Classes & Workshops

Note: All listings on this page reflect Pacific Time. Unless noted otherwise, classes are held virtually via Zoom.

Class Spotlight: Upcoming classes

UCOP Communication series certificate courses:

Delivery Skills Connecting with your Audience– March 17th, 9am-12pm,
Write Right: Business Writing Essentials – 2 session course, April 8 and 15, 9 am – 12 pm.

Growing leadership, communication, and influence:

Managing Up: Cultivating a Partnership with Your Manager, Wed March 18, 10 am- 12 pm
Influencing Without Authority: Leadership as an Individual Contributor, Wed April 1^st, 10 am – 12 pm

Cohort Learning Opportunities:

- EXTENSION: UCOP People Management Integrated Learning Program (PM-ILP). Our highest rated cohort is open to current and aspiring managers. Complete the 2026 PM-ILP Program Application by Friday March 13.
Opportunities from other Campuses
- UC Berkeley People Management: Power Skills and Certificate cohort Free and open to managers at all levels, supervisors, and project leads. Take this as a series or just one class. Questions: grow@berkeley.edu.
- 2026 FSAP and UCSF 8-Week Mindfulness-Based Course Tuesdays, 3-4pm for 8 weeks (3/31- 5/19) Required Information Session: Tuesday, March 17, 2026; 12:00-1:00 p.m. – Webinar link (Passcode: 1234). Questions? FSAPmindfulness@ucsf.edu
- 2026 UCR Staff Conference | Staff Assembly All campuses welcome March 24–25, 2026 for the annual UCR Staff Conference, themed “Together, We Rise.” Register for virtual and free sessions.

STEP Deadlines & Resources for the 2025/20206 Performance year

STEP learning resources | Watch the short STEP overview video | Contact your STEP team | FAQs for quick answers

Final Check-in: Complete by March 27, 2026

Upcoming Classes and Workshops

Featured

UCOP Wellbeing Monthly Lunch and Chat: From Snap Judgments to Self-Awareness: A Midday Conversation

Online: Friday, March 6, 12:10 - 12:55pm

Take a mindful pause in your day and join us for this virtual monthly series for individual and collective wellbeing. There will be space for reflection, discussion, and real-life application.

3/6: From Snap Judgments to Self-Awareness: A Midday Conversation : We all judge sometimes; it’s a very human thing to do. This lesson will help us understand why we judge and how it affects both ourselves and others. Our goal isn’t to stop judging completely, but to become more aware and compassionate. Through thoughtful reflection, open discussion, and hands-on exercises, we’ll gently change how we view judgment, helping us create a more understanding and kinder world for everyone.

4/3: Return to Center: Finding Clarity in Busy Moments: In the midst of competing priorities and constant demands, it’s easy for our minds to feel cluttered and reactive. Guest Speaker Jen Nguyen will lead this workshop to help us explore how to gently “return to center” by learning how to direct your attention with intention. Participants will discover simple, practical techniques—using breath, body, and senses—to calm the nervous system and regain clarity. Walk away with tools you can use in real time to feel steadier, more focused, and more present in busy moments.

People Leader Forum: STEP Tips and Support

online: Friday, March 6, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

The People Leader Forum is a monthly opportunity for people managers to connect with one another to develop leadership skills, build community, share best practices, swap strategies for navigating current challenges and learn to better support themselves and their teams. The 2026 PLF schedule is up.

3/6: STEP Tips and Support
3/20: Managing Representing Employees (Extended session 1-2:30 pm)
4/24: Talent Insight process – Uncovering potential, planning for the future!
5/29: Employee Relations 101

GROW Plus: Accountability Conversations for Managers

online : Friday, March 13, 9:30 am - 12:00 pm

GROW Plus: Accountability Conversations for Managers is the second part in the required live training series on manager and employee performance conversations. The previous STEP trainings are all prerequisites to this training.

