Enhance your expertise and earn additional credentials.
Deepen your expertise to better support children and families.
Teachers, educators, clinicians like you believe like we do that all children deserve to reach their full potential – no matter their circumstances. As a premier graduate school in childhood development we prepare teachers, social workers, and other practitioners to understand and support the early experiences which determine a child’s future.
Explore key ideas from a variety of early child development disciplines, including Developmental psychology, Neurobiology, Anthropology, Education, Sociology and more.
Early Childhood Leadership & Advocacy Certificate
Develop strong skills in management, working with adults, policy influencers, and advocates to position yourself as an effective and visionary early childhood leader.
Early Childhood Social and Emotional Learning Graduate Certificate
Learn skills and techniques that will enhance your ability in working with young children who have experienced trauma and stress and improve their learning experiences.
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Certificate Program
In this graduate level certificate program, you will learn to support parent-child relationships through promotion, prevention, intervention, or consultation services.
Certificate students can earn up to 25% off their total program tuition by stacking our Leadership and Affordability scholarships. Erikson also participates in several federal and state financial aid programs.
Early Childhood Graduate Program Faculty
Learn from the field’s experts.
At Erikson Institute, our nationally recognized faculty share knowledge, research, and experiences to guide tomorrow’s leaders.
Develop close and collaborative relationships with Erikson’s professors — respected voices for children doing the critical work and research to further our practices — and become a leader in your field.
How to Apply
Create your account in seconds and start your application.
Take advantage of the convenience and flexibility of online learning.
Set your own pace take one or two courses per semester.
Connect with professional colleagues in an environment of shared purpose and passion.
Learn about new research, technique, and strategies.
Benefit from Erikson’s 55+ years of pioneering work with young children and families.
Depending on the certificate program in which you’re enrolled and the master’s degree in which you are interested, six to 15 credits from your certificate program courses can transfer to any of Erikson’s four master’s degree programs. The only exception at this time is the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health certificate program, which is a post-master’s certificate program and a total of four credits from the program can be transferred to the Master of Social Work program. Talk to our admissions team for more detail.
Post-baccalaureate certificate programs generally offer course work at the upper undergraduate level, while courses in graduate certificate programs are at the graduate level. There are always exceptions depending on the individual institute of higher education, but Erikson Institute’s certificate program courses are all taught at the graduate level.
Erikson’s certificates are for academic credit. You may have the option of enrolling in graduate certificate program courses for professional development credit rather than academic credit. This is contingent on approval from the program director and the admission committee.
Courses taken for professional development credit are not eligible for federal or Erikson financial aid. Additionally, if taken as professional credits they are generally not eligible to be transferred to another degree program, either at Erikson or at another institution of higher education.
If you are enrolled in a certificate program to earn a professional credential or license, courses taken for professional development credit may not fulfill the requirements for the respective credential. Always check with the correct professional body that awards the credential you are seeking to make sure your professional development credit will be accepted.
Build your career with a research and evidence-based certificate program and join a community committed to improving the lives of children and families.