Classes & Workshops

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

2026 Winter Cohorts Now Open for Application

2026 UCOP Mentorship Program is an exciting opportunity to share and learn career skills and leadership practices, guide and navigate the UCOP culture, and establish long term professional relationships. Review the program FAQ and register for an info session! Apply to be a mentee or Apply and/or recommend someone to mentor others by December 5, 2025
2026 Take Charge: If you’re an administrative, support or entry-level staff member who’s ready to take your career to the next level, check out Take Charge: Developing a Career Strategy. This six-month L&D-sponsored program will give you the tools you need to thrive in the workplace for years to come. Complete an application November 21, 2025.
2026 Making Power Moves: The President’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (PACSW), in partnership with HR Learning and Development, is pleased to sponsor Making Power Moves: a cohort focused on career advancement strategies with an emphasis on how social and cultural factors influence professional growth and leadership opportunities. This course is designed for UCOP staff who manage projects or people. To learn more, check out the frequently asked questions and course syllabus. Apply today!
2026 Winter Peer Connections: A self-driven UC peer-to-peer networking program that aims to enhance employee connection and belonging within UCOP and across the system through meaningful relationships. Review the Program Overview Complete this short application today.

Class Spotlight

Two courses on facilitating Hybrid meetings:

Mastering the Logistics of Hybrid Meetings: Thurs. Nov 6, 1-2 pm; Effectively facilitating hybrid meetings can be technically challenging. Come learn how to set up hybrid meetings to fully engage both remote and in-person attendees. This course is offered both in person in Oakland and on zoom.
Brainstorming and Decision-Making in Hybrid Meetings: Thurs. Nov 20, 9- 11 am; Come learn protocols to implement in the hybrid environment that are inclusive, engaging, and ignite participation. Leave with new tools and practices to ensure all members of your team have a voice and your hybrid meetings are productive! This course is offered in person in Oakland and on zoom.

New class: Impactful Storytelling: Making Your Presentation Captivate Tues. Nov 18, 1-3:30 pm; The workshop highlights the critical role of understanding your audience, crafting engaging narratives, and applying storytelling principles. This course is part of the UCOP Communication series certificate.

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

Check-In 2: Complete by December 5, 2025

Upcoming Classes and Workshops

Featured

GROWing Your Check In Conversations for Managers

online: Thursday, October 30, 10 am - 12 pm

This workshop is the first session of a two-part series required for managers and supervisors. GROW is a popular conversation framework used around the world for problem solving, goal setting and performance improvement. This interactive session provides managers the opportunity to discuss and practice using GROW framework as a strategy and tool to support engaging employee-manager conversations.

Manager Essentials at UCOP: Compensation

online: Tuesday, November 4, 9:00 am - 12:30 pm

This course 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 as well. For more information about ME@UCOP, read the series overview.

This session is a live, virtual, instructor-led session where we will discuss UCOP Compensation policies and procedures.

ME@UCOP Managing in the Modern Workplace

Broadway, 4001: Wednesday, November 5, 9:00 am - 3:30 pm

In this session, we will discuss UCOP processes and strategies that support building inclusive and engaged teams. Topics include: -Managing remote and hybrid teams, People Development, and Fostering Community and Belonging as a Manager This is part of the Manager Essentials at UCOP (ME@UCOP).

Box Fundamentals

online: Wednesday, November 5, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

This course will give you an overview of Box, the cloud-based service that provides secure file storage and file sharing.

How to use Box
How to collaborate with UCOP and non-UCOP people
Commenting directly on files, folder permissions, shared links, and many other tips that will help you when using Box.

Administrators from IT will be on hand to answer your questions and review the best features of Box. More info on Box can always be accessed on our webpage.

Difficult Conversations

online: Wednesday, November 5, 1:00- 3:00 pm

Ever had a disagreement with someone where the conversation didn’t go quite the way you wanted it to? As conflict is inevitable, join us in exploring strategies for navigating difficult conversations in both your personal and professional life. In this highly interactive course, you will learn Core Principles to successfully navigate disagreements and apply them through practice role-playing. By the end of the workshop, you’ll feel more confident in approaching difficult conversations with anyone in your life. This course is part of the UCOP Communication series certificate.

Influencing Without Authority: Leadership as an Individual Contributor

online : Thursday, November 6, 10 am - 12 pm

Author and CEO coach Kim Scott says that there are two types of star employees: “superstars” and “rockstars.” While superstars are gunning for promotions, rockstars are grounding themselves as experts in their roles. According to recent research, most individual contributors (62%) plan to stay in IC roles over becoming a manager. How can ICs take ownership of their career growth, leverage their knowledge and skills, and make an impact without climbing the ladder? 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.

Mastering the Logistics of Hybrid Meetings

Hybrid: Thursday, November 6, 1:00- 2:00 PM

Effectively facilitating hybrid meetings can be technically challenging. Come learn how to set up hybrid meetings to fully engage both remote and in-person attendees. In this training, we will walk through how to prepare effectively and set up all technical components including audio, camera, and the use of Zoom features. This course is offered both in person in Oakland and on zoom.

