchronous)
An organization is only as good as its people, which is why recruiting top-quality employees is a priority at companies of all sizes. These organizations need human resources professionals with the skills and expertise to identify and attract the best employee talent.
In this specialization, you’ll uncover the secrets to successful talent acquisition and revolutionize your approach to recruiting. You’ll explore the latest recruiting tools and technologies, learn the art of candidate sourcing and pipeline management, and hone your strategic mindset. You’ll also gain insights on crafting an employer brand, building and supporting a diverse and equitable workforce, and enhancing the candidate experience.
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Business Technology Essentials
- Type: Course
- Starts: February 2025
- Duration: 7 weeks
- Where: Online (Online Synchronous)
Today’s workplace is chock-full of tech tools and processes that didn’t exist a decade ago. Keeping up with ever-evolving office technologies is a vital part of remaining effective in your job.
This course will guide you through the essential tech tools you need to know and some of the newer technologies starting to emerge, such as automation. You’ll learn about modern data security practices, file management (both on a server and in the cloud), automating tasks on Mac and Windows, formatting documents with word-processing software, and communication tools such as Outlook and Teams. Gain confidence with office technology and boost your efficiency in a supportive learning environment.
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Advancing DEIB in Organizations
- Type: Certificate
- Starts: March 2025
- Duration: 10 months
- Where: Online (Online Synchronous)
Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) principles are an important part of the missions of many corporate and governmental organizations today. Ensuring that your organization’s efforts to uphold these values are robust and reflect the latest best practices is an ongoing challenge.
In this four-course certificate program, designed for those who already have a foundation in DEIB work, you’ll take a deep dive into advanced DEIB concepts. You’ll explore how to create psychologically safe environments and examine strategies for handling conflict and addressing systemic issues of oppression in the workplace.
We’ll examine anti-racist, inclusion-centered approaches to organizational challenges and investigate how to plan and run inclusive meetings, trainings and other programming. You’ll also get hands-on experience in developing a variety of formal DEIB statements and complete other real-life projects to advance your DEIB knowledge and expertise.
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Business Writing Foundations
- Type: Course
- Starts: April 2025
- Duration: 8 weeks
- Where: Online (Online Asynchronous)
Whether it’s an email to your manager, a presentation to a client or another form of business communication, clear, persuasive writing is extremely important in the workplace. Learning to write well in a business context can pay dividends throughout your career.
In this foundational course, you’ll learn the essential principles for becoming a more skilled, confident writer. You’ll brush up on your grammar and punctuation knowledge, discover what makes writing “consumable,” and find out how to avoid common bad writing habits.
You’ll also explore issues of inclusivity, accessibility, and voice and tone that have become increasingly relevant in the modern workplace. And you’ll practice strategies for leveraging the latest artificial intelligence (AI) tools and other writing aids to produce compelling, error-free content.
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UX Research
- Type: Specialization
- Starts: April 2025
- Duration: 7 weeks
- Where: Online (Online Synchronous)
User experience (UX) research — the process of gathering information about the needs, behaviors, and pain points of customers to inform product design and development — is a crucial aspect of business strategy in many industries today. With high-quality UX research, companies can create products and experiences that better match customer expectations and generate higher sales and engagement.
This specialization will teach you how to use industry-standard tools and techniques to produce valuable, actionable UX insights. You’ll investigate a variety of user research methods, including usability tests, interviewing, surveys, sampling techniques and more. We’ll explore the factors that influence user preferences, needs, frustrations and other phenomena of human behavior. You’ll also develop a UX research portfolio to demonstrate your skills and knowledge.
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Keep Learning
Check out all our certificates, specializations and courses starting in 2025 and find a program that’s perfect for you.