Professional Skills Undergraduate Certificate

This certificate is designed for undergraduate students seeking to acquire and enhance diverse workplace skills that are highly valued by today’s employers. Students will learn to communicate effectively, write persuasively, and develop proficiency in digital and media literacy or data literacy. Providing a strong foundation in communication skills, teamwork, critical thinking, and analytical writing, this certificate will help students cultivate success in the workplace.

On completion of this certificate, students will be able to:

  • Communicate their ideas in a clear and organized manner.
  • Use their compositional and analytical skills in a chosen professional writing field.
  • Demonstrate proficiency in digital and media literacy or data literacy.
  • Devise problem-solving strategies with the skills developed through the certificate.

Certificate Requirements

  1. Students must complete a minimum of 12 credit hours, from approved coursework

  2. Students must complete a minimum of six upper division (3000-level and above) credit hours, from approved coursework.

  3. Students must earn a minimum grade of B- (2.7) in all courses that apply to the certificate and must achieve a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.7. Courses taken using P+/P/F or S/U grading cannot apply to certificate requirements. 

  4. Students must complete all credit hours applying to the certificate with CU Denver faculty.

Certificate Restrictions, Allowances and Recommendations

Students must choose elective courses from at least two different disciplines.

Complete the following program requirements:    
  • Complete one of the following Communication courses:

COMM 2045 Workplace Communication
COMM 2050 Professional Presentations
COMM 4240 Organizational Communication
COMM 4255 Negotiations and Bargaining
COMM 4270 Intercultural Communication    

  • Complete one of the following Writing courses:    

COMM 3072 Media Writing Skills    
ENGL 3154 Technical Writing    
ENGL 3170 Business Writing    
ENGL 3416 Magazine Writing    
ENGL 4280 Proposal and Grant Writing    

  • Complete two elective courses from one of the following groups: 
    • Group 1: Digital and Media Literacy    
      • COMM 2081 New Media Production and Management    
      • COMM 3660 Social Media for Social Change    
      • ETST 3272 Global Media    
      • HIST 3260 Introduction to Digital Studies    
      • INTE 2500 #Learning: Digital Spaces and Far Out Places    
      • MKTG 3100 Marketing Research  
         ​
    • ​Group 2: Data Literacy    
      • ECON 3811 Statistics with Computer Applications    
      • ECON 4030 Data Analysis with SAS (prereq ECON 3811 or Math 2830)    
      • IWKS 3200 Data Science for Innovators    
      • ISMG 2050 Business Problem Solving Tools    
      • MATH 2830 Introductory Statistics    
      • MATH 4830 Applied Statistics