While the concept of the short course, or workshop – call it Continuing Professional Development (CPD) if you will – is now commonplace, turning these courses’ outcomes into micro-credentials is still relatively novel. Opinions vary on what constitutes a micro-credential but Emeritus Professor and Australian National Teaching Fellow, Beverley Oliver, defines the term as, “a certification of assessed learning that is additional, alternate, complementary to – or a formal component of – a formal qualification.”
Technology is changing the way we work
While technology has evolved to make scalable, tailored online courses and assessments possible, it is simultaneously changing the way we work – creating a growing need for continual upskilling and re-skilling. Fuelled, over at least the last ten years, by the growth in access to online learning materials, and made available by corporates and academic institutions, online-accessed short courses can be used for gaining formal knowledge and as a performance support tool. They allow learners to access acknowledged world experts’ insights which, without access to online materials, would have been impossible due to geography, a lack of privilege, and/or money. Moreover, with virtual reality (VR) becoming accessible on a wide range of devices, these online learning materials can be used to teach practical skills along with the knowledge to help learners arrive at “competency”.
Participating in informal learning can take many forms but it’s the assessment of this learning that leads to the credential – in terms of a digital badge, license, or even certification. Since micro-credentials are based not on time spent learning but on assessed proficiency of competency, they widen millions of adults’ learning horizons but also pose a threat to academics still yoked to “traditional” degree courses.
There is little doubt that micro-credentials are here to stay. Linda Steedman, CEO of the digital learning and assessment specialist, eCom Scotland which, from bases in Dunfermline, Scotland, and Athens, GA, creates solutions aimed at increasing learning engagement and driving productivity to help organizations achieve their goals, believes that there are ten key questions about micro-credentials that need to be addressed – principally by learning professionals. These are –
Ten key questions about micro-credentials for learning professionals and learners
- Are micro-credentials adding real value in terms of learners’ efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, and profitability?
- How can we objectively assess learners’ competency so we can award valid micro-credentials?
- How can micro-credentials be aligned to learning programs, skills training, and competency management?
- How can micro-credentials be used to identify transferrable skills?
- How can micro-credentials help organizations understand skills gaps?
- How can those holding micro-credentials be assured of their transferable value as they move jobs throughout their career?
- How can industry bodies and employers agree on standards and objective assessments of micro-credentials value?
- How – in practical terms – can learners upskill or extend their knowledge, without taking several years out to complete a degree?
- How can learners ensure their prior (micro-credentialed) learning is recognized by future employers and education providers?
- How can assessed and accredited lifelong learning becomes more accessible and affordable?
Micro-credentials can be particularly useful in fields – such as IT, Health, and Professional Qualifications – that are constantly updating. Earning certificates and badges in focused knowledge and skills can help learners stay – and prove they are staying – at the leading edge of their profession as that profession changes. This is an increasingly viable alternative to experiencing a full degree program and emerging with the knowledge that is, essentially, obsolete because the industry’s knowledge and skills requirements will have moved on in that time.
With employers building learning options and, thus, helping to fill skills gaps and create the digital workforce of the future, employer-issued micro-credentials – offering non-degree pathways into careers and professional advancement – are becoming a major part of the broader trend toward skills-based hiring. Indeed, there are signs that, especially in the USA, many organizations are expressing preferences for competency and skills-based hiring rather than keeping to a policy of recruiting time-served graduates.
Employers can do this because online education is now mainstream, and online platforms make it easier for employers to offer education on their own – but, usually, with advice and guidance from digital learning and assessment specialists. Moreover, because of the pace of change in the technology and business worlds, many companies are reluctant to wait for higher education institutions to develop the shorter-term credential programs that employers need.
“Although micro-credentials alone will not meet any nation’s future educational needs, they are an attractive option for the labor force’s mature learners”, says Linda Steedman. “eCom Scotland is working with various bodies around the world that want to deliver micro-credentials online – that is in terms of learning development and delivery as well as objective assessment. Thankfully, these days, technology is no barrier to innovative solutions”.
