
Adult Learning in Professional Settings, Graduate Certificate
The certificate is an ideal option for professionals seeking to enhance their ability to design effective learning experiences, support workforce development, and advance lifelong learning in their organizations.
Program overview
The Graduate Certificate in Adult Learning in Professional Settings prepares graduate students to apply principles of adult learning in a variety of postsecondary and professional environments. Through coursework in adult education, social contexts, workplace learning, and program planning, students develop the knowledge and skills to design, implement, and evaluate education and training for adult learners.
The 12-credit-hour certificate is available through distance education and can complement a graduate degree or serve as a stand-alone credential. Graduates are prepared to support lifelong learning and professional development in settings such as healthcare, corporate organizations, military, continuing education, higher education, human resources, and government.
Why study Adult Learning in Professional Settings?
The Graduate Certificate in Adult Learning in Professional Settings prepares students to understand how adults learn and apply that knowledge to education, training, and professional development. Students gain practical skills in program planning, workplace learning, and adult education that can be applied across a wide range of professional settings.
The certificate is an ideal option for professionals seeking to enhance their ability to design effective learning experiences, support workforce development, and advance lifelong learning in their organizations.
What can you do with a Graduate Certificate in Adult Learning in Professional Settings?
A Graduate Certificate in Applied Educational Psychology gives you the tools to understand how people truly learn, and the ability to apply that knowledge wherever teaching and training happen. Whether you’re a K-12 teacher, higher ed faculty member, instructional designer, corporate trainer, healthcare educator, or program manager, this credential sharpens your skills in motivation, learning environments, and the facilitation of meaningful change.
Stack it onto an existing graduate degree to specialize your expertise and stand out in a competitive job market, or use it to strengthen your current role with practical, research-backed strategies.
Best of all, it’s flexible: fully online, just 12 credit hours, and designed for working professionals balancing career and coursework. In just a few courses, you’ll gain skills that translate directly into better teaching, training, and learner engagement, making you more effective and more valuable in virtually any educational or training-focused role.
Featured Courses
ACED 521 – Program Planning in Adult Education
Theories and methods from research and practice in planning and operating educational programs. The focus is on the practice of planning educational programs. Concepts can be applied in a variety of contexts such as professional development, health education, training in the workplace, or parent education.
ACED 523 – Adult Learning in Social Context
Examining the social contexts of adult education and the role of adult education in society, including race, class, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity analyses. Addressing relevant historical, sociological, political, and economic factors that influence adult education theory, practice, and research.
ACED 524 – Learning in the Workplace
Theories and concepts supporting design and management of learning activities for adults in the workplace.
EDPY 513 – Issues and ACED 525 – Adult Learning
Key characteristics of adult learners, current theory and research on adult learning, and implications for teaching and learning concepts.


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