Course Description

As demand grows for workforce-aligned learning, employer engagement is critical to designing relevant, scalable, and sustainable credentials. This four-week course offers a just-in-time learning experience grounded in UPCEA’s University-to-Business Stakeholder Engagement Tenets and supported by Human-Centered Design principles.

Participants will explore the U2B Design Framework, which blends UPCEA’s five tenets—Research, Validate, Co-Design, Prototype, and Iterate—with adaptable strategies and tools that support empathy, collaboration, and responsiveness. Through hands-on activities and peer exchange, participants will discover practical approaches to align microcredentials, training, and other educational offerings with workforce needs and institutional priorities.

Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all solution, the course supports reflection, benchmarking, and real-world application to help learners build trust-based partnerships with employers and design for strategic, sustainable impact. Designed for both new and experienced professionals across roles, the course builds institutional capacity for employer-responsive credential innovation—wherever your journey begins.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply the U2B Design Framework—grounded in UPCEA’s five U2B Stakeholder Engagement Tenets and supported by Human-Centered Design strategies—to guide collaborative and adaptable employer engagements.
• Benchmark current institutional and individual engagement in U2B work, and explore how the U2B Tenets and Human-Centered Design principles can inform a future-state vision and guide the development of a roadmap for more strategic employer engagement.
• Leverage data, market research, and empathy-driven tools to identify employer needs, validate assumptions, and guide strategic investment in education partnerships.
• Collaborate with anchor employers to transform validated insights into strategic, fundable concepts by using structured ideation tools to explore shared value, partnership models, and credential or training formats.
• Design and refine adaptable, stackable, or stand-alone offerings in collaboration with employers using low-risk, high-impact strategies that address workforce needs and position the institution as a preferred education partner.
• Explore and evaluate strategies for sustaining employer engagement by examining feedback loops, recognition practices, and institutional processes that respond to shifting partner needs and support continuous improvement.

Course Structure and Expectations

This instructor-supported course is delivered over four weeks. Each week combines asynchronous coursework with a one-hour live Zoom session that provides opportunities for discussion, faculty guidance, peer exchange, and application of the U2B Design Framework.