The Future of Workplace and Workforce Learning

At-a-Glance

Program Dates and Deadlines (Two Options)
May 13-14, 2026  - Apply by April 29!
July 29-30, 2026 - Apply by July 15!

Time: 9 a.m.–4 p.m. ET (both days)
Location: Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA
Intended Audience: Professionals who shape learning in the workplaces including L&D Practitioners and Consultants, and Facilitators/Trainers modernizing their practice for today's workplace
Program Fee: $1600

Program Overview

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 Dr. Tessa Forshaw; workforce development and future-of-work strategist Dr. Angela Jackson; leadership and organizational change scholar Dr. Monica Higgins; learning and sustainability expert Dr. Tina Grotzer; and cognition, emotion, and instructional design researcher Dr. Megan Cuzzolino, among others.

• How might we design for transfer—so people can adapt skills across tasks, contexts, and ambiguous problems?
• How might we build AI-shaped learning ecosystems that expand agency and mobility—without creating dependency, surveillance, or inequity?
• How might we connect learning to the real tasks, tools, and rhythms of work—so development translates into performance?
• How might L&D shift from content production to performance enablement—and what does that require of our structures, roles, and relationships with the business?

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.

Program Faculty

 

Tessa Forshaw

Dr. Tessa Forshaw is a cognitive scientist and one of the co-founders of the Next Level Lab. She leads the lab’s research on learning transfer, creative cognition, learning in the flow of work, and AI.

Tessa teaches design thinking, creativity, and innovation at the Harvard Innovation Lab and Harvard University Division of Continuing Education, and served on the teaching faculty at Stanford’s design school for several years.

Outside her academic career, she is a member of the Senior Leadership Team at Silicon Valley design firm People Rocket.  Previously, Tessa worked at IDEO CoLab and in Accenture’s Strategy, Insight, and Innovation team.  Tessa is a recipient of the Australian American Chamber of Commerce Innovation Award, a Fast Company Design Award for General Excellence, and a Core 77 Design Award for Educational Product Design. She is also the author of the upcoming book Innovation-ish, which has been nominated for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year.

Tessa earned her B.A. (Honours) from the Australian National University, M.A. from Stanford University, and her Ph.D. from Harvard University.