University of North Alabama Continuing Education Guide 2026: Programs, Certifications and Community Learning

Overview of UNA Continuing Education and Outreach

The University of North Alabama Continuing Education and Outreach programme represents one of the most comprehensive community learning initiatives in northern Alabama. Founded in 1830, UNA has long served as an educational anchor for the Shoals region — Florence, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia — and its continuing education division extends that mission beyond traditional degree-seeking students to serve professionals, retirees, hobbyists, and lifelong learners throughout the Tennessee Valley.

Operating from the UNA East Campus Building at 1640 Tune Avenue in Florence, Alabama, the Continuing Education and Outreach office offers a diverse catalogue of non-credit courses spanning creative arts, music, dance, foreign languages, health and wellness, special interest topics, and professional development. Each course is designed to provide practical skills, personal enrichment, or career-relevant credentials in accessible formats that accommodate working adults, retirees, and community members with varying schedules and learning goals.

What makes UNA’s continuing education programme particularly valuable is its integration of university-level instruction with community accessibility. Courses are taught by experienced professionals and subject matter experts who bring real-world expertise to every session. The programme awards nationally recognised Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for qualifying courses, providing participants with documented evidence of professional development. For those exploring continuing education options at Alabama institutions, the Alabama professional development guide offers broader context on the state’s lifelong learning landscape.

Arts, Crafts and Creative Workshops at UNA

UNA’s arts and crafts programming represents one of the most popular and diverse segments of the continuing education catalogue. From pottery and drawing to quilting and hand sewing, these courses provide hands-on creative experiences taught by accomplished artisans and instructors who bring decades of expertise to the classroom. The creative workshops serve multiple purposes: artistic expression, stress reduction, skill development, and community building among participants who share creative interests.

The pottery course, taught by Jim and M.C. Jerkins at the UNA Art Building, offers a hand-building experience for all skill levels where participants create approximately 12 finished pots across six three-hour sessions. Drawing and sketching courses introduce beginners to ebony pencil and charcoal techniques including line drawing, shading, cross-hatching, and perspective — foundational skills that transfer to more advanced artistic pursuits. The Fun with Acrylics course builds on these foundations with painting techniques including washes, wet-on-wet application, splattering, stamping, lifting, and scraping.

The hand sewing course stands out for its partnership with Alabama Chanin, the Florence-based fashion company renowned for its artisan-crafted garments. Taught at the Alabama Chanin studio by Diane Hall — who has sewn with the company since 2002 and brings over 35 years of sewing experience — this course introduces participants to hand sewing and embroidery techniques, garment construction, and appliqué, with all materials included. Completers gain an introduction to the Alabama Chanin artisan programme, creating a potential pathway from recreational learning to professional artisan work. Quilting for the Holidays and tatting workshops round out the textile arts offerings, providing seasonal creative projects that combine traditional craft skills with contemporary design sensibilities.

Music and Performing Arts Continuing Education Courses

Music education at UNA Continuing Education caters to a wide range of interests and skill levels, from absolute beginners to intermediate players seeking to deepen their understanding of music theory and technique. The programme’s music offerings reflect the Shoals region’s rich musical heritage — an area that has produced legendary recording studios and musicians — by making music education accessible to community members who want to participate in that tradition.

The Instant Piano for Hopelessly Busy People course, taught by Michael McMillan, condenses chord piano fundamentals into a single three-hour session designed for absolute beginners. Participants learn to play chord-based piano accompaniment and receive a book and 68-minute practice CD, making the course an efficient introduction that allows continued learning after the session ends. This format is particularly appealing to working professionals who want musical skills but cannot commit to traditional weekly lesson schedules.

String instrument courses taught by Larry D. Miller cover guitar, mandolin, and bass fundamentals across six two-hour sessions, introducing three fretboard patterns, tuning methods, chord structures, the number system, melody lines, and rhythm timing. The advanced course, Making Sense of Guitar and Mandolin Chords, builds on these fundamentals with chord formulas, fretboard patterns, bar chords, the Circle of Fifths, and capo usage — providing the theoretical framework that transforms recreational players into more versatile musicians. Both courses require participants to bring their own instruments, maintaining the programme’s hands-on, practice-oriented approach. Similar community music education models are documented in the Berklee continuing education guide.

UNA Floral Design Certificate Program

The Floral Design Certificate Program represents UNA Continuing Education’s most structured professional development offering, providing a comprehensive five-course pathway that prepares participants for careers in floral design, event decoration, and small business ownership. This certificate programme demonstrates how continuing education can bridge recreational interest with professional qualification, transforming a passion for flowers and design into marketable skills and business knowledge.

