On this episode of "The Engagement Ring," Dr. Jennifer Miller, executive director of Professional and Continuing Education (PaCE) in the Provost's Office at the University at Albany, discusses how the university is helping learners at every stage build new skills, advance their careers, and navigate a rapidly changing world. Dr. Miller shares how PaCE is partnering with employers throughout the Capital Region and New York State to develop stackable credentials and microcredentials while creating flexible learning opportunities in areas such as artificial intelligence, leadership, and nonprofit management. Discover how these innovative programs are helping working professionals, current students, and community members gain in-demand skills and pursue lifelong learning on their own terms.
Professional and Continuing Education at UAlbany (PaCE)
Dr. Jennifer Miller, Executive Director, PaCE
University at Albany Office of the Provost, Division of Academic Affairs
The Engagement Ring, Episode 40:
Keeping PaCE with the Educational Needs of Today’s Workforce and Lifelong Learners
[Lively, upbeat theme music plays as program host Mary Hunt introduces the program and plays excerpts from the program.]
ANNOUNCER/MARY HUNT:
Welcome to the Engagement Ring, your connection to an ever-widening network of higher education professionals, scholars, and community partners working to make the world a better place. I'm Mary Hunt. Today on the podcast…
JENNIFER MILLER:
Short term doesn't mean less quality; it just means very specific learning outcomes based on those skills and competencies that that learner and that organization wants to see from stackable credentials and AI training to customized programs tailored to workforce needs.
ANNOUNCER/MARY HUNT:
We'll explore how the University at Albany is creating educational opportunities for adult learners wherever they are in their academic, professional, or life journey.
JENNIFER MILLER:
They have a lot of responsibilities, but may want to engage in educational and learning for their careers and their own personal interests, so we want to be able to think about what that means for them, and, and that might be a degree program, but it might, they might come in through a non-credit course or program, or a short-term microcredential.
ANNOUNCER/MARY HUNT:
I'll talk with Dr. Jennifer Miller, Executive Director of Professional and Continuing Education, PACE, in the Provost Office at UAlbany, Dr. Miller leads the development of high-quality career-focused learning opportunities for working professionals, organizations, and lifelong learners. She oversees the growth of innovative market-driven programs designed to meet evolving workforce needs and support adult learners throughout the capital region and across New York State.
JENNIFER MILLER:
These new ways of thinking and being innovative about education really fit into the university's innovation and its ability to innovate as we move forward.
ANNOUNCER/MARY HUNT:
Here's my conversation with Jennifer Miller. Welcome to the engagement ring, Jen.
JENNIFER MILLER:
Thanks, Mary. I'm happy to be here.
[Music fades out.]
MARY HUNT:
So, you've been out assessing the landscape, trying to figure out what the continuing ed and professional needs are of our workforce. Tell me a little bit about the last few months for you. What's it been like, and how have you been working with the community?
JENNIFER MILLER:
Sure, so it's really exciting to be here at the University at Albany, and really thinking about professional and continuing education here at the University of Albany, professional and continuing education are programs that are shorter in term in terms of what the input is from the faculty and the staff to develop a really great academic short term opportunity for our community members, so when you're thinking about the terminology of professional and continuing education. I like to start with sort of what it is, so folks know. So, it is an opportunity to do shorter term educational opportunities for our community, as you mentioned. And in the last several months, as I started here as a new addition to the team, I'm looking at, you know, what is the landscape of our learner needs both our internal students and our community members, and then really thinking about how do we develop programs for lifelong learners, working professionals, our own student population in the shorter term educational opportunities area. So really it's been an opportunity to sort of take some of the interesting information that the university has already gathered in professional and continuing education, and then start to think broader about what are the opportunities here for our faculty, staff, and students in thinking about education that is in, like I said, a shorter term in nature, and also but high in academic quality, so in when you look around professional continuing education, for most colleges and universities, there are some engagement, like working with professional organizations or employers, and also with community organizations and others to really understand what those short-term programs could be, with skills and competencies being one of the major focus areas in your research and your conversations with businesses who are looking to develop programming for their workforce. What have you found they need, and what is it about our approach that is different? Well, at the University of Albany, we have a, you know, high-quality academic mission in terms of all the different research and educational opportunities here that go on, and in the, you know, in the area of academic affairs, we have degrees which are more traditional in nature, but the need for short-term, both online and in-person educational