SHRM and WGU Partner to Advance Workforce-Ready Graduates in Human Resources Studies

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — SHRM, the trusted authority on all things work, workers, and the workplace, today announced a long-term Education-to-Employment (E²) partnership with Western Governors University (WGU) to help human resources students graduate workforce ready, with skills employers recognize and value.

The partnership connects WGU’s competency-based education model with SHRM’s employer-informed standards, credentials, and resources, creating a clearer link between academic preparation and workplace expectations.

Through this collaboration, all WGU HR students, staff, and faculty will have the opportunity to engage with SHRM certification pathways, specialty credentials, assessments, research, and workplace insights. Together, these experiences enable students to demonstrate that they possess the current HR skills required to compete and contribute immediately in today’s workplace.

In addition, all WGU HR students will receive a SHRM membership, providing access to expert guidance through SHRM's Knowledge Advisors, policy templates and other HR resources, career guidance, and a global professional community—helping them build knowledge, confidence, and connections as they prepare to enter the workforce.

Expanding Access to Employer-Recognized Skills

As part of the partnership, students will have access to SHRM specialty credentials designed to validate applied, in-demand skills across critical areas of HR work, including:

• Artificial intelligence in the workplace (AI + HI)
• People analytics and data-driven decision-making
• Talent acquisition and modern recruiting strategy
• HR leadership in emerging and resource-constrained environments
• Skills-first hiring practices

Students will also engage with SHRM assessments that measure professional competencies and readiness across key workplace skill areas. These assessments provide a structured way to evaluate capabilities, identify development opportunities, and demonstrate proficiency in the HR skills employers expect.

In addition, HR students will gain exposure to SHRM’s research, insights, and professional community, helping them understand how work is evolving across industries and organizations.

Graduates leave not only with a degree, but with validated, applied competencies aligned with employer expectations, demonstrating they are prepared to contribute from day one.

Strengthening the Connection Between Education and Employment

For employers, the partnership helps address a persistent challenge: understanding what a degree signals about a candidate’s readiness for work.

By combining academic achievement with employer-recognized HR credentials, assessments, and workforce insights, WGU graduates can provide clearer, more credible evidence of their capabilities. This alignment supports more informed hiring decisions in a labor market increasingly focused on skills, applied knowledge, and performance.

“Employers are looking for more than credentials; they’re looking for capability,” said Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., president and chief executive officer of SHRM. “This partnership ensures HR graduates enter the workforce with both. By combining WGU’s competency-based education with SHRM’s employer-informed standards, we are creating a clearer, more credible signal of readiness so organizations can hire with confidence and graduates can contribute immediately.”

“Preparing nearly 6,000 HR students today means shaping the workforce of tomorrow,” said Scott Pulsipher, president, WGU. “As the nation’s top conferrer of HR bachelor’s degrees, we see this partnership with SHRM as a powerful way to align education more closely with employer needs by creating clearer pathways to opportunity for our graduates and stronger talent pipelines for organizations.”

The result is a practical, scalable model for workforce readiness—one that combines competency-based education, validated skills, and real-world insight into how work is performed today.

About SHRM

SHRM is a member-driven catalyst for creating better workplaces where people and businesses thrive together. As the trusted authority on all things work, SHRM is the foremost expert, researcher, advocate, and thought leader on issues and innovations impacting today’s evolving workplaces.  With nearly 340,000 members in 180 countries, SHRM touches the lives of more than 362 million workers and their families globally. Discover more at SHRM.org. 

About WGU

WGU’s mission is to change lives for the better by creating pathways to opportunity. That mission drives lasting impact for individuals and communities while strengthening the talent economy of tomorrow. 

Established in 1997 by 19 U.S. governors, the nonprofit was founded on the belief that talent is universal, but opportunity is not—and that education is a powerful catalyst for upward mobility and workforce resilience. Purpose-built as a tech-enabled, competency-based university, WGU expands access to affordable, high-quality education through workforce-aligned programs and pathways that deliver value for students, particularly those not well served by traditional higher education. 

By continually reimagining how education is designed, delivered, and accessed, WGU connects talent to opportunity and advances economic mobility for individuals and families. This model prepares learners for in-demand roles and supports a workforce equipped to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving economy.