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Our world is defined by complexity, uncertainty, and rapid technological change most notably the rise of generative and agentic AI, which is transforming not just how people think, create, and collaborate, but what it means to learn and work, and the structures needed to support learning and working.
Learning professionals today must build and anticipate workforce capability and readiness, becoming enablers of performance rather than just deliverers of content. As it becomes increasingly clear that learning can no longer happen apart from work, those who design, lead, and support workplace learning face a new challenge.This certificate program helps you design learning that fits where and how people actually work, while strengthening the bridges between training pathways and workplace realities. Drawing on research and insights from the Harvard Graduate School of Education — including cognitive scientist and innovation researcher Tessa Forshaw; workforce development and future-of-work strategist Angela Jackson; leadership and organizational change scholar Monica Higgins; learning and sustainability expert Tina Grotzer; and cognition, emotion, and instructional design researcher Megan Cuzzolino, among others.
Learning professionals are being asked to help people learn faster, adapt better, and perform with confidence amid ambiguity. But doing that well requires rethinking how L&D operates, where learning lives, and what role the function plays in the business.
This program helps you step back and redesign. You'll examine your operating assumptions, prototype new approaches, and build practical frameworks you can apply immediately to make workplace learning more continuous, adaptive, and connected to performance.
Join a cohort of learning professionals for an immersive two-day experience at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Tessa Forshaw is a cognitive scientist, faculty chair of the workforce and workplace learning concentration, and director of the workforce learning and innovation initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Tessa teaches design thinking, creativity, and innovation at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Innovation Lab, and Harvard University Division of Continuing Education, and served on the teaching faculty at Stanford’s design school for several years. Previously, Tessa served on the executive leadership team at design firm People Rocket and worked on Future of Work-related topics at IDEO CoLab and Accenture. Tessa is a recipient of a Fast Company Design Award for General Excellence, two Core 77 Design Awards for Educational Product Design, and co-authored Innovation-ish (Wiley, 2025). Tessa earned her B.A. (Honours) from the Australian National University, M.A. from Stanford University, and her Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Dr. Megan Cuzzolino is a researcher and educator with expertise in cognition and development, instructional design, and public engagement with science. As the Project Director of the Next Level Lab, she provides strategic, intellectual, and operational leadership for the lab’s research and partnerships. Her scholarship investigates the role of transformative emotions in learning and motivation across diverse contexts, including a multi-year, cross-disciplinary project on the role of awe in workplace settings. She is also a contributing member of the Causal Cognition in a Complex World lab.
Earlier in her career, Megan served as a Science Education Analyst at the National Science Foundation and taught and developed science curricula for elementary and middle school students. She holds an Ed.D. and an Ed.M. in Human Development from HGSE and an A.B. in Psychology from Harvard College.
Angela Jackson is an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where her research focuses on the intersection of workforce development, education, and labor markets. She explores how innovative business practices, skills-based hiring, and strategic investments can drive economic and social mobility.
As the principal investigator of the Future Forward Institute, Angela leads research on the evolving nature of work, the role of employers in shaping equitable economic opportunities, and the policies and practices that foster inclusive business growth. She examines how companies can design talent strategies that enhance productivity and profitability while creating sustainable career pathways for workers.
Angela is a thought leader, author, and adviser, helping organizations navigate the future of work through human-centered business practices. She is the author of The Win-Win Workplace: How Thriving Employees Drive Bottom-Line Success (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2025). Her research has been featured in publications including Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Leader to Leader, Harvard Business Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and The Economist.
Max Lu is a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His research interests lie at the intersection of technology, information, and learning science, with a particular focus on how people use technologies to improve their learning efficiency.
Before joining Harvard, he worked at Bloomberg Media and the Los Angeles Times on news innovations. He is also a co-founder of Dialogues on Asian Universities (DAU), a platform for global dialogue on Asian higher education. He obtained his master's and bachelor's degrees in engineering from the University of Toronto.