From delivering correspondence courses by motorcycle to giving people who otherwise couldn’t afford it the chance to enroll in professional development opportunities, UW Continuum College has grown and evolved for more than 100 years, passing many milestones along the way. Explore Continuum’s decades of history and learn how we’ve become a bridge to education for our community.
1910s | 1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s | Next
As the youngest members of the Baby Boomer generation prepared to enter college in the early 1980s, their parents were looking for new career opportunities. Continuing Education updated its name to UW Extension and met the demand by introducing one-year certificate programs, which would become a hallmark offering. Certificates provided practical job skills in a fraction of the time it took to earn a degree and at a much lower cost.
In 1987, UW Extension launched seven certificate programs: Film and Video, The Training Specialist, Certified Employee Benefit Specialist, Paralegal Studies, Records Management, Data Communications and Microcomputers in the Workplace.