Delivery Skills

online: Tuesday, March 17, 9am- 12pm

For many, public speaking and giving formal and informal presentations can be uncomfortable and daunting. Luckily, delivery skills ca be practiced and improved on with each presentation. This session will focus on identifying anxieties about presenting and how to prepare for them, explore different presentation styles and techniques to engage with your audience, and tips and tricks to making your next presentation a success! This session will be interactive and participants are asked to bring a recent presentation, outline, or presentation idea to practice.

This course is part of the UCOP Communication series certificate.

Managing Up: Cultivating a Partnership with Your Manager

Online: Wednesday, March 18, 10am - 12pm

The manager-employee dynamic can be powerfully productive or woefully fraught. The big question is: what’s within YOUR locus of control as an employee to get what you need from your manager? In this workshop we’ll focus on exploring ways to develop a mutually beneficial working relationship with your supervisor as an individual contributor. This workshop will explore how individual contributors can develop trust by exploring their manager’s perspective, advocating for self, and providing upward feedback. This highly interactive session will review best practices to document your performance, communicate clearly, and practice delivering upward feedback.

UCOP Safety: Active Attacker Training

Online: Thursday, March 19, 1pm- 2pm

Melissa Collins, Program Manager for Security, Risk and Resilience, will facilitate this live virtual class in which participants will learn skills and strategies to respond if exposed to active attacker situations. The course will review real-life incidents and discuss options in the event of potential similar encounters. Melissa joined UCOP after serving 20 years with the UC San Diego Police Department, retiring as a lieutenant, and is a safety expert.

ME@UCOP: Budget & BRC

Online: Tuesday, March 24, 10am - 11am

This is a live, virtual, instructor-led session where we will discuss the UCOP budget process and landscape and Bruin Resource Center (BRC). Topics will include: – Budget process and timeline – UCOP Integrated Financial Systems (PBS and FIS) – BRC teams and services – BRC trainings and resources This is part of the Manager Essentials at UCOP (ME@UCOP). It is required for all people new to a management or supervisory positions at UCOP since 2020 (internal promotions and external hires). All experienced managers are welcome to attend.

UCOP Creating Accessible Documents 2: PDFs

Online: Monday, March 23, 1pm - 2:30pm

Building off the Creating Accessible Documents 1: MS Office training, Accessible PDF Documents offers a deep dive into using Adobe Acrobat Pro to manipulate, tag, and test PDF documents for accessibility. We will cover tagging documents from scratch, what common accessibility errors are, tables, and building accessible PDF forms. In order to fully participate in this class, you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Pro installed (not just Acrobat Reader). Prerequisite course: Creating Accessible Documents 1: MS Office training.

Influencing Without Authority: Leadership as an Individual Contributor

Online: Wednesday, April 1, 10am - 12pm

In this workshop we’ll dive into the leadership skills all “rockstars” need to become influential contributors: building trusting workplace relationships, managing up, carving out a niche area of expertise, and connecting the dots from your role to the organizational mission.

Attendees will:

Gain insight into their unique position of influence within the organization.
Explore the leadership skills of relationship building, managing up, honing expertise, and aligning work to the organizational mission.
Identify one skill they want to strategically focus on for the next month

Excel Advanced Data Analysis (Session 1 of 2)

Online: Tuesday, April 7, 9am - 12pm

Prerequisite- Intro to Data Analysis

Excel Data Analysis Advanced: In this two-part class, participants will learn:

Essential Excel Skills
Work with multiple worksheets and workbooks.
Share and protect workbooks.
Automate workbook functionality
Dynamic arrays
Auditing Tools
Forecast data
Map data

This is part of the Data Analysis Series

Attendance is required for both sessions, April 7 and 14, 9am- 12 pm

Write Right: Business Writing Essentials (Session 1 of 2)

Online: Wednesday, April 8, 9am - 12pm

Instructor-led interactive workshop designed to enhance participants’ writing skills with a focus on clarity, structure, grammar, and punctuation. The workshop covers key writing fundamentals such as sentence structure, punctuation rules, readability strategies, active voice usage, parallelism, subject-verb agreement, and pronoun clarity. Emphasis is placed on making business writing clear, concise, and effective to ensure messages are more likely read and easily understood by readers.

