Gregory P. Crawford is President of Miami University of Ohio.
Universities are addressing the demand for specific, demonstrated skills in the workforce by creating “microcredentials.” These are concise, focused training modules that are usually accessible online and certify the user’s proficiency in a specific field. The products often resemble long-standing industry certifications, such as Microsoft’s suite of courses, and some large professional organizations are creating their own.
Many higher education institutions offer microcredentials to their students, the public and partner companies with specific requirements. These certificates or badges complement classroom education with practical knowledge and sometimes can be stacked toward a degree to incentivize students to persist toward degree completion.
Microcredentials have become an international movement; leaders held a global summit in Spain earlier this year. But the fledgling field currently lacks professional standards, best practices or quality control to ensure people who earn badges or certificates have acquired the skills employers expect. Agencies such as UNESCO, the University of Texas system, Colleges and Institutes Canada and the State University of New York are working to develop consistent frameworks.
A survey by Coursera found that 88% of U.S. employers believe microcredentials enhance a resume. Nearly 40% have hired someone with a microcredential. Nonetheless, adding microcredentials to some hiring platforms remains a challenge for many employers.
Business, computer and data science, billing and coding, and marketing are examples of some common microcredential fields. A survey this year showed 13% of higher education institutions consider their microcredential development mature, compared to 7% in 2021, while 62% believe the field is still emerging and 18% do not offer them.
During the pandemic, my university created similar credentials, non-credit-bearing professional education certificates. A free online mini-MBA was a thank-you to alumni for their support through Covid-19. Subsequent credentials included one in diversity, equity and inclusion and one in writing. We expanded on these programs by partnering with other organizations and universities to develop certificates in various specialties.
Through this experience, I’ve seen that microcredentials are often a win-win for employers and employees. They can help workers retool, upskill or grow their knowledge in new fields, and the workers bring that greater understanding into the workforce. Non-credit microcredentials can develop quickly by using industry experts as subject matter experts to address immediate needs in a company.
Here are a few ways employers can leverage microcredentials:
Retooling
Rapid technological advances can render some jobs obsolete and open new possibilities. Newly hired employees can consider pursuing microcredentials to gain entry-level or basic skills for their positions. More seasoned employees can also use microcredentials to refresh specialized skills and learn new methods for greater efficiency.
Some employers might consider dropping the “bachelor’s degree required” for particular jobs and use microcredentials to accelerate a new worker’s on-the-job skills acquisition. Microcredentials grouped as “stackable credentials” taken in sequence might lead to a degree, depending on requirements. This can benefit people who lack the resources to earn a college degree before entering the workforce but bring valuable practical skills and perspectives.
Upskilling
Employees typically want to reach higher levels in their careers. Companies can consider providing microcredentials to equip them for such success. Workers can then feel confident they are not stuck in a dead-end job. Employers can design microcredentials to provide more sophisticated technical training that equips a worker for higher-level positions in their field. They can also focus on leadership, management, communication, diversity, team building and other skills required as the worker rises in the company to supervise others.
Expanding
Modern workplaces often include transdisciplinary teams that must work together effectively to achieve the company’s goals. People come with expertise from different fields and must learn to understand one another’s perspectives and vocabulary. Companies can use microcredentials to provide a basic understanding of a particular specialty.
Similarly, greater understanding among different departments can improve teamwork and cooperation. For instance, microcredentials could educate marketing people on production and sales practices or whole teams on the importance of inclusion, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution and other non-production areas that impact the environment. Anti-bias training, for example, could be organized as a series of badge-earning lessons—subsets of a larger program that can lead to a certificate.
How To Begin Offering Microcredentials In Your Company
Because the field of microcredentials is still developing and standards still need to be established, employers who want to offer such training to their employees might consider seeking a trusted partner to ensure quality. Universities, for example, have curriculum and teaching expertise, practical experience and distance-learning capacities that can help develop and disseminate effective lessons. A university near you might have already created basic courses that would serve your needs or may be willing to work with you to target the topics your workers need in detail, including real-world examples from your business.
Company experts, including alumni of partnering universities, could teach microcredential courses, which could help strengthen the institutions’ bonds. In my experience, many universities understand that such education advances their academic mission amid the workforce’s and society’s changing priorities and needs.
Employers who wish to develop high-quality microcredentials with universities might issue a request for proposal to collect information on expertise and approaches available. You might also assign a liaison with the chosen institution to ensure the product meets the company’s training objectives. One consideration to keep in mind is whether the microcredential will be limited to the company’s specific need or if it will be credit-bearing, possibly stackable toward a degree.
To encourage participation, market microcredentials to employees by highlighting the higher-level skills, greater opportunity for advancement and, potentially, professional certification or academic credit. Microcredentials can be a significant enhancement of the overall compensation package. You might even find that they help boost retention by demonstrating your company’s investment in its employees.
In my role, working closely with companies to co-create the credential leads to a successful collaboration, with industry providing input on content and desired outcomes and universities bringing their learning and teaching expertise to the table. Microcredentials can have a macro impact on your workers’ satisfaction, your company’s productivity and climate, and the acceleration of everyone’s success.
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