Professional Development Resources (2024)

WGU CAREER & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Professional Development Resources

Whether you are currently employed in the position you desire or are searching for a new position, it never hurts to keep yourself informed, educated, and up-to-date in your professional realm. Taking time to engage in professional development opportunities not only keeps you cutting-edge within your field, it also allows you to network with other professionals and develop your professional brand - all of which can advance your career!

  • Night Owl Network: Introducing the Night Owl Network, an exclusive professional community of WGU Night Owls from around the world! Connect with other Night Owls near and far with a variety of industry backgrounds. Give back by sharing industry insights, starting a mentorship, or giving career advice. Discover and join professional interest groups, make life-long connections, and find resources to help keep your career goals on target.
  • WGU Library: Even after you graduate, WGU offers alumni select access to various articles, magazines, and books on a variety of professional development and career topics.
  • National Society of Leadership & Success (NSLS): The NSLS is the largest leadership honor society in the United States. Our WGU chapter was started in 2020 and is part of the national organization with 700+ chapters and over 1.4 million members. Only students that meet the membership criteria, which is based on academic progress (SAP) are invited. As of 2021, we have 3,698 members who have access to more than$500,000 in scholarships, an exclusive NSLS job board, a personalized letter of recommendation, and who learn from exceptional leaders like Barack Obama during exclusive Speaker Broadcasts.
  • LinkedIn Learning: WGU offers students and alumni free access to LinkedIn Learning. Learn a new skill online, on your time. Courses in Business, Technology, and Creative Skills taught by industry experts.
  • MindEdge:: WGU partners with MindEdge to provide free online business training for alumni! Alumni can use the discount code wgualumni at check-out to get access to the courses for free.
  • Parker Dewey Micro-Internships: Get paid to complete remote-based projects for companies while building relevant skills. With Micro-Internships, you'll grow and enhance core skills as you apply them to professional assignments for marketing like copywriting and working in social media, sales projects like lead generation, operations tasks like building reports, and many more across industries and job functions. Sign up for free and start applying to opportunities today.
  • Forage: Learn direct from leading companies and gain valuable career skills by completing virtual work experiences on Forage. Virtual Work Experience Programs are online programs built and endorsed by leading companies. They contain a series of resources and tasks designed to simulate the real-world experience of starting a career. Completing Virtual Work Experience Programs allow you to better understand different career pathways and build the skills and confidence needed to move from your academic pursuits to the world of work.
  • Percipio: Percipio is a digital learning platform that helps you lear new skills and improve your performance in a variety of areas. Access role-based and skill-based learning paths, including videos, books, audiobooks, hands-on practice labs, and coding sandboxes -- whatever works for you!
  • DuoLingo: With a mission to make education free, fun, and accessible to all, Duolingo is the most popular language-learning platform and the most downloaded education app in the world.

Additional Professional Development Resources(some of these resources may have associated costs, as they are not affiliated with WGU.)

  • edX:Get unlimited access to 150+ courses mapped to 10 essential subject areas. Gain entrance to courses taught by experts from industry-leading companies like IBM and Amazon Web Services and respected universities such as Harvard and Columbia.
  • Alison.com: Courses focusing on top industry areas.
  • MIT OpenCourseware: Concentrated coursework from MIT, available online.
  • Coursera: Easily access world-class content and credentials from the world’s top universities and companies, drive skill development with role-based learning, and track and benchmark skill proficiency against 62+ million learners. WGU graduates currently have access to one free course by followingthis link.

Information Technology

The world of information technology and its future is vast. We offer you the following resources to assist with continued professional development, self-improvement, and research. Many of you are currently employed or already hold a satisfying position in IT professions. However, it is always good practice to keep yourself informed, educated, and up-to-date.

The following associations have resources that will assist with continued professional development, self-improvement, and research:

Cloud and Systems Administration

Information Technology

Data Management and Analytics

IT & Cyber Security

Software Development

Network Operations

Open Education Consortium: This site offers an incredible number of free higher education resources. Literally dozens of universities from across the nation contribute to this initiative.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Schools: This site offers free educational resources that aim at comprehensive coverage of all things web related. Study XML, PHP, Java Script, .NET, SQL, CSS, WML and more.

Pluralsight: WGU has partnered with Pluralsight to offer WGU alumni free access to the most-relevant learning content. Pluralsight is designed to help keep you up to date with technology and increase productivity — you will find expert-authored online courses on software development, IT ops, data science, and much more!