Attendance is required for both sessions, April 8 and April 15, 9am- 12 pm

UCOP Project Management II (Session 1 of 3)

Online: Thursday, April 9, 8:30am - 12:30pm

This is a three-part series, Project Management Level II, led by The Center for Project Management. Attendance for all three-parts is required (April 9, April 16, April 23)

This workshop series emphasizes traditional project management techniques that are highly relevant to the UC project environment with practical tools, methods and techniques for immediate application in your work environment.

Session 1 Objectives:

Review and reflect on the project management foundations series
Learn techniques to lead a thriving project team
Learn how to establish a project’s priorities
Build skills and learn a process to manage project change control

Prerequisite: Completion of Project Management 1, or previous PM experience

The Science of Managing Stress

Online: Friday, April 10, 11am - 12pm

Stress is an inevitable part of life—and while some stress is helpful, chronic stress can impact us mentally, physically, and even at a cellular level. In this engaging and research-informed session, participants explore the latest findings on stress, resilience, and recovery, and learn practical tools to manage stress more effectively in today’s complex work environment. Participants will explore actionable strategies across three areas:

Mind – Reframing thoughts, building uncertainty tolerance, practicing gratitude and self-compassion
Body – Breathing techniques, restorative rest, movement, and training for resilience
Scenery – Modifying physical and social environments to reduce stress cues and support well-being

Excel Advanced Data Analysis

Online: Tuesday, April 14, 9am - 12pm

Prerequisite- Intro to Data Analysis

Excel Data Analysis Advanced: In this two-part class, participants will learn:

Essential Excel Skills
Work with multiple worksheets and workbooks
Share and protect workbooks
Automate workbook functionality
Dynamic arrays
Auditing Tools
Forecast data
Map data

This is part of the Data Analysis Series

Attendance is required for both sessions, April 7 and 14, 9am- 12 pm

STEP: Goals and Competencies

Online: Tuesday, April 14, 1pm - 2pm

In this instructor-led training on the Staff Talent Evaluation Process (STEP), we will expand on the materials presented in the STEP Fundamentals for Employees eCourse by going into detail on the first stage of STEP, Define Criteria. You will practice writing goals and review how to align them to the UCOP Competencies. This course is designed to support new employees and employees who would like a refresher to elevate their STEP goals.

UCOP Write Right: Baseline Business Writing Skills

Online: Wednesday, April 15, 9am - 12pm

Prerequisite- Write Right: Business Writing Essentials

A crucial refresher on the “nuts and bolts” of writing, equipping attendees with practical skills that they can immediately apply in business communications. The workshop covers key writing fundamentals such as sentence structure, punctuation rules, readability strategies, active voice usage, parallelism, subject-verb agreement, and pronoun clarity. Emphasis is placed on making business writing clear, concise, and effective to ensure messages are more likely read and easily understood by readers.

Attendance is required for both sessions, April 8 and 15, 9am- 12 pm

Project Management II

Online: Thursday, April 16, 8:30am - 12:30pm

Prerequisite – UCOP Project Management II (Session 1 of 3)

This is a three-part series, Project Management Level II, led by The Center for Project Management. Attendance for all three-parts is required (April 9, April 16, April 23).

Session 2 Objectives

Learn how to assess and manage project complexity
Learn techniques to lead a thriving project team
Learn how to practice a methodology to identify, prioritize, plan and manage project risks
Learn tools and techniques for planning and managing project quality

Managing Psychological Safe Teams

Online: Friday, April 17, 10am - 12pm

Research shows that a culture of psychological safety is the #1 determinant of team success, beating out average team tenure and IQ. But what is psychological safety, and what power do we have to influence the working conditions of our teams? Join us in this workshop designed for managers as we:

Define the benefits of building a culture of psychological safety on your team.
Explore the 4 Stages of Psychological Safety and the behaviors associated with each.
Assess your current team culture and behaviors that contribute to or reduce psychological safety.
Engage with the BICEPS framework for keeping a pulse on psychological safety on an individual level.

