Fresno State, Fresno City College offer free AI workshops this summer

Fresno County residents who want practical AI skills without paying tuition now have two free options this summer, with Fresno State and Fresno City College opening their classrooms to the public for five-hour workshops built around real tasks, not theory.

The first session was held June 6 at Fresno State, and a second is set for July 11 at Fresno City College. Both workshops focus on prompting, asking better questions and using AI tools for everyday work, with organizers aiming to help people move beyond simply talking about artificial intelligence and into actually using it.

Granville Homes is sponsoring the effort, giving the program local business backing while keeping the emphasis on education and workforce development. Fresno City College professor Todd McLeod and Fresno State computer science chair Shih-Hsi (Alex) Liu are co-leading the workshops, and students from both campuses are serving as tutors during the sessions. That setup turns the events into a peer-learning model, where college students reinforce their own skills while helping adults, students and job changers get comfortable with the technology.

The pitch from the organizers is straightforward: AI is widely available, but many people still do not know how to use it productively. McLeod has said one good day of training could change how a business uses AI, while Liu has argued that AI literacy is becoming foundational for the workforce. For Fresno, where workers, small businesses and students are facing a fast-changing economy, the workshops are designed as a low-barrier way to build skills that can translate directly into jobs and better day-to-day use of technology.

The effort also fits the direction already set by both campuses. Fresno State’s AI Task Force includes students and employees, and one of its subcommittees is focused on workforce development. The university says it wants to integrate AI across campus "equitably, ethically, and securely," while its AI workforce-development page says the goal is to prepare students for an evolving AI-driven job market. Fresno State’s DISCOVERe AI Literacy Program is also expanding digital literacy services by weaving AI education into student support.

Fresno City College brings its own workforce focus to the project. The college, California’s first community college, says its Career and Technical Education programs rely on hands-on, applied learning to prepare students for today’s workforce, and its adult education mission centers on partnerships that support adult learners and workforce readiness. In a state that has pushed AI training partnerships with companies including NVIDIA, Adobe, Google, IBM and Microsoft, the Fresno workshops show how that broader policy push is landing locally, in classrooms aimed at keeping Central Valley workers from falling behind.