Building better futures. If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career. Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families. Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion: Our foundation for student obsession. We are inclusive. We embrace multiple approaches and points of view. We believe diversity drives innovation. This mindset is how we build our teams, develop leaders, and create an environment where everyone feels empowered to bring their full, authentic selves to work. We know our students are best served when our workforce is representative of their diverse needs. The many voices of our employees enrich the student experience and drive WGU’s mission to improve the lives of individuals and families. The idea for WGU was born in 1995 at a bipartisan meeting of the Western Governors Association (hence our "western" name). Going into the meeting, the chair of the association—Utah governor Mike Leavitt—had the foresight to realize that distance learning technologies had the power to tackle one of the western states’ most pressing problems: rapid population growth confronted by limited public funds for educational services. The governors decided then and there to create their own university. They agreed that this new university would make maximum use of distance learning technologies, would be collaborative among the western member states, and would use competencies rather than seat time as the measure of its outcomes.