Professional Edge

Strengthen your qualifications to excel in your career.

Professional Edge is an industry-informed collection of short courses designed to help students develop cutting-edge skills essential in the modern job market.

Build targeted, practical skills in an interactive and engaging format and distinguish yourself in a field of other job applicants. As a participant, you'll receive guidance from instructors informed by the latest business trends and leave with tangible tools and stories you can leverage in your career search.

Whether it’s a basic course in Microsoft Teams or a more advanced course in competitive intelligence or Google Analytics, these University of Oregon-backed credentials can be used to highlight your mastery of highly sought-after skills to potential employers.

As you plan your schedule, take advantage of these largely free one- to two-hour sessions conveniently offered throughout the year.

Jan 26
Great Minds Don't All Think Alike (Neurodiverse Workplaces Series) 10:00 a.m.

You’ll leave this session able to describe what neurodivergence and related terms mean, some of the strengths associated with specific neurodivergent identities and...
Great Minds Don't All Think Alike (Neurodiverse Workplaces Series)
January 26
10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Lillis Business Complex

You’ll leave this session able to describe what neurodivergence and related terms mean, some of the strengths associated with specific neurodivergent identities and experiences, how neurodiversity can manifest as cultural diversity, and common themes in neurodivergent people’s varied experiences of workplace climate and culture. You’ll also leave with a framework (Universal Design for Learning, or UDL) you can use in any workplace situation to make our “different minds” work together better!

Competency Alignment:

Critical Thinking Equity and Inclusion Leadership

 

About the instructor:

Laurel Bastian (she/her) is a Faculty Consultant with the Teaching Engagement Program who provides training, consultation, and professional development to UO faculty, specializing in access, inclusion, and student wellbeing. Prior to UO, she was faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, where she taught professional and intercultural communications.

About Professional Edge:

Professional Edge is an industry-informed collection of short courses designed to help students develop cutting-edge skills essential in the modern job market. Build targeted, practical skills in an interactive and engaging format and distinguish yourself in a field of other job applicants. As a participant, you'll receive guidance from instructors informed by the latest business trends and leave with tangible tools and stories you can leverage in your career search.

 

Feb 9
Teamwork & Collaboration Skills for Neurodiverse Inclusive Workplaces 10:00 a.m.

We all want to contribute to and experience teams that are high-performing and feature effective collaboration. Research about teams tells us about some of the qualities teams...
Teamwork & Collaboration Skills for Neurodiverse Inclusive Workplaces
February 9
10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Lillis Business Complex

We all want to contribute to and experience teams that are high-performing and feature effective collaboration. Research about teams tells us about some of the qualities teams need to succeed (like safety, trust, and belonging). But how do we understand and interpersonally contribute to those qualities in a neurodiverse group? This session will help us view some of the foundational approaches to collaborating on teams through a neuro-inclusive lens. You’ll leave with additional cultural competence practices around observing, interpreting, and analyzing interpersonal workplace scenarios. You’ll also apply the UDL framework to identify 1-2 additional practices you want to add to your toolkit when working within teams. 

 

Competency Alignment:

Critical Thinking Equity and Inclusion Leadership

 

About the Instructor:

Laurel Bastian (she/her) is a Faculty Consultant with the Teaching Engagement Program who provides training, consultation, and professional development to UO faculty, specializing in access, inclusion, and student wellbeing. Prior to UO, she was faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, where she taught professional and intercultural communications. 

 

About Professional Edge:

Professional Edge is an industry-informed collection of short courses designed to help students develop cutting-edge skills essential in the modern job market. 

Build targeted, practical skills in an interactive and engaging format and distinguish yourself in a field of other job applicants. As a participant, you'll receive guidance from instructors informed by the latest business trends and leave with tangible tools and stories you can leverage in your career search. 

Feb 9
Dynamic Data Analysis with Power BI noon

Today and every day in the future, organizations you will work for will collect vast amounts of data - and your challenge will be to make sense of it. Excel spreadsheets have...
Dynamic Data Analysis with Power BI
February 9
noon
Lillis Business Complex

Today and every day in the future, organizations you will work for will collect vast amounts of data - and your challenge will be to make sense of it. Excel spreadsheets have their place, but they're static, limited in their ability to visualize data, and time-consuming to build and use. In this training, you will be equipped with the skills to move beyond the confines of stagnant data and transform it into a living, breathing dashboard. 

After this training, you will be able to confidently use Power BI to: 

Transform data: Format data to extract actionable insights.  Create data models: Present your data intuitively and in a visually engaging way, making it easier for your audience to understand complex information.  Visualize data: Tell the story of your data in quick, responsive analytics.   Share assets: The power of automation ensures that your data reaches the right people at the right time. 

In a data-driven world, your ability to extract meaningful insights and make informed decisions is a game-changer. Power BI empowers you with the skills you need to drive decision-making processes, giving you a competitive edge in the job market. 

 

Competency Alignment:

Critical Thinking Technology

 

About Professional Edge:  

Professional Edge is an industry-informed collection of short courses designed to help students develop cutting-edge skills essential in the modern job market. 

Build targeted, practical skills in an interactive and engaging format and distinguish yourself in a field of other job applicants. As a participant, you'll receive guidance from instructors informed by the latest business trends and leave with tangible tools and stories you can leverage in your career search. 

View All Upcoming Events


Industry-Informed Skills
Explore a variety of interactive short courses.
Dynamic Instructors 
Learn from experienced industry practitioners.
Time Efficient 
Build cutting-edge skills in a short timeframe.
Employability 
Excel in your career search with advanced business skills.

What do you want to learn?

We're always looking to expand our current offering of workshops. Email us at professionaledge@uoregon.edu to let us know what subjects you'd like to see us explore in the future.

Previous workshops have explored such topics as:

  • Design thinking
  • Google Analytics
  • Investment plan design and presentation
  • Storytelling for business presentations
  • Tableau

Are you an employer or alumnus looking to get involved?

There are a number of different ways to make meaningful connections within the Professional Edge program. Contact us to learn more.

  • Teach a short course.
  • Sponsor a new series of skill-building short courses.
  • Hire students with demonstrated skill mastery.

Contact

Professional Edge
Lundquist College of Business
1208 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1208
541-346-3303 
professionaledge@uoregon.edu

Program Facilitators

  • Trish Dorman, Senior Associate Director, Student Engagement and Programming
  • Natalie Abele, MBA student
  • Swati Yadav, MBA student