Lean Six - yellow belt

online: Thursday, November 6, 8 am - 4:00 pm

In this class, users will learn about and practice using Power BI. Users will learn how to: Connect to data sources. Perform data cleaning, profiling, and shaping. Visualize data with Power BI. Create interactive visualizations. Enhance reports and dashboards. Publish and share reports and dashboards.

3 Practice Circles Listening Session

online: Thursday, November 6, 1:05 - 2:20 pm

A 3Practice Circles Listening Session is an inclusive space where UCOP employees come together to listen, share, and connect as a community. It is a simple, respectful way to engage in conversation within 3 practices:

1. Listen with your whole self
2. Be curious and ask questions
3. Share from your own experience

The Listening Session will be by facilitated by Ombudsperson Callale Concon and past APISA Chair Tony Yang. The focus question for this discussion is:
“What helps you feel balanced and engaged in your work, and what makes it more challenging?

People Leader Forum: Fostering Resilient Teams during Uncertain Times

Online: Friday, November 7, 1pm- 2 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.

Nov 7: Fostering Resilient Teams during Uncertain Times

Dec 5: Team Wellness

Excel Power BI - Session 1 of 3

online: Wednesday, November 12, 9 am- 12 pm

Participants will need to have Microsoft Power BI software installed prior to the class. Follow the ITS ordering information to request the free version if you don’t already have it downloaded.

Note: This is a three-session course. Participants must attend all sessions. Next sessions are:

Thursday Nov 13, 9 am – 12 pm
Wednesday, Nov 19 9 am – 12pm

Self-Care in the Workplace

online: Friday, November 14, 9:00 am- 11:00 am

Adapting the necessary tools of self care improves emotional, cognitive, and spiritual capacity, while offering the opportunity for connection and thoughtful partnership. Creating the spaces and opportunities to care for yourselves opens the possibility of sustainability, longevity, and healthy personal and team dynamics. Facilitated by Dr. Nicole Williams Browning, participants will identify the different components of self care, identify key attributes of each component, highlight self care specific for leaders, and create a plan for better self care.

Impactful Storytelling: Making Your Presentation Captivate

online : Tuesday, November 18, 1:00 - 3:30 PM

This workshop is designed for people seeking to master storytelling as a strategic communication tool. Through interactive exercises, participants will discover how to effectively use storytelling to clarify their vision, motivate teams, and drive organizational objectives. The workshop highlights the critical role of understanding your audience, crafting engaging narratives, and applying storytelling principles. This course is part of the UCOP Communication series certificate.

Key Takeaways:

Effective narrative crafting techniques for a broad organizational audience.
Utilization of psychological principles to deepen audience engagement and message retention.
Customization of storytelling to align with audience needs and organizational goals.
Hands-on experience in refining and presenting stories for maximum impact.
Integration of storytelling into regular business communication and strategic presentations.

Brainstorming and Decision-Making in Hybrid Meetings

Hybrid: Thursday, November 20, 9:00- 11:00 AM

It’s critical for all team members to have a voice when it comes to collaborative processes like brainstorming and decision-making. Facilitating collaborative meetings can be especially challenging in a hybrid environment. In this workshop, we will learn step-by-step protocols to implement in the hybrid environment that are inclusive, engaging, and ignite participation. Leave with new tools and practices to ensure all members of your team have a voice and your hybrid meetings are productive!

This course is offered in person in Oakland and on zoom.

Gratitude in Action: How a Daily Practice Can Change Your Brain- FSAP Webinar

online: Thursday, November 20, 12:00 PM- 1:00 PM

Over the last 20 years the wealth of research supporting Mindfulness and Gratitude practices has been steadily rising but finding the right practice (and the time to do it) can feel daunting. Focusing on the specific needs and experiences of our UCSF and UCOP communities, this presentation reviews the most recent research supporting the benefits a daily gratitude practice and offers brief intervention tools that can have a profound impact on how your brain interprets the world. Please join us to:

Learn about the recent research supporting the benefits of practicing Gratitude
Explore the available options for creating a daily Gratitude practice
Review common barriers to starting a new practice • Create an individual plan for implementing a Gratitude practice
Try out a few different ways of practicing

Gratitude Presenter Biography: Jessica Allanson, PhD, MA, is a licensed clinical psychologist with the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program at UCSF and runs the FSAP Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program.

GROW Plus: Accountability Conversations for Managers

online : Wednesday, December 3, 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.

UCOP Wellbeing: 6: Mindfulness Practices

Online: Friday, November 21, 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. Bring

Nov 21: Mindfulness Practices

UCOP Creating Accessible Documents 1: MS Office

online: Wednesday, December 3, 1-2:30 pm

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.

ME@UCOP: Recruitment and Onboarding

online : Friday, December 5, 9:00- 12:00 pm

This is a live, virtual, instructor-led session where we will discuss UCOP Talent Acquisition and On Boarding, including: – UCOP Hiring steps and process – Inclusive Recruitment – UC, State, and Federal policies and laws – On Boarding process, tools, and best practices 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 managers are welcome to attend.

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.