Empower Your Future: Undergraduate Course Offerings for Fall 2025 by WFED
Empower Your Future: Undergraduate Course Offerings for Fall 2025 by WFED
Explore the exciting opportunities available through the Workforce Education and Development (WFED) program at Penn State. Our courses are designed to empower you with essential skills and knowledge that will enhance your academic journey and prepare you for a successful career.
Featured Course: WFED 197G Career Planning and Life Design (GenED - GHW)
Here are the course offerings for Fall 2025:
Course List
- Instructor: Hyung Joon Yoon
- Schedule: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 3:05PM - 4:20PM
- Location: Osmond Lab 101
Course Overview: This General Education course (GHW - Health and Wellness) provides a comprehensive exploration into self-understanding, career planning, and personal development from a lifespan perspective. It aims to offer students a detailed and transformational journey, starting with self-awareness and leading to an insightful understanding of their identity and unique strengths.
Benefits:
- Fulfills General Education Requirement (GHW)
- Develop self-awareness and understand personal strengths
- Create actionable strategies for future career paths
- Learn to connect personal aspirations with societal impact
- Enhance leadership potential and ability to inspire change
- Instructor: Azza Al Hajri
- Schedule: Monday, Wednesday, & Friday 10:10 am to 11:00 am
- Location: 118 Earth and Eng Science
Course Overview: Focuses on developing supervisory competencies for individuals in leadership positions or those aspiring to leadership roles. The course addresses critical areas including employee motivation, performance management, effective communication, conflict resolution, and team development.
Benefits:
- Build foundational supervision and leadership skills
- Develop effective employee motivation techniques
- Enhance workplace communication strategies
- Learn practical performance management approaches
- Instructor: To be Announced
- Format: Online course delivery
- Platform: Penn State World Campus
- Meeting Dates: 08/25/2025 - 12/12/2025
Course Overview: Covers the essential concepts and skills needed to make effective contributions on projects, on time and within budget. This hands-on course explores project management life cycles, techniques for planning, scheduling, budgeting, and controlling project performance, as well as project management responsibilities, team development, communication, and organizational structures.
Benefits:
- Develop practical project management skills applicable across industries
- Learn to deliver projects on time and within budget
- Enhance team leadership and communication abilities
- Build problem-solving skills for complex project challenges
- Instructor: Candace Claar
- Format: Online course delivery
- Platform: Penn State World Campus
- Meeting Dates: 08/25/2025 - 12/12/2025
Course Overview: Designed to teach contemporary professional leadership competencies for workforce professionals who do not currently have supervisory responsibilities. The course ensures students develop an understanding of leadership competencies needed in today's global business environment, including collaboration, team-building, interpersonal communication, conflict resolution, project management, problem-solving, and emerging technology usage.
Benefits:
- Develop essential leadership skills for today's workplace
- Enhance collaboration and team-building capabilities
- Improve conflict resolution and human performance management
- Build problem-solving and ethical decision-making skills
- Instructor: Dr. Hyung Joon Yoon
- Schedule: Blended format with in-person weekend intensives and online sessions
- In-person sessions: Oct 18-19 and Nov 15-16, 2025
- Online Zoom sessions: Monday evenings (8/25, 9/8, 9/22, 10/13, 11/10)
- Coaching sessions scheduled throughout the semester
- Location: 313 Keller Building
Course Overview: This course provides individuals with relevant skills and knowledge to assist others in planning careers and obtaining meaningful work. It addresses 12 Career Development Facilitator competencies including helping skills, labor market information, assessment, diverse populations, ethical issues, career development models, employability skills, program management, and technology. Upon completion, students may be eligible to apply for the Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) certification.
