No matter where you are in your career, whether you’re a new educator or a veteran, the UFT is committed to helping you learn and grow by offering hundreds of high-quality courses and workshops throughout the year. Everything is created by New York City public school educators for New York City public school educators with your specific needs in mind.
LearnUFT and UFT Teacher Center
Every year, thousands of UFT members take advantage of the in-person and online workshops offered by the UFT Teacher Center and LearnUFT as well as the citywide conferences and summer institutes the union offers.
These affordable or free professional learning opportunities are designed to help meet certification requirements, from earning CTLE hours to completing state-mandated workshops, or attain salary differentials or ESOL certification by taking graduate-level courses.
UFT-provided courses and workshops use an immersive, experiential style of instruction, so you can experience the strategies being modeled and bring this learning back to your classroom. Many courses offer strategies to differentiate instruction for teaching diverse groups of students with the necessary level of scaffolding for every student in your class.
UFT Teacher Center-led workshops and weekend conferences cover a wide range of topics, from social-emotional learning to engaging English language learners in project-based learning. They are all aligned with the New York State learning standards. The Teacher Center also offers support for teachers pursuing National Board certification, a Para Academy for paraprofessionals to develop their skills and workshops for UFT-represented family child care providers.
See the latest professional learning opportunities from LearnUFT and the UFT Teacher Center. The new online course catalog for spring 2026 will be posted after Dec. 22.
The UFT keeps all course and workshop records, so you don’t need to worry about tracking your credits and CTLE hours earned with the UFT Teacher Center or LearnUFT.
New AI instruction academy
Launched this summer by the UFT and the American Federation of Teachers, the National Academy for AI Instruction offers free AI training to public school educators in partnership with Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic.
Housed at UFT headquarters in Manhattan, this first-of-its-kind teacher institute shows educators how to harness the power of AI to enhance student learning, reduce administrative burden and differentiate instruction, all of which open more time for teachers to focus on the human connections with their students.
The academy is an accredited provider for CTLE requirements. In this initial phase, most courses are online.
The National Academy for AI Instruction is dedicated to ensuring that AI is used safely, wisely and ethically.
Visit the National Academy for AI Instruction website to see the current online and in-person course offerings.