About Us

Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development

Where learning connects your experience, interests, and ambitions with opportunities to grow.

The Division of Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development brings CSU’s educational resources and faculty expertise to adults, working professionals, employers, and community partners. We help learners build skills, demonstrate competencies, explore new interests, and pursue educational and career goals through flexible opportunities across CSU’s colleges.

Our offerings provide several ways to engage with the University.

CSU Open

Your goals. Your experience. Your way to a degree.

CSU Open offers adults an alternative, noncredit entry point into university study. Learners take selected undergraduate courses to build skills and demonstrate competencies without enrolling in a degree program upfront. Through defined pathways, that learning can support progress toward a CSU degree when they are ready.

CSU Signature

Faculty expertise. Verified competencies.

CSU Signature microcredentials combine CSU faculty-designed learning with industry relevance and assessments that verify what learners can do. These focused programs build specific skills, recognize demonstrated competencies, and align with degree pathways, connecting immediate professional value with opportunities for further education.

CSU Work

Practical preparation for professional opportunities.

CSU Work offers short-term certificate programs and preparation for industry certifications. With an emphasis on skills learners can apply in professional practice, these programs support entry into a new field, career advancement, and continued professional development. Through Credit for Prior Learning, many CSU certificates and certifications can lead to further education. At CSU, education is an investment in you.

CSU Pro

Education built around your workforce.

CSU Pro partners with employers to develop customized training and professional learning for their teams. Drawing on university expertise, programs address organizational priorities through technical skill development, leadership and management education, and other learning tailored to the work employees do. Ask how we can design workforce development for your employees todady to include a credit for prior learning pathway to further education tomorrow.

TechCred at CSU

Connect workforce investment with employee learning.

CSU helps Ohio employers explore TechCred-eligible training opportunities to strengthen their teams’ technical skills. Through the state’s TechCred program, eligible employers can apply for reimbursement for qualifying credentials. Our team helps employers identify relevant CSU offerings and navigate the training options available to them. For more information, email tech.cred@csuohio.edu.

Make the Most of Tuition Reimbursement

Let CSU help you and your employees turn tuition reimbursement benefits into opportunities to build skills, earn credentials, and work toward a degree. Employers can provide up to $5,250 per employee in tax-free educational assistance in 2026, although benefit amounts and eligible programs vary by employer. Our team can help identify CSU learning opportunities that align with your organization’s tuition benefits and your employees’ goals.

Our Leadership

Dr. Nancy Pratt, Executive Director

Nancy Pratt leads CSU’s Division of Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development, working across the University and with industry and community partners to expand adult learning, workforce education, and pathways between noncredit learning and degree programs.

Her experience includes executive leadership of continuing legal education and master’s degree programs at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. At CSU, she connects university expertise with learner and employer needs through microcredentials, professional development, and customized education.

Having pursued all of her degrees after age 30, Nancy brings a personal understanding of adult learners’ ambitions and responsibilities. Her approach places the learner at the center of institutional decisions and emphasizes education’s responsibility to individuals, their communities, and the public good.

Nancy holds a doctorate in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in ethical leadership. She is completing her dissertation for a second doctorate in Urban Education at Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Public Affairs and Education.

Her message to adults interested in continuing their education but unsure they can succeed is simple. “Anything I’ve accomplished is within your reach, too.”

While email is the best way to get in touch with Dr. Pratt, her office number is 216-875-9710.