KiND Certificate
Through our ongoing collaboration with the Southern Political Science Association (SPSA), the KiND institute is offering the KiND/SPSA Professional Development Certificate program.
Through participation in SPSA workshops, certificates may be earned with specialization in any of the following three areas:
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Research Methods
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Professionalization
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Leadership
The KiND/SPSA Professional Development Certificate offers a unique opportunity for recipients to highlight their ongoing commitment to their own professional development, to strengthen their existing abilities and skills, and to acquire new and important capacities.
The training opportunities provided as part of the certificate program help attendees better relate to and utilize the knowledge and skills that they have procured along their academic paths to date, as well as to acquire the added information, networks and tools essential to succeed in making critical decisions smartly, to becoming effective, fair and positive leaders, and to standing out in competitive marketplaces.
Participants are free to attend workshops both within or outside of the certificate program.
How it works
This certificate program offers participants the opportunity to select from a pool of workshops in any given year, taking place during the SPSA’s regular annual conference held in January as well as their summer follow-up virtual conference held in June.
Through a blended-learning delivery model (in-person and online) this program provides a rich and ever expanding selection of topics while also providing more access points for participation.
To be eligible to receive the KiND/SPSA Professional Development Certificate participants must select and attend a total of eight (8) workshops (8 credits) where four (4) workshops/credits must be taken in the selected area of specialization (methods, professionalization, or leadership) and four (4) additional workshops/credits are selected from the remaining two areas of specialization.
For example, to earn the KiND/SPSA Professional Development Certificate - Methods Specialization, the participant must complete:
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4 workshops/credits in methods;
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2 workshops/credits in professionalization; and
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2 workshops/credits in leadership.
Through the regular offerings available at the SPSA's annual conference and the online meeting, one can complete a certificate in as few as three years by taking two workshops per conference over the three years and one additional summer workshop in two of those years. To find out the credit value of a workshop, see the workshop's details page (workshop outlines).
Upon completion, certificates will be given at the SPSA awards ceremony.
The KiND Institute is responsible for administering the certificate program, tracking workshop completion, and monitoring participant progress toward certificate completion.
To view your progress, simply log in to your KiND Institute profile.
How to register
To sign up for the KiND certificate, you must first create a KiND Institute profile.
In order to be eligible to attend KiND workshops, you must also be registered for the SPSA conference. For information on registration for the conference and to register, visit https://spsa.net/annual-meeting/
Once you have signed up with a KiND Institute profile and the list of workshops available at the upcoming SPSA conference is available, you will receive an email. This email will contain the information that you need to select the workshops you wish to attend.
Note that spaces are limited and participants will be allowed to sign up for up to a maximum of two (2) workshops per conference. These spaces will be given on a first-come-first-served basis, so we encourage you to create your profile and register early for the conference.
If participants apply and are granted access to attend more than two workshops during a single conference, they will receive certificate credit for up to a maximum of two sessions. Any additional attendance will be recorded as bonus but will not be counted toward the certificate credits total.
Participants can consult their attendance record and certificate progress by logging into their KiND profile and navigating to the "My Attendance/Certificate Progress" page.