The certificate comprises five sequential courses: Basic Floral Design: An Introduction to Flowers and Form, Design Potpourri, Special Occasion Arrangements, Holiday Decorations and Centerpieces, and Wedding Arrangements. Completion requires 80% attendance per class and instructor approval of projects, establishing professional standards that distinguish the certificate from casual workshops. The programme covers both technical and business dimensions: pricing, buying, event consultation, wiring, flower and greenery identification, care and handling, choosing containers, tool usage, colour psychology, Western geometric and Eastern Ikebana designs, selling techniques, and guidance on starting a floral design business.

The Design Potpourri course, taught by Mary Lollar, illustrates the programme’s depth with sessions covering floral identification, autumnal arrangements, topiary construction, grapevine wreath design, funeral designs, and ribbon techniques. The inclusion of funeral design reflects the programme’s professional orientation — floral designers who can serve this market segment access reliable demand that seasonal or event-based work alone cannot provide. Participants learn not just aesthetic principles but the practical business of floral design, making the certificate a genuine stepping stone to self-employment or career transition.

Dance Classes and Movement Education at UNA

UNA’s dance programme, led by certified instructors Suzy Spalding Robbins and Larry Crowell, offers structured progression through popular partner dance styles in an accessible and welcoming format. The programme’s design recognises that dance education serves multiple purposes: physical fitness, social connection, cultural participation, and personal enjoyment — all of which contribute to community wellbeing and individual quality of life.

Beginner East Coast Swing is offered in two sequential parts, each comprising four one-hour Monday sessions. Part I introduces fundamental steps, rhythm, and leading and following techniques, while Part II builds on these foundations with additional patterns and styling. The same progressive structure applies to the Beginner Waltz programme, ensuring that participants develop genuine competence rather than surface-level exposure. The Beginner West Coast Swing Workshop provides a single-session introduction to this more sophisticated swing style for dancers ready to expand their repertoire.

Instructor credentials add credibility to the programme: Suzy Spalding Robbins holds certification with the Dance Vision International Dance Association (DIVDA), founded USA Dance of North Alabama, competed in regional championships, and has taught dance at UNA for 20 years. Larry Crowell brings 13 years of teaching experience and is also a performing musician, providing insight into the musical dimensions of dance. The programme’s affordable pricing — $44 per four-week course, with UNA student rates of just $19 — ensures that dance education remains accessible to the broader community.

Foreign Language Programs and Cultural Education

UNA Continuing Education’s foreign language programme offers an unusually comprehensive range of language instruction for a community education setting, including both standard and critical languages that reflect the diverse communication needs of the Shoals region and broader global economy. The semester-long format — running approximately 16 weeks — provides sufficient instructional time for meaningful language acquisition rather than superficial tourist-phrase coverage.

Standard language offerings include introductory and intermediate levels of French, German, and Spanish, as well as introductory Latin and American Sign Language. The critical languages programme extends to elementary Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Swahili — a range that rivals many university foreign language departments and reflects UNA’s commitment to preparing community members for global engagement. At $249 per semester-long course with separately purchased workbooks, these programmes represent exceptional value compared to private language tutoring or commercial language schools.

The Survival Spanish course provides a practical alternative for learners who need immediate Spanish communication skills for professional or daily life contexts. This focused format addresses the needs of healthcare workers, educators, business owners, and community members who interact regularly with Spanish-speaking populations in northern Alabama and the broader Southeast. The programme’s recognition that language needs vary — from academic study to practical survival communication — demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of continuing education’s role in community development. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) provides standards and resources that inform quality language instruction programmes like UNA’s.

Health, Fitness and Wellness Courses

UNA’s health and wellness programming takes an integrative approach that combines evidence-based wellness practices with complementary techniques drawn from energy medicine, emotional freedom technique, and holistic health traditions. Led by Linda Isbell — a wellness coach with 15 years of experience and certifications in Eden Energy Medicine, Hypnosis, EFT, NLP, Quantum Touch, and training in multiple additional modalities — these courses introduce participants to self-care techniques that complement conventional healthcare.

The Living in Balance course teaches the Five Minute Daily Routine from Eden Energy Medicine, providing participants with immune system strengthening techniques and energy balancing practices that can be integrated into daily life. Getting Older with Style and Pizazz addresses healthy ageing through research on centenarians’ lifestyle habits, energy medicine movements, and guided imagery — a topic of particular relevance to the Shoals region’s growing retirement population. Energy Psychology: Emotional Freedom Technique introduces the meridian-based tapping technique derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine, offering participants a self-administered tool for managing stress, anxiety, and emotional challenges.