UCOP Creating Accessible Documents 1: MS Office (Session 1 of 2)

Online: Tuesday, April 21, 1pm - 2:30pm

Digital accessibility is about ensuring users with disabilities can easily access and engage with any digital content. In this course, you will learn the principles of digital accessibility, how to generate accessible Microsoft Office Documents and how to export these to PDF. This is the first course in the series and a prerequisite for UCOP Creating Accessible Documents 2: PDFs.

UCOP Basic Safety Awareness

Online: Wednesday, April 22, 1pm - 2pm

Melissa Collins, Program Manager for Security, Risk and Resilience, will facilitate this 30-minute live virtual class that will provide basic safety tips to help employees feel informed, alert, and safe as they travel to and from the workplace. Extra time will be allotted for questions and feedback. Melissa recently joined UCOP after serving 20 years with the UC San Diego Police Department, retiring as a lieutenant, and is a safety expert.

Subtle Acts of Exclusion

Online: Wednesday, April 22, 9am - 12pm

The term “microaggression” has become widely used, yet just as widely misunderstood. Join us as we reframe microaggressions as Subtle Acts of Exclusion (SAE). Explore the SAE framework and participate in group dialogue on how to normalize interrupting these acts and engage colleagues in discussion. In this session, participants will: Reflect on socialization and its impact on our outlook, attitudes, and behaviors Understand the shift in language from Microaggressions to Subtle Acts of Exclusion Explore the Subtle Acts of Exclusion Framework Participate in group dialogue on best practices to interrupt SAEs.

Project Management II

Online: Thursday, April 23, 8:30am - 12:30pm

Prerequisite – UCOP Project Management II (Session 2 of 3)

This is a three-part series, Project Management Level II, led by The Center for Project Management. Attendance for all three-parts is required (April 9, April 16, April 23)

Session 3 Objectives

Explore a framework for anticipating and managing the organizational change of implementing a project
Build skills in activating leaders to champion your project
Learn how to build a project communication plan and effectively engage project stakeholders throughout a project

People Leader Forum

Online: Friday, April 24, 1pm- 2pm

The People Leaders Forum is a monthly opportunity for people managers to connect with one another to develop leadership skills, build community, share best practices, swap strategies for navigating current challenges and learn to better support themselves and their teams.

Box Advanced

Online: Tuesday, April 28, 11am - 12pm

Want to know how to securely store sensitive data in Box? Interested in how to get data into Box via email or URL? Sign up for this advanced Box class and we will cover a wide range of topics including setting up alerts to monitor folders and using Box groups to manage department collaborations.

Practical Productivity

Online: Wednesday, April 29, 10am - 12pm

Time management can feel daunting. Competing priorities, unruly calendars, and tight time budget can leave you feeling like you’ve spent all day running on a treadmill with little to show for your efforts. Join us in this two-hour class as we strategically tackle the four phases in the time management cycle: prioritize, organize, execute, track. You’ll be introduced to a buffet of time management tools and practices that will help you identify and address your biggest barriers to a balanced and productive work life.

Additional Classes

Using the UC Learning Center

Registration: Log in to the UC Learning Center using your UCOP login and password. In the Search box on the left, enter the name of the class you want. Select the session you want, then select the Register box and Submit.

Cancellation: You can cancel your registration through the UC Learning Center. We ask that you cancel 48 hours before the scheduled class time so that others may sign up, or contact the Learning & Development Team.

If you require any assistance or accommodation with finding, registering or attending a class please email the Learning & Development Team.