opportunities that help stack into our degree programs or associated with our degree programs. I think is where the landscape of this kind of work is going. Other colleges and universities have been doing this as well, but I think University of Albany has a unique opportunity with its strong alumni base, its strong employer relationships already in the community to really figure out and support the needs and skills of employers, but also learners, you know, people who want to come back and explore different topics on a more skills-based approach. So, what I'm finding is that, you know, obviously there are opportunities to do these kind of programs, and we have some strong partners already, we I. Launched a program with Broadview Federal Credit Union to support some of their employees and leaders in areas of AI leadership and communication in skills-based courses, so those have been some that was one initial project that we found as really important in terms of understanding their needs and helping fit that academic focus with really practical applications for their employees, along with the academic learning,
MARY HUNT:
Specifically, what training and education areas are employers or employees who are coming to you on their own looking to boost their skills in
JENNIFER MILLER:
What I've found so far in terms of the needs of learners and organizations is it is a wide variety of possibility, and because University of Albany has so many high-quality schools and colleges, departments, and education programs, it's basically trying to find out what the learner needs are, what they are interested in, and fit that within the university, our expertise. So you know the areas, of course, right now that are very interesting to both employers and learners are things like artificial intelligence, AI, leadership, and communication programming, project management, so some more traditional skills-based activity that isn't necessarily a full degree program that they can learn in shorter term educational opportunities. So those are some of the areas initially we are seeing there are some both sort of on the social sciences side and in the business side areas of interest, but also on the technical side, so in more specific skills that the technology and engineering folks are looking for as well. So I'd like to pinpoint exactly one thing, but I think there's a lot of opportunity there, and it's really trying to find that custom fit for employers where we're very willing to work with an employer to see what their needs are based on what our expertise is, but then also as we develop some of those employer programs, and we think about what the broader learner needs are in other kinds of courses for the community at large, we would then also want to offer some of those in different formats.
MARY HUNT:
Who are the students? Are they people that already have bachelor's degrees or advanced degrees, can people without a college degree take a course? Are they current students, current undergraduates? I mean, who would come to you to take a course?
JENNIFER MILLER:
So our current learners are our current students might come to take what we are calling microcredentials, current meaning on current undergrad and graduate company. I'll start there. As you know, we do have what we call microcredentials, which are shorter term credentials on the on the credit side, which are a collection of courses and a capstone project or presentation or demonstration that is what I would call on the weight of the degree, so that they have a skill and competency in a particular area for our current students that are already here at U Albany to showcase that skill for internships or employer engagement with jobs, and so those opportunities would be for current students to take advantage of, and many of those also are open to non-degree students based on whatever the requirements are for those non degree programs in that academic area, so in that case, on the credit side, we are looking at how do we provide shorter term credentials that are, as I said, on the way to a degree, so that it supports our current students and potential non degree students who just want that standalone credential, and then if they change their mind, they can stack those, so they add into a, you know, a certificate program or a graduate or undergraduate degree program. So, we're starting to build those out for learners that are here, for both students and working professionals and community members, we're offering a suite of non-credit programs, so that there is no grade associated. That's a comp, it's a completion-based credential, and it is intensity sessions or modules rather than classes, and it's open, depending on the subject matter and the level of the actual course, open to, you know, to anyone who would want to participate or has an interest in that. So, there's there are more open courses on topics that would be for working professionals, if they're in the business or nonprofit or government community folks, but also, you know, just learners in general that might have an interest in those, those particular programs, so those are tend to be registration based, as opposed to tuition based programs, and you know those can be offered in person here at U Albany, but also online, so we then look at our alumni population, our alumni that might want to come back. And get new skills, or for folks who are, you know, changing their, their professional direction, or they want to sort of reskill in a particular area, these either non-credit or credit microcredential type of programs would be very valuable, potentially for them, so those are the learn the types of learners where we're envisioning and we're already working with as we move forward.