Microsoft Virtual Academy:Offers courses in IT, Cloud Computing, programing and all things tech related

CodeAcademy: Courses on various programming & web development.

Health Professions

Theworld of health professions and its future is vast. We offer you the following resources to assist with continued professional development, self-improvement, and research. Many of you are currently employed or already hold a satisfying position in health professions. However, it is always good practice to keep yourself informed, educated, and up-to-date.

The following associations have resources that will assist with continued professional development, self-improvement, and research.

Employment Websites

  • TravelNursing.org: This site makes it easy for you to enter the travel nursing industry. They partner with the top travel nursing companies around to ensure that you get the fit you need.
  • All Health Jobs: This site features national healthcare job listings searchable by specialty, city, and state.
  • ADVANCE: This site has a wide range of health professions career resources, including job listings and a salary calculator.
  • CampusRN: This is a comprehensive site for entry-level nursing and allied health job seekers.
  • Nurse.org: This site sells no advertisements and provides career resources and guides for nurses including over 37,000 hospital reviews written by nurses, and over 20,000 active nursing job openings.
  • Health Career Center: This website offers an extensive list of available medical jobs nationwide.
  • HealtheCareers Network (HeCN): HeCN is your destination for healthcare jobs and medical jobs.
  • Hospital Jobs Online (HJOL): Whether you're searching for hospital administration jobs, allied health jobs, nursing jobs, or physician jobs, HJOLis your one-stop resource for a new career.
  • Indeed.com: Indeed advertises as the #1 job site worldwide for all jobs, with over 50 million unique visitors and 1 billion job searches per month.
  • LinkedIn: The world's largest professional network with 200 million members in 200 countries and territories around the globe.
  • LinkUp: LinkUp advertises as one of the fastest-growing job sites on the web today. Unlike most job searching websites, LinkUp only lists jobs direct from company websites.
  • Nurse.com: Home of Nursing Spectrum and NurseWeek, is a leading source of local and national nursing news, nursing jobs, continuing education, and a thriving nurse community.
  • Nursing Jobs Help: This site was developed as a free resource for nursing students who may be struggling with the job hunting process.
  • NursingJobs.org: With the tagline "Web's #1 Site for Nursing Jobs," this site is searchable by specialty and location, and also has convenient links to nursing books and other resources.
  • SimplyHired: With the tagline "Job Search Made Simple," this site is building the largest online database of jobs on the planet.
  • NurseRecruiter
    This site is a nursing job board and nurse recruitment resource designed to connect nurses with employers and to facilitate the hiring process for both sides.

Professional Associations

Nursing associations range from general groups to specific associations designed for nurses who specialize in a particular area of healthcare. Joining a nursing association has a number of advantages, but you will want to take some time to select the right association(s) that fits you. While general organizations can connect you to a wide range of nurses worldwide, specialty organizations help you keep up with cutting-edge trends in your particular area. Many nurses may belong to both general and specialty associations to get both types of benefits.

  • TheAmerican Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN)is the national voice for America's baccalaureate- and higher-degree nursing education programs.
  • TheAmerican Nurses Association (ANA)is the only full-service professional organization representing the interests of the nation's 3.1 million registered nurses through its constituent member nurses associations and its organizational affiliates. The ANA's mission is incorporated in its tagline, "Nurses advancing our profession to improve health for all."
  • TheNational League for Nursing (NLN)is a membership organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. NLN members include nurse educators, education agencies, healthcare agencies, and interested members of the public.
  • TheNational Student Nurses Association'smission is to mentor students preparing for initial licensure as registered nurses, and to convey the standards, ethics, and skills that students will need as responsible and accountable leaders and members of the profession.
  • Nurse.orghas aComprehensive list of nursing organizations spanning a variety of disciplines and populations.

Professional Development

  • Upcomingnursing conferencesfrom around the world! Brought to you by Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.
  • American Nurses Credentialing Centeror ANCC's internationally renowned credentialing programs certify nurses in specialty practice areas, recognize healthcare organizations for nursing excellence through the Magnet Recognition Program® and the Pathway to Excellence® Program, and accredit providers of continuing nursing education. In addition, ANCC’s Institute for Credentialing Innovation® offers an array of informational and educational services and products to support its core credentialing programs.
  • National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN)
  • Learn about theDNP degreeand find schools that offer it.
  • Nurse.org: a hospital review community built for nurses, by nurses.
  • Accountable Care Learning Collaborative: Access intelligence services for competencies that providers need to succeed in value-based care delivery efforts and policies along with information on market activities, including case study briefs, weekly news digests, intelligence briefs, webinars, and member meetings.
  • Nurses on Boards Coalition: The Nurses on Boards Coalition (NOBC) represents national nursing and other organizations working to build healthier communities in America by increasing nurses’ presence on corporate, health-related, and other boards, panels, and commissions.

