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Required Employee Training

All UW employees are required to attend certain essential training and institutional onboarding sessions. These courses provide foundational knowledge from which you can continue to learn and grow in your career at UW Tacoma and beyond. If you're a new employee or supervisor, make sure to start here before exploring the UW's wide range of professional development opportunities.

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Professional Development

A culture of continuous learning

UW Tacoma is committed to providing growth and development opportunities for our employees. Professional development is an essential part of an employee's job and benefits both the institution and the individual. While the responsibility for career and professional development rests with each staff member, UW Tacoma provides its employees with a variety of resources and assistance in reaching professional and career goals.

Not sure where to start? Talk to your supervisor about creating a Training Action Plan and/or setting learning goals during regular one-on-ones and annual performance evaluations. Classified staff, check your union contract for training and development requirements.

Supervisors, for resources to guide conversations about professional development with your team, check out the Employee Experience Toolkit.

Taking time to grow

Time off requests are not needed for events or activities required as part of your employment or for professional growth opportunities approved by your manager. Participation is counted as part of your hours worked. Employees should work with their direct supervisor to identify desired professional development opportunities and schedule appropriately to make sure other job duties are also met. For details about taking time off for an event or activity during the work day, including service- and union-related activities, read more here.

Funding resources

Professional development funding is determined by your department. Your supervisor can let you know how the professional development request process works for your specific area.

Additionally, there are alternate funding opportunities available, such as a limited number of quarterly UW Professional & Organizational Development (POD) scholarships and Professional Staff Organization (PSO) Scholarships for those in professional staff roles. Eligible University and state of Washington employees may enroll for and receive a tuition exemption for up to 6 credits each quarter on a space-available basis.

UW POD & SLP
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LIBRARY RESOURCES
UWT PDC CATALOG

UW Professional & Organizational Development (POD)

UW Tacoma employees have access to UW Professional & Organizational Development (POD), a dedicated team of trainers, consultants, and administrative professionals whose mission is to foster positive change in individuals and organizations at the University of Washington. POD partners with organizations across the University and provides training, coaching, and consulting to hundreds of UW leaders, staff, and faculty each year.

POD is a self-sustaining organization, meaning it does not receive University or State funding and must charge fees to maintain programs and services.

UW Tacoma departments are encouraged to budget both funding and time for employee development. POD also offers scholarships.

In addition to fee-based programming, POD also offers many helpful resources online, like Mentoring Tools, Career Planning Tips, and a Training Action Plan for employees or supervisors to initiate development opportunities.

 

Strategic Leadership Program

Did you know the UW has it's very own comprehensive leadership program?

As a new or newly promoted supervisor, you’re expected to attend SLP Supervisor Orientation as soon as possible after starting your supervisory role. Because SLP is centrally funded, there’s no cost to you or your department.

SLP was developed and is facilitated by POD. The curriculum is designed to teach you how to be successful as a supervisor at the University and achieve exceptional performance from your staff.

This unique program combines self-awareness with organizational awareness, policy knowledge with interpersonal skills, and tactics with strategy.

POD continues to revise and update the program in response to emerging management trends, the changing University environment, and other factors, so it's advised that supervisors retake the course every 5 years.

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LinkedIn Learning

Illustration of person working at desk with LinkedLearning logo on desktop computer. Text reads: Unlimited 24/7 access with UW Net ID on desktop and mobile, 16,000+ courses taught by expert instructors, Earn certificates and badges to add to your linkedin profile, create custom playlists or request mapped content

LinkedIn Learning is an on-demand video learning platform to help you develop and enhance skills.

All UW students, staff, and faculty have free, unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning, which is funded by the Student Technology Fee and managed by the UW Career & Internship Center.

Explore thousands of courses taught by expert instructors in multiple languages. Create a custom collection or playlist for your individual development or request content mapping from the LinkedIn Learning team to enhance desired competencies in your department.

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