MARY HUNT:
Are you open to developing or customizing programs when an employer comes to you and says we have this need in our organization?
JENNIFER MILLER:
Yes, and actually that was the model we used with Broadview Federal Credit Union, and we're looking at supporting other organizations in, in the region with those kind of opportunities, so they have an idea, we have a faculty expertise in that area, and that they want a particular skill set, a set of learning outcomes, and we can customize that in terms of format and timing, as well as it's the industry sector, what are they? What's particularly valuable in that topic for their industry? So, yes, we're very open to customizing programs, and especially given the depth and breadth of our expertise here for our faculty. So, we're really, really open to talking to folks and really thinking through how the most effective model would be for that short-term skill-based learning.
MARY HUNT:
You and I were chatting one day, not too long ago, about our own experience getting our master's degrees, and what it might have been like if we had some of these options open to us, because I think we both took several years to get our degrees, for whatever reasons, whether it was working somewhere else, or family, or trying to find the time to juggle education and work, so it's interesting, though. You pointed out to me some of the ways it could have benefited us or could have maybe accelerated our path.
JENNIFER MILLER:
So, when we think about education in our degree programs, it's very valuable. I think a lot of the statistics out there about the value of a college education is still very relevant for our students, both at the undergraduate and graduate level. One of the interesting things about innovation in this credential space, whether it's microcredentials or short, shorter-term courses in executive education, is the ability to what we call stack them, so especially I'll talk specifically on the credit side. When we think about these microcredentials on the credit side, there could be a collection of courses that are part already part of a on the graduate side. We'll take because we were speaking about our graduate degree programs, so it on the graduate side we have in certain disciplines a graduate certificate that also then stacks into a master's program, and the microcredential piece, we can do a piece of the certificate, which we call a microcredential of two or three courses that stacks into the certificate that stacks into the master's degree. So, where people are very excited to be getting their master's degree, right along the way, they can showcase particular skill sets within that degree program that can help them with changing careers, or even maybe thinking about if their employer understands the value, which we are talking with employers, they're starting to understand the value of sort of stackable credentials that then they can showcase that they have those skills, and that helps them from marketability from the student perspective, especially in graduate programs, where many people are working professionals that may want to showcase they have those skills in those courses as they go through their degree program. The other audience, too, are folks that may want master's level work, but are interested in a very specific level of skills in that master's work, and then they could apply as a non-degree student and take those courses, so that whole idea of creating an opportunity, like for you and I, which would have been getting our microcredential, getting our graduate certificate, and then getting our master's degree, it helps keep students engaged, it helps showcase your skills as you are learning and on your way to your degree, so I think those are the opportunities we see here to really expand and support student learning, both, you know, our current students who are on their way to a particular degree, but also, as I said, to folks who are looking to come in and get very specific skills.
MARY HUNT:
Can you talk a little bit about some programs that might be in the works? I know you've got something coming up with related to political campaign training. Also did something with the Nonprofit Leadership Accelerator Program. Talk a little bit about those, Jen. Anything else you want to add about courses that are in the works? It's kind of, you know, those are different. Those seem different to me than what I might expect somebody might come to a program for. So that's very interesting to me,
JENNIFER MILLER:
So we are thinking about sort of, as I mentioned earlier, thinking about what are those courses that we are going to, what we call open enrollment courses, that are available to broad-based community members, and so when we think about those, there's a definite focus. For us here at the University of Albany, and nonprofit support, so we have several courses. One is the ENLA program, the Emerging Nonprofit Leadership Accelerator with Rockefeller College and the great faculty there that are helping support the needs of nonprofit emerging leaders in a 14-week program that at the end they will be able to demonstrate that they have some action research leadership in the area of nonprofit leadership. In addition to that, in the nonprofit sector, we have things like a nonprofit grant writing course that was a short-term course online with nonprofit leaders looking to secure grant funding. So, we have these, these building out these programs in the nonprofit sector. In addition, we have quite a few of the credit credentials that I thought was those were noncredit programs, but on the credit microcredentials we have things like in the AI space, AI plus fundamentals credit micro credential program. We have an AI for business microcredential that's credit-based at the graduate level, so we have a couple of programs that are obviously already in existence, and that we're engaging with folks to take coming forward. We have things in the business space, so we are looking at, we have a coaching for leaders and managers non-credit open program, political campaign management program with Rockefeller, so we have, you know, other programs that are non-credit that are helping support these areas of focus. As we start out in the future, we'll be expanding the number of programs that we're offering as we move into the fall and beyond. Those are sort of a few of the ones that we have currently.
