On August 27th, 2015 the University of California, Irvine publicized its new certificate program created specifically for human resources professionals pursuing leadership roles, such as HR managers, directors, and generalists.
According to the University of California, Irvine, the Strategic Human Resources Leadership Specialized Studies program will delve deep into what it takes to become a human resources leader in today’s workforce. The program will combine classroom instruction, webinars, and onsite training to cover material pertaining to the scope of practice, strategic and tactical approaches, structural organization, current occupational trends, and business applications.
The certificate will only be awarded to students that successfully complete the five core curriculum courses by scoring at least a “C” grade. The program’s courses equate to 9.5 credits, or units. The five required classes include:
- Linking HR Strategy to Business Success: Coursework focuses on the necessity for human resources workers to understand, express, and apply business concepts to HR programs within organizations.
- Organizational Design and Development: Coursework shows how organizational design directly influences employee performance and overall business success.
- Human Capital Strategy: Beyond Workforce Planning: Coursework centers on improving human capital utilization to create more avenues for organizational success.
- HR Management Systems and Technologies: Coursework introduces technology tools, practices, systems, and trends to enable students to better navigate the human resources management system (HRMS).
- Building a Talent Pipeline: From Identification to Succession: Coursework concentrates on aspects of leadership roles such as handling responses to big decisions and respecting the ability to influence.
The program may be particularly rewarding to current human resources professionals that want to advance their careers in order to earn higher salaries. In 2014, the United States Department of Labor reported that human resources specialists received an average annual salary of $62,590. Meanwhile, human resources managers enjoyed a much higher average annual salary of $114,140.