The single-session format of these wellness courses — each running 90 minutes at $49 — makes them exceptionally accessible. Participants can explore different wellness approaches without the commitment of multi-week programmes, sampling techniques before deciding which practices to adopt in their ongoing self-care routines. This cafeteria approach to wellness education respects adult learners’ autonomy while providing university-affiliated programming that maintains quality standards.

Special Interest and Community Learning

The special interest category showcases UNA Continuing Education’s commitment to serving the Shoals community’s diverse learning interests beyond professional development and traditional skill-building. These courses reflect the region’s unique cultural heritage, natural resources, and community character, providing learning experiences that deepen participants’ connection to their local environment and history.

History of the Shoals: The Early Years, taught by Harry Wallace for over 26 years, covers Indian cultures, early settlers, the founding of local cities, and historic personalities through films, slides, and discussions, with optional field trips that bring local history to life. This course’s remarkable longevity — more than a quarter century of continuous offering — speaks to both the instructor’s expertise and the community’s sustained interest in understanding the region’s heritage.

Fishing the Shoals 101, taught by Brian Barton — a U.S. Coast Guard Master Captain with a BS in Environmental Biology and Geography from UNA and 10 years’ experience as a commercial fisherman — covers all major game and nongame fish of the Tennessee River, including tackle, baits, lures, seasonal locations, electronics usage, and conservation principles. The Christian Bible as History and Literature, based on the Alabama State Department of Education curriculum, examines biblical texts through literary and historical lenses using PowerPoint presentations, handouts, and archaeological items. Practical courses like Couponing 101 and Interior Design basics round out the special interest offerings, demonstrating the programme’s responsiveness to diverse community learning interests. Similar community learning models can be explored through the Auburn University outreach guide.

Registration, Fees and Continuing Education Units

UNA Continuing Education has designed its registration and fee structure to maximise accessibility while maintaining the administrative infrastructure needed for quality programme delivery. Multiple registration channels accommodate different preferences and circumstances: phone registration at 256-765-4862 with credit card payment, in-person registration at the East Campus building, fax registration for credit card or company-invoiced payments, online registration through the UNA continuing education website, and mail registration with check or credit card payment.

Course fees span a wide range reflecting the diversity of offerings — from $20 for a single-session dance workshop to $249 for semester-long language courses. A modest $2 registration fee per order covers administrative costs. Many courses include additional materials fees payable directly to instructors, ranging from $12 for tatting supplies to $45 for pottery materials. This transparent pricing structure allows participants to budget accurately and ensures that course fees remain affordable while instructors can provide quality materials and resources.

The programme’s Continuing Education Unit (CEU) system provides nationally recognised documentation of non-credit participation at a rate of one CEU per 10 hours of instruction. Certificates of attendance listing CEUs and approved hours are available upon completion, providing participants with professional development documentation that many employers and licensing bodies recognise. The refund policy offers full refunds for cancellations made three working days before course start, with later cancellations potentially receiving credit toward future workshops less a cancellation fee. Participant substitutions are allowed at any time, adding flexibility for organisations that sponsor employee development.

Professional Development and Career Growth at UNA

While many UNA Continuing Education courses serve personal enrichment purposes, the programme’s professional development dimension deserves particular attention. The Floral Design Certificate provides a structured career pathway. Language courses open professional doors in healthcare, education, business, and government. Arts and crafts courses build skills that can transition into freelance work or artisan businesses. Even apparently recreational courses like fishing instruction can support careers in outdoor recreation, tourism, and environmental education.

UNA’s continuing education model recognises that in the modern economy, the boundary between personal enrichment and professional development has become increasingly permeable. A pottery course taken for relaxation may spark a second career. A dance class taken for fitness may lead to teaching opportunities. A language course taken for travel may prove essential for a career transition. By offering diverse courses at accessible price points with CEU documentation, UNA enables community members to explore these possibilities without the financial or time commitments of traditional degree programmes.

The programme also serves employer needs through its acceptance of company purchase orders and group registrations, facilitating workforce development initiatives that benefit regional businesses. The University of North Alabama has positioned its Continuing Education and Outreach division as a bridge between academic excellence and community service, ensuring that the university’s nearly two centuries of educational heritage continue to serve learners at every stage of life and career. For working professionals seeking additional workforce development resources, industry-specific certifications and training programmes are explored in the U.S. Department of Labor skills training resources.