MARY HUNT:
Are all of these programs on a website.
JENNIFER MILLER:
Yes, they are all on the albany.edu backslash pace website, P A C E, and people can go on and search the list of credentials that we have.
MARY HUNT:
It's interesting that the courses people sort of have to up their knowledge base these days on technology, but also the technology itself is probably influencing the way you present these courses and offer them, what role is it playing in terms of how you develop courses in terms of content as well as the platforms or the presentation format for the programming,
JENNIFER MILLER:
I think in terms of content and technology, obviously AI and artificial intelligence, right now, and the university's desire to make sure that our students and our community have access to AI tools and to understand how to use AI is a huge focus in content development, both on the credit side with credit courses and on the non-credit side, as we think about how do we help people understand how AI can be beneficial in their current situations. I think in terms of how we offer courses, just like on the degree seeking side, the advent in the use of online education has been, you know, it's now prevalent in terms of how we offer courses, so using platforms that allow learners from a variety of areas to come together with our faculty member really expands the opportunity in our reach in this area, especially for our alumni that are out of area. So we have a huge alumni base at the University of Albany, many of them may want to come back and take either credit or noncredit courses, shorter courses with us, and you know online learning helps that happen, and I think that's a, you know, that's now more of a, it's one of the tools, so you can do in-person courses, both credit and non-credit, but you also have to think about how can you support learners in the online space, and you know the technology is there to do it, and we have a strong support system here at the University for doing online learning. So, I think that has opened up the opportunity to meet learners where they need and the skills they want in a format they can they can engage in.
MARY HUNT:
How do you consider the work that you're doing to be in alignment with the mission of the university?
JENNIFER MILLER:
So, I think that the alignment for professional and continuing education is really about serving the needs of our learner population, so really serving the workforce and our employer organizations and the learners in that, then those areas are current students in the things that they need in terms of making them competitive in the market from internships and jobs, and especially when we can help them demonstrate their skills in a particular area, as well as demonstrate their overall knowledge in a degree program, so I do think that that that shorter term, especially in the stackable area, as we talk about credit, and then the very specific skills and competencies in the non-credit area really aligns with serving our learners and helping educate our community, helping provide different education. Educational opportunities for people and meeting them with the needs that that they have. I think now you talked about technology, but I think technology has also helped us to think about how do we offer and what is the mechanism to support different types of learning at different stages and looking at microcredentials, as I mentioned, those shorter term courses and programs, or executive education programs, I think, which executive education or employee education are series of noncredit courses that are in particular skills areas that may or may not be a microcredential that have a certificate of completion around them, so it shows competency in the learner, but not necessarily a grade, as a credit course would. So, I think these new ways of thinking and being innovative about education really fit into the university's innovative its innovation and its ability to innovate as we move forward. So that's really aligned with sort of that educational mission, especially at a, you know, a research university, a state-funded research university.
MARY HUNT:
This is our mission. It is our mission to be an anchor.
JENNIFER MILLER:
Yes, and to think about different ways to, to, to provide educational value to our, and that high academic quality, so short term doesn't mean less quality, it just means very specific learning outcomes based on those skills and competencies that that learner and that organization wants to see.
MARY HUNT:
I think that's such an excellent point.
JENNIFER MILLER:
Absolutely, that aligns with our high degree of wanting quality education for our students on the degree seeking side, so we want to match that alignment with any shorter-term credentials that we're offering or programs.
MARY HUNT:
I hear the term badge, what does that mean?
JENNIFER MILLER:
So, when you're thinking about, you know, continuing professional and continuing education, which, you know, I'll just backtrack for one second and talk about, you know, professional and continuing education is used pretty interchangeably. Professional development is a larger term, broader term, conferences, opportunities for people to engage in in learning, and we talk about as professional development. Continuing education is a piece of that, and it's more formal. It tends to be courses, as we've talked about, micro credentials, executive education, some certifications fall into this. Industry certifications, so continuing education has a more formal structure than, say, professional development that we're all very many people are very used to when we talk about micro credentials. That's an even more formalized way to sort of say these are the skills and competencies, whether it's on the credit side, and courses, and usually it's followed by a capstone project of some sort, demonstrable skills, and on the non-credit, it's not courses but modules or sessions that the person completes and gets a completion rather than a grade, and I think what on both sides, how we award, you know, sort of the completion of those is what we call a badge, so it's a typically it's a virtual indication of the learner's mastery of a particular skill topic, and typically there's a lot of ways to give a badge, but there's basically national organizations that help with portability, so for us it's a Credly Badge that we use that says for your micro credential you have completed skills and competencies in this area, and that follows the learner as they go, so they have that that badge, you know, they can actually talk about it on their social media, they can provide it in their various social media tools and outlets, so it really sort of showcases that they have completed that particular micro credential skill set, and I think what's interesting about that is it really does support port of what we call portability of some of these shorter term credentials, and allows a an employer to be able to judge that the University of Albany has issued this badge, and that it has that value proposition, even though it's not a degree program, it has value in what we were trying to support what the learner can know and do, and just demonstrate, so that's the badge portion of the shorter term credentials that we're providing.
MARY HUNT:
Jen, how do you assess the progress of the students, the outcomes of the students, and the coursework? Are there different types of assessments for professional education versus continuing education,
JENNIFER MILLER:
So I think in general there are some of the same assessments we use on the credit side when we issue grades. If we're issuing a micro credential on credit, then the grading and the rubrics and the assessment in those courses are very important. And that's taken into consideration often, though there's an additional demonstration of skills, whether it's a presentation, a project, some sort of thing that brings all of those that coursework together and showcases it, and on the non-credit side, it can be the same, it's a collection of those modules and then a culminating individual project presentation artifact of what they've learned in those skills and those competencies, so the assessment piece is, you know, really up to the faculty member to decide what does that look like in terms of being able to issue that they know these skills and competencies, and then they can issue a completion badge to make sure that we do have some level of competence in those areas that the learner has a competence level, so yes, I think you know not when it's on, when we're giving micro credentials for credit, it's it has to do with the with the elements of that course and what the assessments are there, but on the noncredit side we do assess that as well as faculty members that teach in noncredit, because even if we don't issue a grade, we have to understand completion and what, then that's could be knowledge checks, it could be discussion posts, it could be projects, so it's still learners are still doing activities and work, but they may not get an actual grade for that, because that's not the purpose of that particular learning module. How do you consider the work that you're doing to be in alignment with the mission of the university? So, I think that the alignment for professional and continuing education is really about serving the needs of our learner population, so really serving the workforce and our employer organizations and the learners in that, in those areas, our current students, and the things that they need in terms of making them competitive in the market, from internships and jobs, and especially when we can help them demonstrate their skills in a particular area, as well as demonstrate their overall knowledge in a degree program. So, I do think that that that shorter term, especially in the stackable area, as we talk about credit, and then the very specific skills and competencies in the non-credit area really aligns with serving our learners and helping educate our community, helping provide different educational opportunities for people, and meeting them with the needs that they have. I think now you talked about technology, but I think technology has also helped us to think about how do we offer and what is the mechanism to support different types of learning at different stages, and looking at microcredentials, as I mentioned, those shorter term courses and programs, or executive education programs, I think, which executive education or employee education are series of noncredit courses that are in particular skills areas that may or may not be a microcredential that have a certificate of completion around them, so it shows competency in the learner, but not necessarily a grade as a credit course would. So I think these new ways of thinking and being innovative about education really fit into the university's innovative its innovation and its ability to innovate as we move forward, so that's really aligned with, you know, sort of that educational mission, especially at a, you know, a research university, a state funded research, travel research university.
MARY HUNT:
This is our mission. It is our mission to be an anchor for our community.
JENNIFER MILLER:
Yeah, yes, and to think about different ways to provide educational value to our and high academic quality, so short term doesn't mean less quality, it just means very specific learning outcomes based on those skills and competencies that that learner and that organization wants to see.
MARY HUNT:
I think that's such an excellent point.
JENNIFER MILLER:
Absolutely, that aligns with our high degree of wanting quality education for our students on the degree-seeking side. So, we want to match that alignment with any shorter-term credentials that we're offering or programs.
MARY HUNT:
I hear the term badge. What does that mean?
JENNIFER MILLER:
So, when you're thinking about, you know, continuing professional and continuing education, which, you know, I'll just backtrack for one second and talk about, you know, professional and continuing education is used pretty interchangeably. Professional development is a larger term, broader term, conferences, opportunities for people to engage in in learning, and we talk about as professional development. Continuing education is a piece of that, and it's more formal. It tends to be courses, as we've talked about, credentials, executive education, some certifications fall into this, industry certifications. So, continuing education has a more formal structure than, say, professional development, that we're all very many people are very used to when we talk about. Microcredentials, that's an even more formalized way to sort of say these are the skills and competencies, whether it's on the credit side and courses, and usually it's followed by a capstone project of some sort, demonstratable skills, and on the noncredit it's not courses but modules or sessions that the person completes and gets a completion rather than a grade, and I think what on both sides, how we award, you know, sort of the completion of those is what we call a batch, so it's a typically it's a virtual indication of the learner's mastery of a particular skill topic, and typically there's a lot of ways to give a badge, but there's basically national organizations that help with portability. So, for us, it's a Credly badge that we use that says for your microcredential you have completed skills and competencies in this area, and that follows the learner as they go, so they have that, that badge, you know, they can actually talk about it on their social media, they can provide it in their various social media tools and outlets, so it really sort of showcases their, that they have completed that particular microcredential skill set, and I think what's interesting about that is it really does support port of what we call portability of some of these shorter term credentials, and allows a an employer to be able to judge that the University of Albany has issued this badge and that it has that value proposition, even though it's not a degree program, it has value in what we were trying to support, what the learner can know and do, and just demonstrate. So that's the badge portion of the shorter-term credentials that we're providing.
JENNIFER MILLER:
Jen, your background is tailor made for the work that you are currently doing. You've got such great experience. Share a little bit about your background and the work that you've done in this area.So, you know, I have a little bit of a varied background that I come to the university with, but I think it has really brought me into an interesting place to be able to support this kind of learning. So, I may background is I've been in economic development, so I've worked in a regional economic development organization, helping to support businesses and in that are in a particular region. I've also done a lot of work in higher education in the areas at other universities in corporate relations. I have worked in the SUNY system office, doing work with workforce development, which is aligned with the works that we're doing here at the University of Albany, but in addition, I have myself been teaching non-credit courses for SUNY faculty and staff in a program prior to coming to the University of Albany, so I understand, as an instructor of non-credit, the value of this for learners, and I think that has then I can be helpful to our faculty who are teaching our working professionals and other folks that are taking some of these courses, so that varied background in these areas can be really, I think, helpful as we think about how do we expand our footprint in professional and continuing education, and really becoming a doorway for the university, a door into the shorter term learning, but then that also can very easily help us take people into degree programs as well. So, really kind of thinking about that. So, yes, my background is in economic development and business development, and so that has been really helpful as I work with folks here at the university, and then I work with our, our employers and our community folks,
MARY HUNT:
And you are you all the alum yourself?
JENNIFER MILLER:
I am, I have my master's and communication from the university, and was a, a working professional while I was getting my master's degree here, so it did you know the ability to come back and work in professional and continued education as alum is a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for me, and then I really, I do understand and can really talk about the value of the education here and what we can do to support our learners, so
MARY HUNT:
Yeah, and you know what they're up against, the challenges they face as they try to come back.
