The Certificate in Creative and Critical Leadership consists of three (3) fully online courses that are designed to help learners enhance their critical thinking, creative, and analytical skills for solving problems in the complex workplaces of today. Courses are a combination of self-study as well as live online sessions. All courses can be taken individually. Successful completion of three (3) courses is required to be awarded the certificate.
What Will You Learn?
Students who complete this certificate will:
- Define workplace problems effectively
- Develop a mindset that welcomes experimentation, learning from failure, and embracing ambiguity
- Critically evaluate communications, ideas, perspectives, information, and data
- Approach challenges and problems analytically and systematically
- Develop an awareness of methods for decluttering thinking to produce fresh, creative thoughts
- Identify different types of culture and how culture impedes or promotes creativity and innovation
Who Should Take This Certificate?
- Aspiring, new, or current leaders who need to think critically and solve problems in rapidly changing, high-stakes situations and contexts
- Leaders who are looking to expand their ability to innovate and think creatively in situations in which the information is incomplete or changing quickly
- Leaders who drive organizational change, improve customer experience, or develop strategies in a complex and ambiguous environments
Certificate Requirements
The certificate consists of three courses totaling 108 hours of learning, each 36 hours long. The required courses are:
- OLCD-PALS0017 Critical Thinking, Decision-Making and Problem-Solving for Leaders
- OLCD-PALS0024 Creativity and Innovation for Leaders
- OLCD-PALS0025 Design Thinking
Fees and Schedule
The courses run in September, January and April. The courses are 12 weeks long and each require a minimum of 36 hours of learning engagement. You should expect to spend a minimum of 3 hours per week engaged in learning the course material. Many participants choose to spend more than the minimum of 3 hours per week in order to dig into the material and assessments more deeply. There are live sessions throughout the courses.
For assistance or more information, please contact openlearning@dal.ca.
Recognition of Prior Learning
It may be possible to receive advanced standing in this certificate based on your prior learning from work or life experience. We provide two types of recognition of prior learning:
- Prior Certified Learning: Assessment of prior coursework or training through a provider, that is neither a university or college, for the purpose of advanced standing. Examples of certified learning may include military courses, accredited certificates, workplace training programs, etc.
- Prior Experiential Learning: Assessment of previous work and life learning that may be equivalent to learning outcomes of university courses/programs, for the purpose of advanced standing. Relevant prior learning may come from work or volunteer experience, participation on committees or boards, independent study, etc.
To discuss how to use your prior learning to apply for advanced standing, please contact rpl@dal.ca.