Employment Websites

  • With the tagline, "Job Search Made Simple,"SimplyHiredis building the largest online database of jobs on the planet.
  • Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) Job Board
  • Health Career Center:This website offers an extensive list of available medical jobs nationwide.
  • HealtheCareers Network (HeCN) is your destination for healthcare jobs and medical jobs. Choose your career and HeCN will customize your site experience with the news, information, events, career resources, and employment opportunities that most interest you.
  • HIMSS JobMine:The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) provides readers with a list of jobs available to HIM professionals.
  • Whether you're searching for hospital administration jobs, allied health jobs, nursing jobs, or physician jobs,Hospital Jobs Online (HJOL)is your one-stop resource for a new career.
  • Indeed.comadvertises as the #1 job site worldwide for all jobs, with over 50 million unique visitors and 1 billion job searches per month.
  • LinkedInis the world's largest professional network with 200 million members in 200 countries and territories around the globe.

Professional Associations

  • TheAmerican Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)is the premier association of health information management (HIM) professionals. AHIMA is committed to advancing the HIM profession in an increasingly electronic and global environment through leadership in advocacy, education, certification, and lifelong learning.
  • Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)is a cause-based, not-for-profit organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. HIMSS represents more than 35,000 individual members, of which more than two-thirds work in healthcare, government, and not-for-profit organizations. HIMSS also includes over 520 corporate members and more than 120 not-for-profit organizations that share its mission of transforming healthcare through the effective use of information technology and management systems.
  • Meetup (Health Information Technology)brings people together in thousands of cities to do more of what they want to do in life. It is organized around one simple idea: when we get together and do the things that matter to us, we’re at our best. And that’s what Meetup does. It brings people together to do, explore, teach and learn the things that help them come alive.

Professional Development

  • AHIMA Eventsoffer idea-sparking knowledge delivered by leading health information management (HIM) experts. Attend AHIMA events and engage with the latest, career-affecting hot topics. Current meetings explore subjects like ICD-10, electronic health record (EHR) implementation, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2008 (ARRA), and recovery audit contractors (RACs). Look for more in the future!
  • AHIMA Career Map provides information on current and emerging roles across different career pathways in health information management.
  • Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
  • HIMSSframes and leads healthcare practices and public policy through its content expertise, professional development, research initiatives, and media vehicles designed to promote information and management systems' contributions to improving the quality, safety, access, and cost-effectiveness of patient care.
  • For more than 14 years,Health Data Managementhas been the leading source for news and in-depth analysis on using information technology to achieve business goals and improve the quality of care; a trusted resource for the critical knowledge that senior executives need to make the right decisions in a highly competitive market.

Employment Websites

  • Health Jobs Nationwide: Browse 300,000+ healthcare/medical jobs for employment throughout the United States.
  • Health Management Careers: This internet resource guide will assist you in exploring a career in the healthcare management field and provide you with information so that you can make a more informed career decision.
  • Health Jobs Web: Thiswebsite offers an extensive list of available medical jobs nationwide.
  • HealtheCareers Network (HeCN): HeCNis your destination for healthcare jobs and medical jobs. Choose your career and HeCN will customize your site experience with the news, information, events, career resources, and employment opportunities that most interest you.
  • Hospital Jobs Online: Whether you're searching hospital administration jobs, allied health jobs, nursing jobs, or physician jobs, HJOL is your one-stop resource for a new career.
  • Indeed.com: Indeedadvertises as the #1 job site worldwide for all jobs, with over 50 million unique visitors and 1 billion job searches per month.
  • LinkedIn: Theworld's largest professional network with 200 million members in 200 countries and territories around the globe.
  • SimplyHired: With the tagline, "Job Search Made Simple," Simply Hired is building the largest online database of jobs on the planet.

Professional Associations

  • American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management (AAHAM): AAHAM is a premier professional organization in healthcare management. AAHAM's mission is to provide education, certification, networking, and advocacy for healthcare revenue cycle professionals.
  • American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE): ACHE is an international professional society of more than 35,000 healthcare executives who lead hospitals, healthcare systems and other healthcare organizations. ACHE is known for its prestigious FACHE® credential, signifying board certification in healthcare management, and its educational programs, including the annual Congress on Healthcare Leadership, which draws more than 4,500 participants each year. ACHE's established network of more than 80 chapters provides access to networking, education, and career development at the local level.
  • Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA): HFMA is the leading membership organization for healthcare financial management executives and leaders. More than 35,000 members value the association's role as a respected thought leader on top trends and issues facing the healthcare industry.