JENNIFER MILLER:
Well, and we know working professionals, you know, in an adult, the adult population, which we consider 25 and older, typically, you know, they, they have a lot of responsibilities, but may want to engage in educational and learning for their careers and their own personal interests. So, we want to be able to think about what that means for them, and, and that might be a degree program, but it might, they might come in through a non-credit course or program, or a short-term microcredential, so we really have opportunity to really support those working professionals in the types of education that will be helpful to them in their careers and in their life, so I think, you know, knowing. And having some experience both teaching that and then being a learner in that area, it does give me a unique perspective in helping to support this work, but yeah, we, we really are excited about the opportunities to engage with, with our community, with our employers, and really think through and truly be innovative about how this, these educational models will roll, roll forward. So,
MARY HUNT:
What kind of an impact do you want to make through your offerings?
JENNIFER MILLER:
I think what we want to make sure, in terms of impact, is that we really are able to provide those high-quality academic innovative programs that really support that learner in their interest in their careers, in their interest in their personal enrichment, eventually that we really give them an educational experience that impacts them, that they can take with them wherever they may go, and some of that is through developing those courses that are going to be most supportive of the skills and competencies they need, so that's that impact is going to be in in future years, trying to understand what the market need is and what our learners need and what we can provide in those areas, so I think you know in my vision for the future is that we have an opportunity to support our learners, and wherever they may be in their learning journey, on their, you know, in learning is a lifelong journey for many people, and that they, they come to the University of Albany, and we successfully support them in that learning journey. I think that's the impact piece can help, and, and that you know, and that has a variety of ways that that can be done, so, so really kind of building a program that supports the variety of those ways that we've talked about.
MARY HUNT:
And you've had some courses completed, people have been through the coursework, have you seen any evidence of that impact, heard any stories or testimonials from folks? I mean, what kind of reactions have you got that make you say, yeah, okay, we're having the intended impact, it's working, whether it's from employers who are speaking to you, or you're hearing it from the graduates, if you will, themselves, what, what this, what's the evidence that it's working,
JENNIFER MILLER:
So we are hearing from folks that they are excited about the offerings, they may take a course and then take another course with us, right? So, so that's the best avenue of understanding sort of where, where the value proposition is. We are still early in the process, so we don't have as much data yet as we will as we move forward, but in anecdotally we are finding our learners have been really engaged in in the courses that we've offered so far, so I think that that is has given us a lot of information about how do we grow some of these programs, is what those learners are telling us right now, and again, if they take another course with us, that that shows that they have an interest in that particular area, and moving forward, so, so I think we are seeing some of that, we're seeing in some of our longer term programs. Just anecdotally, I've talked to some of the participants, they're not done yet, but they're very excited about what they're learning as they go, so they're really engaged, and they're using that information in their daily work, which is another piece that is a huge success factor, is that you're taking the learning and you're applying that, so I think those in some of those non-credit courses, that's where we're finding some real interesting impact happening right now, right in real time with our credit, like microcredentials courses, and those things that those are a little longer term, students have to take the courses in the in the program first, but why they want to do that, and what's interesting is that then they can demonstrate that they have those skills, so we are seeing a lot of interest in the first step, which is them thinking about which courses they need to take to complete that credit microcredential, so we are seeing interest there, so that helps us understand that although many of them have not yet completed their microcredential, there's a strong interest in understanding that that will be from them, that that's something they want to do, so we're seeing sort of the interest in engaging as in the first step, but like I said, on the credit side with courses, that takes a little more time because they have to complete the coursework, and you know, we talked a little bit about the benefits of professional courage, continuing education study obviously may propel you forward in your workplace.
MARY HUNT:
Your employer will take note of your new skills, but it's a real confidence booster, isn't it? When you either get a finish a degree program, finish a continuing ed course, or take a professional development course, it really boosts your confidence. I saw when we had a ceremony, you had a ceremony for the Broadview employees who went through their particular training. Everybody was so proud to receive their certificate, wasn't that you handed okay the certificate they received, and it was a really nice ceremony, but you could see the pride, and you could see that they felt they've accomplished something.
