FREE! Adult Education Professional Development Opportunities for January & February 2026

JANUARY

26

12:00 –1:00 p.m. EST

Grant Writing Tips & Tricks

If you are interested in learning the key components of a successful grant application, how to plan your timeline, and what makes proposals stand out, this workshop is for you.

 

We’ll break down what makes a strong proposal, how to align with funder priorities, and the common pitfalls to avoid. You’ll walk away with practical strategies, insider tips, and real-world examples from an experienced grant writer at Virginia Works.

 

Whether you’re new to grant writing or looking to sharpen your skills, this session will help you write with clarity and confidence.

JANUARY

28

2:00–3:00 p.m. EST

New Assessments: Designing Programs with the New Assessments in Mind, Part 1

Part I: CASAS Assessment Updates and Using Instructional Reports

 

In this training, we provide CASAS updates, review the new test series and their alignment to the College and Career Readiness and English Language Proficiency Standards. We will review the most popular TOPSpro Enterprise instructional reports and discuss ways in which they can be used to help inform instruction.

 

The VALRC will facilitate a follow-up session to discuss instructional and program design for the new assessments.

JANUARY

29

3:00–4:00 p.m. EST

Citizenship: Changes and Challenges Webinar

Join this informational webinar to learn about the recent changes to the civics test of the USCIS Naturalization Interview. These changes apply to all applicants who have submitted their naturalization application after October 18, 2025. Catherine McCall, Citizenship Coordinator of Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle (LVCA), will facilitate this webinar.   

JANUARY

30

FEBRUARY

13 & 27

12:00–1:30 p.m. EST

Career Pathways PLC: Career Coaching and Supporting Learners for What’s Next, Sessions 1-3

Join us for this five-part series on Career Coaching for adult learners. Part I: Celeste Hall from the Virginia Community College System will facilitate sessions one and two, focusing on the theories and strategies that support career coaching. Part II: Sessions three through five will be facilitated by Dr. Barbara Endel and will focus on what it means to be an effective career coach, including intervention strategies, career pathways mapping, and establishing sustainable networks to support learners.

FEBRUARY

4

12:00–1:15 p.m. EST

IET Office Hour

Come discuss IET planning tools, IET maps, and all aspects of programming for IETs, IELCE, and workforce programming in adult education. Come with questions!

FEBRUARY

4

1:00–2:30 p.m. EST

IET 101: The Basics

Learn the basics of IET programming. Register by Jan 31 to receive the pre-work materials.

FEBRUARY

10

2:00–3:30 p.m. EST

LACES Data Analysis Session

Join a group of Virginia practitioners for a hands-on experience working with data in the LACES system.

FEBRUARY

12 & 26

2:30–3:30 p.m. EST

Using Technology to Enhance Reading Instruction PLC, Parts 1 & 2

SkillBlox is a free platform that contains over 10,000 vetted, high-quality, free and open educational resources you can use to build engaging lessons in a variety of subjects. In this 2-part workshop, we’ll explore a growing set of ready-to-go lessons (“Blox”) that you can easily save, copy, and adapt for use with your learners.

 

In part 1, you’ll learn the basics of how to explore SkillBlox for Blox created by other users, as well as how you can copy and adapt these Blox by adding activities, contextualizing content for your learning context, and more.

 

In part 2, participants will come together to showcase their work and share strategies and tips for how they used and adapted lessons from  SkillBlox. Participants will also learn how to create custom pages to build lesson sets to share with learners or other instructors.

FEBRUARY

17

1:00–2:00 p.m. EST

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in Practice,

Part 1

UDL in Practice is a 3-part series that introduces adult educators to practical strategies for designing inclusive learning experiences. Part 1 will focus on the principle of engagement to help spark motivation and sustain learner interest by offering meaningful choices that respect adult learners’ goals and experiences.

FEBRUARY

17

2:30–3:30 p.m. EST

Refresher: LACES Data Analysis Session

Join a group of Virginia practitioners for a hands-on experience working with data in the LACES system. This is a refresher session geared towards beginning users and will focus on using different views and building searches.