Purdue expands lifelong learning portfolio to 50 free online courses for alumni

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — With workforce demands rapidly shifting, Purdue University is supporting its alumni through an expanding array of free online professional development and continuing education courses designed to strengthen the critical skills required by today’s economy.

Announced at the annual President’s Council alumni meeting in Naples, Florida, on Feb. 14, Purdue for Life Foundation and the university are expanding the pilot program from several years ago and will now offer 50 courses across eight distinct categories, spanning topics from AI and technology to business essentials and urban agriculture.

These courses and associated microcredentials and certificates are offered at no cost to university alumni.

“By removing financial barriers, Purdue aims to ensure graduates can continue building their skills throughout their careers, regardless of where life or work takes them,” said Dimitrios Peroulis, Purdue’s senior vice president for partnerships and online. “These free professional development courses reflect our commitment to supporting alumni throughout their careers — especially in critical fields where the need for skilled, adaptable talent has never been greater.”

To take advantage of this discount, alumni will need to log in to their account in the Purdue for Life portal. From the portal homepage, alumni can navigate to the course listings and access a discount code they can apply to any eligible course at registration.

Part of Purdue’s expanding portfolio of free courses are partnerships with industry leaders like Google, whose offerings are woven into the curriculum. Last fall, the university launched a transformative partnership with the Google Career Certificate program to make these opportunities available to Purdue’s alumni network. Since then, the Google program has doubled its certificate offerings, rapidly responding to evolving workforce needs. New courses — in AI automation with Python, a programming language; business intelligence; AI prompting essentials; AI essentials and advanced data analytics — build on the original focus areas of cybersecurity, data analytics, digital marketing and e-commerce, IT support, and project management.

In support of lifelong learners outside the campus community, the university also offers more than 600 videos on its Purdue University Online YouTube channel and free online courses in partnership with edX via Purdue X.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.