Professional Development

  • Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) Health: AIS Health is a publishing and information company that has been serving the healthcare industry for more than 25 years. It develops highly targeted news, data, and strategic information for managers in hospitals, health plans, medical group practices, pharmaceutical companies, and other healthcare organizations. AIS products include print and electronic newsletters, websites, loose-leafs, books, strategic reports, databases, and webinars.
  • HealthLeaders Media: HealthLeaders Media, a division of HCPro, is a leading multi-platform media company dedicated to meeting the business information needs of healthcare executives and professionals.
  • Journal of Healthcare Management: The Journal of Healthcare Management is the official journal of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and is published six times per year. It offers timely healthcare management articles that inform and guide executives, managers, educators, and researchers.
  • Modern Healthcare Events: This planner is Modern Healthcare's guide to conferences, meetings, and seminars for healthcare executives and managers.

Education

The world of teaching professions is vast and the potential is unlimited. We offer you the following resources to assist with continued professional development, self-improvement, and research. Many of you are currently employed or already hold satisfying positions in teaching profession. However, it is always good practice to keep yourself informed, educated, and up-to-date.

The following associations have resources that will assist with continued professional development, self-improvement, and research:

Teacher Organizations

National Council of Teacher of Mathematics (NCTM): NCTM is an organization that provides support and resources to teachers of mathematics.

National Science Teachers Association (NSTA): NSTA's mission is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

American Association of Physics Teacher (AAPT): AAPTwas established in 1930 with the fundamental goal of ensuring the "dissemination of knowledge of physics, particularly by way of teaching."

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE): NCTE is devoted to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education.

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL): ACTFL'smission statement is: "to provide vision, leadership, and support for quality teaching and learning of languages."

National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET): NASET is the only national membership organization dedicated solely to meeting the needs of special education teachers and those preparing for the field of special education teaching.

LinkedIn Learning Continuing Education Courses:Take advantage of FREE access to LinkedIn Learning through WGU for continued professional development and potential Continuing Education Units (CEUs)!

National Education Association (NEA): NEA'smission is: "to advocate for education professionals and to unite our members and the nation to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world."

Teachers of English to Speakers of other Languages (TESOL): TESOL'smission is "to develop and maintain professional expertise in English language teaching and learning for speakers of other languages worldwide."

Teacher Conferences

WGU Teachers College Learning Community:This site is designed to inform and inspire stronger and smarter educator-leaders throughout their diverse career paths across the education spectrum. Browse the site for trending topics, learning resources, and professional development including badge and certificate programs.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Established in 1987, the National Board is an independent, nonprofit organization working to advance accomplished teaching for all students. Are you interested in National Board Certification?

SimpleK12: As a teacher, you know the value of consistent and lifelong learning. As your alma mater, we listened when you asked for continuing education benefits.

Placement File Information: If you need a university placement file because a school district HR office requires one, please follow these directions from the WGU Knowledge Center.

Hey Teach!: Don'tmiss this great resource brought to you by WGU. Hey Teach! is a digital publication for educators that offers printable materials, advice from veteran teachers, infographics, cartoons, and other cool content and resources.

Teaching Channel: An online environment where teachers can watch, share, and learn new techniques to help every student grow. With over 1,400 videos, the library has been carefully vetted by education professionals to ensure they'll help you understand current trends and follow best teaching practices.

Business

The world of business professions and its future is vast. We offer you the following resources to assist with continued professional development, self-improvement, and research. Many of you are currently employed or already hold a satisfying position in business professions. However, it is always good practice to keep yourself informed, educated, and up-to-date.

Thefollowing associations have resources that will assist with continued professional development, self-improvement, and research:

Accounting

Business Analytics

Economics

Finance

Human Resources & Management

Insurance

Marketing & Sales

Manufacturing, Production, Supply Chain

Retail

O*NET Online:You can go to the Occupational Network to research various occupations, salary information, skills needed and available positions.

Note: The links in this section are provided only for your convenience. Any information, materials, personal opinions, or endorsements of products or services appearing on external sites are not controlled, endorsed, or sponsored by Western Governors University.

Professional Development Resources (2024)
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