JENNIFER MILLER:
Yeah, I think that's the thing that I think people want to enhance skills. They want to come back, they're doing it for a reason, obviously. They feel like they need it for their job, or they need it to change careers, or in the Broadview sense, they want that Broadview wanted to invest in their employees as part of their journey with Broadview and supporting them. And what a great way for an employer to show value is that, that we're going to invest in your learning journey, right. So, Broadview is very innovative in that, and that they've really invested in their employees, and their employees were really engaged in being able to learn some of these topics, and really understand that they could go through, and this was in the non-credit space, go through and complete and receive their certificate of completion, and they were very excited about that, and should be that it is an educational opportunity for them that they should celebrate that they went through that process of learning, and we do see in many noncredit spaces where folks will take a non-credit course or a leadership program or some other type of program that's affiliated with an academic environment, and then get excited and want to go and finish their degree or take on a new degree, so it does spur people to think about, you know, what they want to do next in terms of their, their learning, and so that's really exciting, because learning is about growth, and it's about, you know, professional growth and personal growth. So, when we see people so excited about that, and we then see that they want to do more, I think then we know that this kind of learning is really important as part of our mission as the university.
MARY HUNT:
You and I have talked before, and I've seen you work, and I know all the work that goes into developing these courses, but and the resources too, the time, the resources, the instructors, a lot of work just getting one course off the ground, but let's say you had all the resources you needed, you had all the money you needed, you had the instructor lined up, you had the time, you had a cohort ready to take on the course, what would be that course you would teach? So, there are no restrictions here, but personally, what would you like to see? Yeah, what would you like to offer or see offered?
JENNIFER MILLER:
Well, I hope to do this, Mary. So, thank you for asking. So, the current course that I have taught is a leading change course, so my area of interest and expertise in some of my academic work has been change leadership, so how do organizations and people in organizations take on the work of change, which changes now so common, whether it's technology change, processes, policies, and so in that area in my career I've done a lot of large change projects, I was involved in a lot of large foundation grant work and trying to change organizational structures, so in learning that, and then going into the education that I've had in terms of my doctoral work, really thinking about how to support organizations and employees in change leadership frameworks, and how do we offer some of our employers the opportunity to support their employees?
JENNIFER MILLER:
Change leadership is a skill-based area that does have frameworks that can be supportive, but there are a lot of factors involved in that learning, so in an area, in a growth area, and then an area I like, in terms of where I could be helpful for, for teaching in this area myself, is really that change leadership area in organizations. It's now with technology happening so much faster, and you know, I think a lot of people think they just launch into change projects without really thinking through some of the frameworks and the in the academic support they could get through some of the work that's out there, because typically something like change leadership isn't a degree program, but it is embedded in many degree programs, and it can be really supportive in the non-credit programming space, where people need those type of skills to do those type of projects that come to them...
[Music fades in.]
JENNIFER MILLER:
... so that change leadership area, change management is near and dear to my heart, and hope to expand, you know, into our, you know, onto our community, and support that.
MARY HUNT:
Excellent. So, stay tuned, more to come on change leadership. All right, we'll look forward to that. Hope you'll come back and talk more about that, and about the success of the other programs as well, and I wish you much more continued success with Pace.
JENNIFER MILLER:
Thanks, Mary. I really appreciate that. Yes, I would be happy to come back as we grow this program and think about the future, because I think there is early, early days, yeah, but it's exciting opportunity, and I appreciate the time to come and talk about it with you.
MARY HUNT:
Thanks for being my guest, Jen. It's always a pleasure.
JENNIFER MILLER:
Always a pleasure. Thanks, Mary.
ANNOUNCER/MARY HUNT:
Dr. Jennifer Miller is the executive director of Professional and Continuing Education, PACE, in the Provost Office at the University at Albany. There, she manages the development of high-quality, career-focused learning designed for working professionals, organizations and lifelong learners, Dr. Miller provides strategic leadership to expand UAlbany's professional and continuing education initiatives, ensuring they remain responsive to workforce demands and accessible to a broad learner base. She oversees the development and implementation of innovative market-driven educational offerings and collaborates with stakeholders to create programs that attract and retain adult learners and professionals. To learn more about professional and continuing education at UAlbany, visit the resource page for this podcast at the Engagement Ring dot Simplecast dot com.
The Engagement Ring is produced by the University at Albany's Office for Public Engagement. If you have questions or comments or want to share an idea for an upcoming podcast, email us at UAlbany O P E at Albany dot E D U.