Professional Development Resources

• 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 following this link.

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

Cloud and Systems Administration

• Cloud Computing Association
• International Association of Cloud & Managed Service Providers
• Cloud Software Association

Information Technology

• CompTIA IT Pro
• Association of Women in Computing
• Women in Technology

Data Management and Analytics

• Data Management Professionals
• Global Data Management Community
• Association for Clinical Data Management
• The Digital Analytics Association
• Association of Intelligent Information Management
• Certified IT Management, Business Data & Computer Professionals
• Data Science Association
• Black Data Processing Associates

IT & Cyber Security

• Cybersecurity Ventures
• Sans Institute
• Information Systems Security Association (SSA)
• Center for Internet Security
• Internet Security Alliance
• The Cloud Security Alliance
• Association of Executives in Healthcare Information Security
• Executive Women's Forum
• National Cybersecurity Student Association
• Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) North America Chapters

Software Development

• Association of Software Professionals
• Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Software Development Forum
• Networks and Systems Professional Association

Network Operations

• Network Professional Association
• CompTIA
• Network Computing

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.

Employment Websites

• With the tagline, "Job Search Made Simple," SimplyHired is 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.com advertises as the #1 job site worldwide for all jobs, with over 50 million unique visitors and 1 billion job searches per month.
• LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network with 200 million members in 200 countries and territories around the globe.

Professional Associations

• The American 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 Events offer 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)
• HIMSS frames 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 Management has 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.

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): AAPT was 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's mission 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's mission 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's mission is "to develop and maintain professional expertise in English language teaching and learning for speakers of other languages worldwide."

Teacher Conferences

• NCTE Annual Meeting
• NCTM Annual Meeting
• NSTA Upcoming Conferences
• ACTFL Convention & Expo
• NCSS Conferences, Meetings, and Workshops
• TESOL Attend and Learn

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't miss 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.

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

Accounting

• American Institute of CPAs (AICPA)
• Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA)
• Institute of Management Accountants (IMA)
• National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA)

• American Statistical Association
• International Institute of Business Analysis
• Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

Economics

• American Economic Association
• American Society of Health Economists
• Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management
• Association for Social Economics
• International Economic Development Council
• National Association for Business Economics

Finance

• American Association of Finance and Accounting
• American Finance Association
• Association for Financial Professionals
• Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.
• Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
• Financial Management Association
• International Academy of Financial Management
• Investment Management Consultants Association
• National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
• Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association
• Wells Fargo Webinar Series

Human Resources & Management

• American Management Association
• Association for Talent Development
• American Staffing Association
• International Association for Human Resource Information Management
• National Black MBA Association
• Society for Human Resource Management

Insurance

• Insurance Information Institute
• National Association of Professional Insurance Agents

Marketing & Sales

• American Marketing Association
• Association of National Advertisers - Business Marketing
• Data & Marketing Association
• Digital Analytics Association
• National Association of Sales Professionals
• Sales and Marketing Executives International

Manufacturing, Production, Supply Chain

• American Production & Inventory Control Society
• Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals
• Manufacturers’ Agents National Association

Retail

• National Retail Federation
• Retail Industry Leaders Association

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