CU Boulder Launches Career Academy with Coursera to Provide Free Professional Development

The University of Colorado Boulder is partnering with Coursera, a global online learning platform, to offer free professional development opportunities to the CU Boulder community through a new partnership called Career Academy Boulder. 

Career Academy Boulder provides 45 career-aligned courses through industry partnerships with companies like Google, Salesforce, Meta and IBM. Participants can explore professional roles they might be interested in pursuing, earn microcredentials to boost their resume, and build skills in high-demand fields like cybersecurity, digital marketing, UX design, project management, data analytics and IT support. 

“I am proud of the fact that CU Boulder is the first higher education institution in Colorado to offer this resource to its campus community,” said Randall Fullington, assistant vice provost and executive director of academic and learning innovation. “Our goal is to strengthen employment outcomes for our students, staff and colleagues by giving them in-demand skills training by some of the biggest technology companies in the nation.” 

Current CU Boulder students, staff and faculty can access these courses for free. Courses are all self-paced and delivered online through the Coursera platform. Participants can use their IdentiKey credentials to access the courses. Most courses take three to six months to complete with approximately five hours of study per week. No previous experience or background is required to participate. 

Career Academy Boulder is an extension of the university’s Grow with Google partnership, which started in January 2024 and offered limited access to digitally focused professional certificates. Grow with Google courses are still available for free to CU Boulder alumni. 

Career Academy Boulder provides access to all of the same Google program offerings in addition to several more options through other industry partners with no barriers to entry. The program was made possible through a cross-team collaboration between the Office of Academic and Learning Innovation, the Office of Information Technology and the Division of Student Life. 

For questions about Career Academy Boulder, please contact careeracademy@colorado.edu.