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Education Dive
What's in a microcredential?
Hiring managers want them and students are seeking them out. Here's how
colleges can address demand for this emerging form of skills
qualification.
Wayne D'Orio
June 11, 2019
Growing interest in microcredentials is raising a host of questions for
higher ed leaders: Who is creating them? What topics are most popular?
How difficult will it be for an institution to develop its own
microcredentials? And maybe the toughest question of all: What are —
and what aren't — microcredentials?
Taking the last question first, Kathleen deLaski, founder and president
of the nonprofit Education Design Lab (EDL), calls microcredentials a
"catchall" term for education that doesn't fit neatly into colleges'
history of credit-bearing degrees and majors. Sometimes called badges,
they tend to be more narrowly focused than certificates or even single
courses.
There are nearly 750,000 "unique credentials" on offer in the U.S.
today, including micocredentials and certificates, said Scott Cheney,
executive director of Credential Engine, a nonprofit that aims to
implement a common schema for credentials and has developed a national
registry to track them.
Less than a degree and not a formal license, he said, microcredentials
can be offered by a variety of organizations, from IBM to the National
Wood Flooring Association, and delivered through a range of
postsecondary institutions.
Some of the most popular topics for microcredentials are in technology
fields, where much of this activity started, as well as in so-called
"soft" skills such as empathy and resilience, deLaski said.
Microcredentials are coming onto the scene as colleges get creative to
address projections of enrollment declines in tandem with employers'
desire for more qualified workers. "In the next decade, colleges will
compete for students at a competency level, not a degree level," she
said.
Yet despite its growing popularity, the microcredential market remains in flux.
Employers looking to hire for skills are putting more value on these
nondegree signifiers than are colleges or even most students, deLaski
said. Schools, however, are moving to catch up, motivated by the
opportunity to grow their revenue and to help students see a return on
their way to a full degree.
Growing interest
A transcript is itself a collection of credentials, but breaking it
down into smaller pieces can more clearly signal a person's skills to
the market, said Jonathan Finkelstein, the founder and CEO of Credly, a
company that helps create and issue microcredentials. It can also
indicate a school's value to students, employers and policymakers, he
added.
For students and workers, the ability to showcase discrete skills can
help them land their first or their fifth jobs. After all, although a
college degree's importance tends to be overshadowed by work
experience, credentials can show how a seasoned professional has kept
their knowledge current.
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