Benefits:
- Develop skills to guide others in career planning and development
- Gain knowledge applicable to a wide range of helping professions
- Opportunity to earn industry-recognized certification (GCDF/CCSP)
- Learn practical career coaching and facilitation techniques
- Instructor: To be Announced
- Format: Online course delivery
- Platform: Penn State World Campus
- Meeting Dates: 08/25/2025 - 12/12/2025
Course Overview: The course focuses on essential lean and six sigma concepts to improve processes in any industry. Students learn methodologies for increasing efficiency, reducing waste, and implementing continuous improvement strategies in organizational settings.
Benefits:
- Learn methodologies to improve operational efficiency
- Develop skills to identify and eliminate process waste
- Gain practical tools for implementing continuous improvement
- Enhance analytical problem-solving abilities
- Instructor: Dr. William Rothwell
- Schedule: Wednesday 6:00PM - 9:00PM
- Location: 313 Keller Building
Course Overview: Appraisal of training functions and development of competencies in work analysis, design, development, delivery, and evaluation of training. Students learn to create effective learning experiences for adult learners in workplace settings.
Benefits:
- Develop skills to design and deliver effective training programs
- Learn methods for assessing training needs and outcomes
- Build competencies in instructional design for adults
- Enhance abilities to evaluate training effectiveness
Why Choose WFED Courses?
- General Education Fulfillment: WFED 197G helps meet general education requirements while developing crucial skills
- Comprehensive Skill Development: Gain a blend of leadership, project management, and professional communication skills essential in modern workplaces
- Career Readiness: Prepare for various roles, enhancing your career prospects
- Practical Experience: Enjoy hands-on experience in developing and delivering professional presentations and projects
- Academic Growth: Earn credits that contribute to your degree while acquiring skills highly valued by employers
By enrolling in these WFED courses for Fall 2025, Penn State students can significantly enhance their personal development and career prospects, equipping themselves with the tools needed to excel in today's diverse and dynamic workforce.
Supervisory Leadership Certificate Program
In addition to individual courses, WFED offers the Supervisory Leadership Certificate for Professionals, designed to develop the knowledge, skills, and competencies needed for effective workplace supervision.
Required Courses for the Certificate
- WFED 310: Leadership Competencies for Supervisors (3 credits)
- WFED 411: Occupational Safety and Health for Workforce Education and Development Professionals (3 credits)
- WFED 450: Cultural Diversity in the Workplace (3 credits)
Note: Course substitutions may be limited to one substitution per student. Students who have completed WFED 310 and one additional WFED course listed on this page, or who have completed one WFED course first, followed by WFED 310 and another Supervisory Leadership certificate course (WFED 411 or WFED 450), may be eligible for a substitution.
Important steps for course substitutions and certificate completion:
- Contact [email protected] or Dr. Hyung Joon Yoon ([email protected]) to confirm whether the course you have chosen is eligible for a substitution and keep the record once you have received an answer.
- If approved, notify the WFED program by email at [email protected] well in advance to ensure your substitution will be properly processed and counted toward your certificate.
- It is the student's responsibility to notify the advisor (Dr. Mark Threeton, [email protected]) once all three courses have been completed, providing any substitution approval records, to initiate the certificate award process.
Substitutions are not automatic and require approval. Students must also enroll in the certificate program to receive the certificate. Please review the steps to follow below for complete enrollment instructions.
How to Enroll in the Certificate Program
Degree seeking students must enroll in any certificate(s) prior to the end of the late drop period of their final semester.
(https://aappm.psu.edu/policy/m-12-guidelines-for-undergraduate-credit-certificates)
- Log in to Lionpath
- On the right side of the screen, click the "Degree Planning and Progress" tab
- On the left side of the screen, click the "Update Academics" tab
- Click the "Add a Certificate" tab
- Select "Supervisory Leadership for Professionals" from the drop-down menu
- Once the correct certificate is selected, click "Accept Changes"
- Click "Confirm Proposed Changes"
- Click "Confirm and Submit"
- Click "OK"
- Click "Exit"
Contact Information
For inquiries about WFED courses or the Supervisory Leadership Certificate Program, please contact: