The report was produced by ETS, the world’s largest private educational testing and measurement organisation, and it is entitled the . The authors consider that the development of successful societies hinges on three interrelated factors:

• Access to education
• Pursuit of upward mobility
• Engagement in upskilling/reskilling

ETS has pioneered a measurement system to create the “ETS Human Progress Index,” and this year’s survey serves as the baseline for the index to be updated annually. The aim is for the index to serve as “a gauge of global advancement and an opportunity to identify
gaps that demand increased attention.”

The surveyed countries were:

• Australia
• Brazil
• Canada
• China
• France
• Germany
• Kenya
• India
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Mexico
• Nigeria
• South Korea
• Vietnam
• UAE
• UK
• USA

Key findings

• 88% of global respondents said that to succeed in today’s hyper-competitive world, continuous learning is essential and tied to security and well-being.

• 86% agreed that “as time goes on, more jobs will require skills people don’t currently have.”

• Access to education is uneven across the world and “disparities in access are often rooted in socioeconomic status and government investment.” Interestingly, some of the countries in which citizens feel especially challenged in this sense are not the least developed, but often the most advanced (e.g., South Korea, France, Canada, UK, US).

• Respondents who are most pessimistic about the state of higher education in their country are from advanced economies, especially France (68% pessimistic) and South Korea (61% pessimistic).

• There is a sense that technology – and rapid advances in technology – lead to acquired skills quickly becoming obsolete, which underscores the importance of access to lifelong learning.

• More than three-quarters (78%) of respondents believe that being able to prove that a new skill has been mastered (e.g., by means of a certificate) will be as valuable as a degree by 2035.

• More than 7 in 10 respondents see a role for AI-generated guidance and assessments in the future.

Nuances of the findings

We can imagine that some responses are heavily informed by cultural context. For example, respondents in high-income countries were responding amid educational contexts that have been relatively advanced for years. Most of those respondents would not have experienced what it is like to live in a country with an objectively sub-par educational system. Such a bias might be reflected in the following chart from the report, where respondents in Brazil, Mexico, Kenya, and Nigeria occupy the top right-hand quadrant (“quality education is very important and difficult to access”) and respondents in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, UK, and US are in the bottom right-hand quadrant defined in part by a (questionable) sense that quality of education is less important.

Respondents in mid-income countries were also more likely to consider that quality education is mostly reserved for more privileged members of their society.

Affordability is a key challenge

The top three barriers that respondents cited in terms of accessing quality of education are “too expensive/lack of financial resources” (57%), “socio-economic background” (32%), and “lack of qualified teachers” (31%). The relative affordability of micro-credentials is thus a major competitive advantage for providers of them – and we can imagine that this this advantage would become even more compelling if micro-credentials were better recognised and valued in formal educational systems.

Financial insecurity and worries about the future rise in certain countries

The following screenshot shows how much worry is present among many families in developing economies about their children’s future well-being and about staying financially solvent.

Entrenched social classes are an issue for many families in economies characterised by large gaps between the rich and poor. This is mostly a characteristic of poorer countries, but it is also the case in the US, which is home to the highest number of billionaires in the world. In the US, the top 1% of earners take 15% of all wages earned in the country.

Indians, Vietnamese, and Kenyans were the most likely to agree that “My family has historically faced challenges in achieving socioeconomic and financial security.” In the US, agreement with this statement was much higher among people of colour (POCs) than white people (26% vs. 13%, respectively).

The terrible toll of systemic inequality

The most cited reasons for an inability to achieve upward mobility were “income inequality” (39%), lack of job opportunities (34%), and “systemic bias (28%).

The role of AI

Acceptance of AI is rising around the world despite concerns about its potential to replace the value of human intelligence/innovation and to be used by bad actors. The ETS survey results reveal that global respondents see a role for AI to play in how people learn and are assessed: 78% agreed that “AI can enhance learning assessments by tailoring them to individual needs” and 72% agreed that they “would trust AI-generated guidance for improving skills.” That said, 71% consider AI to have the potential to “negatively impact learning assessments due to unintentional biases and programming flaws.”

Insights from the experts

Spiked into the ETS report are insightful quotes from experts, employers, and analysts. These include:

• “The biggest mismatches are now on the quality and relevance of skills.” —Andreas Schleicher, Director for the Directorate of Education and Skills OECD

• “Learning how to learn is probably the key skill. The half-life of skills is getting shorter as more and more technology comes in. The most important ability is learning how to use the new tools in the way that is resonant with being a human and the job to be done.”—Eric Lavin, Partner, Avalanche VC

• “Higher education is very slow to react 
 I think there are two major forces that are putting pressure on higher education. One is technology, and second is the needs of the market.”—Shai Reshef, Founder and President, University of the People

• “In the past, the benchmark for everyone was the same, we were all measured against the same criteria. In the future, we will be able to develop a personalised assessment, based on individual abilities and aspirations, which would be a great step forward.”—Joana Lenkova, Futurist and Strategist, Futures Forward

Future currency

As for the conclusions that can be drawn from the findings of the global survey, the authors of the ETS 2024 Human Progress Report write:

“Continuous learning emerges as the currency of tomorrow. Those proficient at leveraging certifications, micro-credentials and AI will lead the charge, creating innovative paths to success. The resounding acknowledgment of “lifetime learners” as a global majority highlights an inseparable link between continuous learning and individual security.

Despite challenges in accessing education, achieving upward mobility and engaging in upskilling/reskilling, society recognizes the importance of these factors for human progress. The challenges, while formidable, are not insurmountable. They demand innovative solutions, assessments and credentialling to ensure a holistic and accessible educational journey.”

For additional background, please see:

• “New analysis estimates a five-year window for responding to AI impacts on higher education”

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Burning Glass has produced two reports on the subject this year, and they both point to an important reset in the labour market with respect to degree requirements. It should be said that both studies are concerned specifically with labour demand in the US, but each relies on large-scale analysis of millions of job postings and they echo trends that we can see in other developed economies as well.

At a high level, the Burning Glass findings point to some material shifts in the types of skills and qualifications that are most in demand by employers, and it is easy to imagine some wide-ranging implications for educators at all levels.

First, the type of skills that are in demand is changing across the economy. “Overall, 37% of the top 20 skills requested for the average US job have changed since 2016. (We assume the same trend is valid across the developed world.) One in five skills (22%) is entirely new. And certain sectors – finance; design, media, and writing; business management and operations; HR; IT – have changed faster than others
In reviewing the five-year data, we detected an acceleration in the pace of change. Nearly three-quarters of jobs changed more from 2019 through 2021 (during which time the compound annual growth rate was 22%) than they did from 2016 through 2018 (19%). We attribute this increase during our review period to the pandemic, which forced businesses to rethink operations and people in all kinds of occupations to embrace new ways of working and new skills.”

The institute maps important trends in changing skills required throughout the report, especially with respect to digital skills that are now required in non-digital occupations, soft skills, visual communication, and social media skills. Overall, the findings point to an increasing emphasis on the use of technology, even in fields that are not technology focused, and key interpersonal and communication skills, including problem solving, teamwork, collaboration, and creativity.

Connected to this changing skills landscape is another key trend identified earlier this year by another large-scale analysis of US employment postings: many employers are dropping degree requirements, and especially so over the last two years. “Employers are resetting degree requirements in a wide range of roles, dropping the requirement for a bachelor’s degree in many middle-skill and even some higher-skill roles,” says the Institute. “This reverses a trend toward degree inflation in job postings going back to the Great Recession. And while the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this process, this reset began before the crisis and is likely to continue after it.”

More specifically, Burning Glass’s analysis found that near half (46%) of middle-skill and 31% of high-skill occupations saw changes in degree requirements between 2017 and 2019. This pattern accelerated during the pandemic, and – both before and after COVID – an easing of degree requirements has been accompanied by a corresponding increase in how specific employers are about the types of soft skills they require, including writing, communication, and problem solving.

The report adds, “This reset could have major implications for how employers find talent and open up opportunities for the two-thirds of Americans without a college education. Based on these trends, we project that an additional 1.4 million jobs could open to workers without college degrees over the next five years.”

Aside from those two important shifts – the changing skills landscape and the easing of degree requirements – the overall picture you get from the two reports is of a greater emphasis in the US on skills-based hiring. That is, a greater weight given to the skills that candidates have as opposed to their academic qualifications.

This has been driven in part by an underlying labour market dynamic — in short, there is not enough labour or talent to meet employer demand and so employers are responding in part by easing hiring requirements. But it also reflects the fast-paced nature of technological change across the economy. “The accelerating rate of technological change is reshaping skills requirements faster than providers can respond,” says the report. “That further worsens the shortage of skilled talent with or without a degree – especially in jobs based on digital technologies. Evaluating applicants on their demonstrated skills and aptitudes, rather than on their level of academic attainment, can simultaneously help companies address skills shortages while creating more opportunities for [candidates] aspiring to improve their employment circumstances.”

There are important market signals in these findings for candidates, employers, and educators alike. For example, college-aged students may be more encouraged to explore non-degree post-secondary options. And educators may be just as encouraged to give a greater weight to the development of so-called “soft skills” in their curricula, especially with respect to communication, creativity, collaboration, and problem solving.

For additional background, please see:

• “Survey finds international students more focused on the future, and careers in particular“
• “Mapping labour market skills gaps in leading study destinations“
• “New framework maps core employability skills for international students“

The post Are more US employers shifting away from degree requirements? appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

A refresher

The research article, “,” published by Rory McGreal and Don Olcott Jr. in February 2022, provides a comprehensive explanation of the current scope of alternative credentials (commonly known as microcredentials):

“Microcredentials are certified documents that provide recognised proofs of the achievement of learning outcomes from shorter, less duration, educational or training activities. They focus on the validation of competency-based skills, outcomes and/or knowledge using transparent standards and reliable assessments, which can enhance graduates’ employability prospects. A microcredential can be accepted for credit by an institution or organization or be an attestation for employers. A microcredential attests to specific knowledge or skills competencies with defined learning outcomes and may or may not be stacked towards larger units of accreditation.

For the most part, microcredentials exist outside the formal qualifications frameworks of traditional universities and colleges, yet these frameworks provide formal guidance, because learners will want microcredentials to be transparent and applicable to formal credentials. They may or may not be stackable or combinable towards higher qualifications, and in some cases may be accepted into formal certificate and/or degree credit programmes.”

It’s interesting to note the number of times “may or may not” is used in the description above – there is a huge range in play as to what a microcredential is, how it might be perceived, and how it might be integrated into other programmes.

The concept makes sense

In theory, microcredentials are tailor-made for contemporary economies, employers, and job candidates. They take less time to obtain and are often more affordable than degree programmes, and they are highly specialised and in tune with specific labour market needs. They seem to offer a perfect solution for those employers frustrated when degree-holding job candidates don’t have the up-to-the-minute training or specific skills they urgently require.

Yet there remains a persistent lack of internationally applicable standards and frameworks that would allow the value of particular microcredentials to be easily understood by employers. This absence of a widely accepted foundation for the evaluation of microcredentials appears to be limiting their growth potential and, to some extent at least, confusing students and employers about their worth.

Sean Gallagher, the founder and executive director of Northeastern University’s , believes that microcredentials are well-suited for an increasingly digital, rapidly evolving global economy in which “there is a gap between the supply of people in the workforce coming out of university with skills and credentials to fill the gaps employers are looking for.” But at the same time, he has said that for employers to consider microcredentials as a worthy alternative to traditional degrees, they need to see research and proof that employees with microcredentials can be just as, or more, valuable than those with degrees. “That type of data doesn’t exist quite yet,” Gallagher said in an interview with – and we haven’t seen evidence that much has changed.

, noting (also in 2020) that, “Despite an increasing volume of these new credentials, great uncertainty persists.”

Interest and confusion

In the US, where the number of high school students moving on to pursue tertiary degrees has plummeted over the years of pandemic, there is definitely demand for alternative credentials among both workers and employers.

A 2021 survey by (SHRM) among over 500 executives, 1,200 supervisors, 1,129 human resource professionals, and 1,525 workers found that that 45% of US employees said they had an alternative credential; of those who did not, half (49%) had considered the idea.

Even larger proportions agreed that alternative credentials offered return on investment:

“Nearly three-quarters (72%) agree they are an affordable way to gain the skills or experience necessary to enter a new job, and 77% agree that having a job-relevant alternative credential increases or would increase their chances of being hired for a job.”

Enthusiasm was high among employers as well. More than 80% of executives, supervisors, and HR professionals said that “alternative credentials bring value to the workplace.”

However, there was less much less agreement that “workers with alternative credentials are better performers.” A clear majority (70%) of executives agreed with the statement, but agreement dropped to 53% among supervisors and 31% of HR professionals.

SHRM found that “potential barriers to employers’ wider recognition of alternative credentials include a lack of systems that can easily identify an individual’s skills and talents, standards to recognise non-traditional or untapped talent, as well as employer reluctance to recognise a new way to validate these skills.”

Sean Murphy, director of opportunity at Walmart, said, “SHRM’s research clearly shows a demand for credentials, but it also uncovers the need for more transparency in their development and use, as well as a need for setting the standard for quality.”

Of the survey findings, concludes,

“The survey and the experiment’s findings show that even though executives say they support alternative credentials, the practices and attitudes of mid-level managers and HR professionals do not always value these upstart certifications.”

The case for microcredentials as a value add

Monique O. Ositelu, a senior policy analyst for New America has told that as a stand-alone, microcredentials do not offer the same return on investment as a bachelor’s degree:

“Very short-term programmes of less than a year, they have incremental effects on your earnings. After a while, they actually diminish. Not like a bachelor’s degree, where you keep gaining value.”

However, she points out that the value of obtaining a microcredential rises when it is taken as a supplement, rather than a replacement, for a degree. Someone with both a degree and a microcredential might have a very different experience in a job interview than someone with only a microcredential on their resume.

Looking at microcredential recognition around the world

According to a study by in 2021, there are currently 1,500 microcredentials on offer on MOOC platforms including Coursera, EdX, Future Learn, and Udacity. More than three-quarters are in business or technology-related fields. There are also microcredentials available from universities, colleges, employers, and private entities.

As for how governments have responded to the emergence of microcredentials, there is considerable variation. The US and Canada do not yet have national qualifications frameworks to accommodate microcredentials, but there is more activity at the national level elsewhere in the world. The “Strategic reset: microcredentials for higher education leaders,” report notes,

“Australia, New Zealand, UK, South Africa, and many other nations have national qualifications frameworks that drive skills and competency credentialing in their respective countries, though it appears these are designed to guide, rather than control microcredential development.”

The report authors consider developments in Europe to be the most ambitious to date in this area. They explain:

“The European MOOC Consortium has developed the Common Microcredential Framework (CMF). It builds on existing systems, and the focus is on formal credential recognition. The CMF adopted a similar set of criteria as that used in the Bologna Process and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Microcredentials within the CMF are defined in terms of student learning hours and educational level. The microcredential is based on the results of an included summative evaluation with a reliable method of identification verification at the point of assessment. The transcript must include a statement of the learning outcomes and study hours equivalency.

The European approach to microcredentials is both intriguing and ambitious—to build a common European qualification framework that builds upon many of the EU national qualifications frameworks in one major standard. In many countries, it is a success just to get three universities to work together in the same region. Global university leaders will be watching Europe’s development closely.”

Practical, immediate skills upgrading

For now, perhaps the most valuable application of microcredentials is their ability to provide employers and employees with quick, affordable, “just-in-time” training. Microcredentials might not win an interviewee a position, but they can add to the candidate’s resume and keep workers relevant as their chosen profession/industry evolves. This, in itself, can be viewed as “value” – even if it is not an equivalent value to a degree.

For additional background, please see:

• “New study highlights the expanding landscape of microcredentials”

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These accredited courses are designed to help build specialised skills that are relevant to today’s job market. And they are becoming wider-spread and increasingly embraced by employers, educators, and individuals alike.

In today’s episode, we explore how these alternative qualifications compare against a full degree programme, why they matter, and the broader implications for educators and recruiters.

Our host this week is Martijn van de Veen, șÚÁÏčÙÍű’s vice president of business development. Martijn is joined by special guests Justin Cooke, the chief content and partnerships officer at , and Dr. Sean Gallagher, the founder of the at Northeastern University.

This episode of the șÚÁÏčÙÍű Exchange is brought to you in partnership with HSBC. You can listen to it the player below, and we encourage you to subscribe via your favourite podcast app in order to receive future episodes automatically.

For additional background, please see:

• “șÚÁÏčÙÍű Exchange podcast: The ELT sector in 2030”

The post șÚÁÏčÙÍű Podcast: The impact of micro-credentials on international education appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

The credit rating firm Moody’s predicts that non-traditional education will be hot area of economic activity even after the pandemic is controlled, predicting that that short-term credentials will rise above the 10% of total enrolment they represented in 2019 “even after the pandemic subsides.”

The fact that these credentials are overwhelmingly delivered online is a key reason they are poised for serious and long-term growth. The pandemic has aligned education more than ever before with digital technologies, as for much of this year, students were only able to learn online. By the end of March, approximately 1.37 billion students were out of classrooms, and millions were studying remotely through technologies such as Google Classroom and Zoom – as well as apps delivered by the world’s most enterprising EdTech companies.

A Netflix moment

Speaking with the Financial Times, Kirill Pyshkin, Senior Portfolio Manager at Credit Suisse, likened the disruption to what happened in the film industry a few years ago: “This is education’s Netflix moment.”

Sean Gallagher, an executive professor of education policy at Northeastern University and founder of Northeastern’s Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy, agrees:

“This looks to be a catalytic moment. Like what’s happened with the rapid digitization of so many other areas of our daily lives, we’ve probably gained in a few months a level of interest and participation in online education that would have steadily played out over years.”

Similarly, an August 2020 found that fully 1 in 5 Americans plan to enrol in an education programme in the next six months, and “they also have expressed a consistent preference for nondegree programmes, skills training, and online options.”

Increased demand evident pre-pandemic

The stage was already set for disruption in higher education before the new coronavirus began its destructive run across the planet. A massive online survey conducted in 2019 by Pearson of more than 11,000 learners in 19 countries found that:

• 68% agreed that a degree or certificate from a vocational college or trade school was more likely to result in a good job with career prospects than a university degree.
  
• At least three-quarters of respondents believed that you have to keep learning after college to stay relevant in your career. This rose to over 90% in Australia, Canada, China, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and South Africa.
  
• Among employed respondents who had opted for further education, many more had chosen self-training/teaching themselves via Internet resources or taken courses provided by employers or professional associations than had undertaken upskilling from a college or university.

Pearson repeated the survey in August 2020 and interest and participation alternative education has held strong since 2019.

Google: Making moves

Not surprisingly, Google has been closely watching the market trend and, already increasingly active in the post-secondary education space (through Google programmes delivered on Coursera), it announced in July that the company is:

• Offering three new six-month programmes – data analytics, project management, and user experience design – resulting in ;
  
• Treating these certificates on par with four-year degrees in its hiring practices.

Google has cited affordability and the need to provide skills retraining to workers whose jobs have been lost due the pandemic as factors that led to its decision to offer the certificates. It is also clearly positioning the certificates as alternatives to college degrees. Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice-president of global affairs, that, “College degrees are out of reach for many Americans, and you shouldn’t need a college diploma to have economic security.”

Industry experts agree that Google’s announcement is a significant bellwether of a trend towards greater acceptance of certificates by employers, but the trend doesn’t herald the end of demand for college degrees, either. Dr Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire University, told that it remains to be seen how much traction skills-based certificates have beyond technical fields, opining that, “A degree remains a signal of other attributes, other than the specific skills needed for a job in the moment.” He added that there are signs that rather than becoming obsolete, four-year degrees are actually becoming more popular “as an entry-level hiring barrier” because companies are becoming more selective in tough pandemic times.

A new level of urgency for students and workers

All of this gives rise to the possibility that, in this time of disruption, college degrees could be moving more into the category of luxury goods for some students and families – leaving ample room for alternatives such as online certificates, industry certifications, and microcredentials to penetrate the mainstream. These short-term offerings offer:

• Affordability (key to the many workers who have lost their jobs)
• Relevancy (crucial for job seekers who need to show concrete proof of mastery of a particular skillset for a particular job)
• Stackability (meaning that several certificates obtained over time can eventually lead to a more valuable specialisation or even degree)
• Flexible scheduling (a must for the multitudes juggling education, work, family, and sometimes illness or caregiving during the pandemic)

The pandemic has made everything more urgent and the near future is exceptionally difficult to predict, and as Northeastern’s Mr Gallagher told , this extends to education and skills training: “Why commit to a long-term investment when your situation and options may change in a month?”

Online as the constant

When the world’s students were forced out of school classrooms by COVID-19, one of the most breathtaking results was that all of a sudden, millions of students needed to learn remotely if they were going to learn at all. This has opened the door to more EdTech offerings than ever before, with one of the most impressive being the free online school set up as early as March 2020 by Indonesia’s , the most prominent EdTech provider in Southeast Asia. As Financial Times reports,

“Online classes ran for five hours every weekday simultaneously across 18 live streaming channels, with tutors covering all school subjects from Grades 1 to 12. Mirroring a normal school, students could learn a different subject each hour and also had access to free live quiz sessions in the afternoons and evenings.”

In the first 24 hours of the service, more than 1.5 million students accessed Ruangguru’s app, “surpassing more popular apps such as WhatsApp and TikTok.” By school year’s end, 7 million students had signed on for Ruangguru’s free classes. As of August 2020, the company claims a base of 17 million registered learners in Indonesia.

Also in the EdTech space, these pandemic times have seen:

• Language learning app Duolingo recording a 108% increase in traffic over March 2020;
• China’s online tutoring providers Koolearn, GSX, and Youdao enrolling 10 million students in free online courses at the height of the lockdown
• Coursera recording a 520% increase in enrolments from mid-March to June 2020 compared to the same period in 2019
• Byju’s, the Indian online learning app, , a 150% surge in enrolments
• Brazil’s Estacio seeing 55% growth in Q1, 2020, in online distance-learning student enrolments

Credit Suisse’s senior portfolio manager Kyrill Pyshkin notes of the massive new economic footprint of EdTech since COVID-19 began that,

“Last year, before the crisis, we’re talking about a digital penetration rate of two to three percent in the education sector. That’s what mobile phone penetration rates were in 1998/99. At the peak of the crisis we were above 90 percent.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Global survey reveals growing interest in shorter programmes and lifelong learning”
• “The growing importance of non-degree credentials”
• “The 60-year curriculum and the elevation of career services”

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A recent Northeastern University whitepaper entitled is one of several high-profile studies finding that companies are increasingly employing skills- or competency-based hiring. The report explains that, “due to the tight job market and also strategic, equity- and diversity-related reasons, many employers are expanding their talent pipeline and being careful not to blindly rely on degrees in their hiring process.”

The Northeastern University survey was conducted among 750 human resource officers at leading US employers and found that “a majority of HR leaders reported having either a formal effort to de-emphasise degrees and prioritise skills underway (23%) or actively exploring and considering this direction (39%).”

In addition, the survey found that “61% of HR leaders believed that online credentials are of generally equal quality to those completed in-person,” a finding that indicates a massive shift in the perception of the value of online learning in just a few short years. The steady growth of enrolments in MOOCs, as well as the increasing number of fee-based MOOCs and MOOC-delivered degrees, offers one illustration of the growing acceptance of online learning. Last year, total enrolments in MOOCs passed the 100 million mark to reach 101 million learners worldwide.

Largest multinationals drop degree requirement

It isn’t only employers in the US that are looking past degree requirements. Global companies such as accountancy firm , PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and have abandoned policies of requiring certain academic scores or degrees from candidates applying for positions with them. When announcing the decision to base hiring on a wider set of factors in 2015, Maggie Stilwell, Ernst & Young’s managing partner for talent at the time, explained:

“Our own internal research of over 400 graduates found that screening students based on academic performance alone was too blunt an approach to recruitment. It found no evidence to conclude that previous success in higher education correlated with future success in subsequent professional qualifications undertaken.”

Other massive companies that no longer require candidates to have a four-year degree include Google, Apple, Starbucks, and IBM. IBM’s vice president of talent Joanna Daley in 2017 that roughly 15% of IBM’s US employees did not have a four-year degree. She said IBM is as interested in candidates who had “hands-on experience via a coding boot camp or an industry-related vocational class” as in degree-holders.

Higher education shifting

The practice of “embedding” industry credentials into degrees has been happening at US community colleges – which have historically defined themselves by offering specific and vocationally oriented skills, in contrast to four-year universities ¬– for some time. “Embedding” refers to a college’s acceptance of a student’s short-term industry certificates as a building block towards a degree. But four-year colleges have been slower to consider the practice. among 149 US colleges and four-year institutions by the found that,

“More than two-thirds of respondents from four-year colleges said embedding wasn’t ‘relevant’ to their work, and half said they were too narrow or skills-based to be useful to students.”

In contrast, she said, “None of the respondents from community colleges said embedding was irrelevant.”

But as we know, the needle is moving quickly when it comes to higher education delivery models and programming, and in the two years since the Lumina study, universities have begun to experiment with competency-based credentials and short courses (increasingly known as “micro-credentials”), which often result in certificates or badges.

Some are further along in weaving in new credentials to their operations. For example, there is the University Learning Store, where students can “learn new skills and earn credentials from top universities.”

The University Learning Store was developed and is delivered by Georgia Institute of Technology, UCLA Extension, University of Wisconsin Extended Campus, UC Davis Continuing Education, University of Wisconsin Continuum College, and UCI Extension. Note the sub-brands now attached to these major universities; in and of themselves, these illustrate the institutions’ recognition of how crucial it is to offer alternative credentials and shorter courses to encourage a wider range of students to enrol with them. The project was developed in close consultation with industry.

This is how the “store” works:

“To earn a credential, you will demonstrate your knowledge by passing assessments. Many of these will be hands-on, skills-based projects that resemble real-world business scenarios. All credentials have been verified by employers to ensure they are representative of the competencies (skills and knowledge) required in today’s workplaces.”

Students can buy courses and take an assessment to earn a badge for US$25-US$150 with a three- to 30-hour investment.

Further widening its market, the University Learning School also allows employers to buy employees or even whole teams courses that allow them to keep learning and earning skills badges.

Micro-internships

In recognition of the increasing priority that employers place on hiring candidates with proven work experience, platforms such as Parker Dewey provide micro-internships to companies, college students, and employers. Employers using the platform can access on-demand help for specific projects, students can gain skills and work experience while getting paid, and universities can tell prospective students they have the ability to connect education to real-world work.

Micro-internships can range from five hours of students’ time to 40 hours. It takes five minutes to set up an account.

is a similar platform, and this is a market space where an increasing array of options is bound to develop.

The future is now

As employers become less rigid in terms of evaluating graduates’ credentials and more interested in up-to-the-minute skills and work experience, the baseline of a bachelor’s (or a bachelor’s plus master’s or MBA) serving to demonstrate job-readiness is no longer a given. Degree qualifications remain relevant, but they are increasingly less likely to be enough in and of themselves. The aforementioned Lumina research found that “a majority of HR leaders (64%) believe that in the future, the need for continuous lifelong learning will demand higher levels of education and more credentials.”

That was two years ago. The two-thirds of respondents who agreed that lifelong learning is the new necessity for employees would almost certainly be higher still now. As Northeastern University’s Sean Gallagher writes,

“Thinking about microcredential offerings only as shorter online educational programmes would miss the broader, more significant trends that they exemplify.

First, the growth of microcredentials is evidence of the emergence of more continuous and less episodic post-secondary learning. Second, microcredentials highlight an educational curriculum that is much more industry-aligned and competency-focused. Finally, they demonstrate that we are entering an era with much greater overlap and integration between education and experience.”

For more information, please see:

• “Study tracks the increasing popularity of alternate credentials”
• “The year in MOOCs: Increased revenues and more degrees”
• “New university rankings put the focus on employability”

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The study tracks the growing footprint of alternative credentials – which are defined as “something other than the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree” – in the professional, continuing, and online education offerings of North American universities and colleges.

“Perhaps it’s time to see if there are different ways to prepare contemporary students for an increasingly complex knowledge and information economy, using methods that take less time, cost less money, and lead more directly to quality employment,” says UPCEA President Wayne Smutz. “At least some employers are beginning to think this might be the case, as they express frustration over not being able to find qualified employees for their vacant jobs. It is this possibility to improve the way we prepare students that drives the increasing exploration of alternative credentials, such as certificates [and] badges.”

As the definition above suggests, the study takes a broad view of alternative credentials to include so-called “stackable degrees” (i.e., certificate programmes within full degree offerings that can be laddered to degree completion), shorter-term “micro-credentials” (which may or may not be stackable toward a certificate or degree qualification), and badges. The latter is the trickiest of the bunch as it can be understood in a couple of different ways including to refer to “a specific, small-grain size of work-related skill or micro-credential.” However, the term can also be used to describe a standardised digital or data-based representation of a variety of alternate credentials.

As the following chart reflects, the percentage of UPCEA members offering alternate credentials across this spectrum has increased notably from just 2016 to 2017. Please note that in this context the terms “undergraduate” and “graduate credit” refer to stackable credentials within those levels of degree studies offered by responding institutions.

Percentage of UPCEA/Pearson survey respondents offering various types of alternate credentials, 2016 and 2017. Source: UPCEA

“Non-credit certificate programmes and non-credit training courses and programmes demonstrated substantial increases and currently are the two most popular offerings, both at 74%,” notes the report. “These programme formats are likely the most popular because of their versatility and ability to adapt quickly in response to changes in skill gaps. Offered separate from traditional degree programmes, their topical coverage, focus and coursework can change based on employer and labor market demand.”

The UPCEA/Pearson survey finds that badges are less commonly offered – that is, relative to stackable credentials and certificates – but are nevertheless becoming more common over the past few years, particularly in the business, healthcare, manufacturing, tourism, and technology sectors. The report adds that, “In the past year major employers have adopted digital badges for employment qualifications, including Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Cisco and many others in the IT industry, PMI, EY and AICPA in business and professional services, and many healthcare, finance and other business sectors. The business world is increasingly embracing alternative credentials and digital badging for professional development.”

Strategically important

The following chart maps institutional perspectives around alternate credentials over the 2016 and 2017 survey years. Most significantly, it reflects a growing awareness of the relevance of alternate credentials to students and employers alike and, by extension, to the long-term position of the reporting institutions.

Institutional perceptions of alternate credentials, 2016 and 2017. Source: UPCEA

For additional background, please see:

• “Major MOOC providers shifting focus to fee-paying students”
• “Online learning still expected to pressure traditional higher education models”
• “Consortium announces major expansion of MicroMasters programmes”
• “Opening the door to new learning models”

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According to , a leading expert on disruptive innovation in higher education, . “Fewer and fewer students can afford that option,” she says.

“What’s more, 42% of college and university students in 2020 will be over the age of 25. More and more young people want their education to be flexible, inexpensive and oriented toward job opportunities.”

It is this focus on flexibility and employability that distinguishes alternative credentials from traditional forms of education. For Dr Weise, lifelong learning will soon become the new norm, requiring students to work during their studies and to constantly learn new skills to keep up with the demands of a changing job market. Students of tomorrow, she predicts, will design their own curricula and pair it with paid work, internships, opportunities abroad, certificates, and mini degrees obtained online or from niche providers.

“Part of the disjunction is that we have a system that is very linear and insular – one that punishes students who get off-track at any point. Non-traditional students need much more flexibility in terms of what the college experience offers to them. The thing that’s missing in higher education is a way to integrate the idea that there is more to upward mobility than a degree,” she says.

For Dr Weise, certificates or alternative credentials provide a better indication of whether someone has acquired specific skills, which explains why there has been a shift towards competency-based education with measurable outcomes. And while many of what she calls the “elite brands” of higher education are resisting the shift, others are taking note. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), for example, released in 2014 aimed at exploring the future of education. The report acknowledges the need for increased flexibility in completing a degree and implies steps must be taken to increase accessibility in general.

In the future, says the report, “the very notion of a ‘class’ may be outdated.” Instead, education downstream may involve a variety of certifications, minors, and alternative credentials, instead of a traditional four-year degree. For more traditional students, the future degree may involve multiple Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) or community college courses, with a subsequent focus on experiential learning. All of these changes, Dr Weise suggests, are driven by a demand for economic relevance. Elite brands will compete with niche or alternative providers who are able to solve what she sees as essentially a “human capital” problem – matching the skills of graduates with the evolving needs of the job market.

“When we think about the shifting value proposition of higher education, we have to think about what job it is that higher education is being hired to do in students’ lives. For many of these non-traditional students, it really is going to come down to job prospects. The important thing here is to realise that many students are looking to higher education to help them get a job.”

Recognising that prospective employers are seeking specific, demonstrable skills, LinkedIn recently launched its feature. Dan Shapero, senior product manager at LinkedIn, sees great value to both employers and job seekers in highlighting alternative credentials on the LinkedIn platform.

“Highlighting certifications on your LinkedIn profile has proven to be a powerful way for professionals to attract opportunity,” he says. “Certifications allow members to showcase proven evidence of their skills and expertise, which is invaluable to employers looking for talent with particular competencies.”

A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education summarised some of the discussions on alternative credentials at the . There was agreement that alternative features like digital badges would become an important new currency for signaling personal achievement.

Matthew Sigelman, chief executive of , a company that analyses job advertisements, said digital data was making it easier to see the nuances of job markets, such as the fact that certain skills are more valued in particular locations.

Certain sectors – namely IT and gaming – have been leading the charge to develop alternative credentials and pathways. , according to a recent article in Education Dive. Employers seeking job candidates with technical skills are interested in such easy-to-verify credentials. , for example, now offers “nanodegree” programmes that are gaining support from companies such as Google and AT&T.

Other types of alternative credentials include “verified certificates” – essentially verifying the identity of someone who has taken a course from one of the major MOOC providers – and “course sequences,” which are pathways of three to nine courses on a specific topic. They act as MOOC versions of professional certificates that may require a capstone project to complete.

Programmes such as “” have also become popular as a means of preparing students – in merely a manner of weeks – into job-ready web developers through intensive coursework and training.

There are now more than 50 such programmes in the US and around the world, taking in an estimated US$73 million in tuition since 2011.

The top programmes claim to place the vast majority of their graduates into jobs earning just under six figures, filling a need for practical, hands-on skills that traditional college programmes aren’t able to deliver.

According to Anne Spalding, director of Dev Bootcamp in San Francisco, such programmes offer “a chance to think about education in a different way.” The role of teachers, she explains, shifts from being “the sole source of knowledge” to “creating a guided learning environment where knowledge comes from everyone and is shared by everyone.”

Coder camps are poised to grow significantly in the coming years by offering a new business model for for-profit vocational education. Indeed, one of the world’s largest education companies, Kaplan, recently purchased Dev Bootcamp.

Not all graduates are singing the praises of such intense, short-term programmes. Dan Gailey started to collect independent reviews of boot camps after being unable to get verifiable information on job-placement rates from the schools themselves. “It’s really the Wild Wild West of education,” he says. “Some people really loved [their experience], and learned a lot. Some people don’t. They feel like they were taken.”

Even Dr Weise feels institutions offering non-traditional degrees need to pay closer attention to the needs of their students. Non-traditional students “are often not surrounded visibly by peers working on the same kinds of projects as they are,” she says. “As such, they need to feel strongly mentored and coached along throughout the process of learning.”

Despite these challenges, alternative credentials are big business.

“There’s a US$500 billion industry within post-secondary instruction that deals with alternative marketable credentials, industry certifications, apprenticeships, and professional certifications,” notes Dr Weise.

She says institutions can start exploring options by potentially partnering with employers and building competency-based career pathways for students that don’t necessarily end in a traditional credential or degree.

“All institutions of higher education will have to think critically about how they offer learning, justify their costs, and adapt their curricula to the changing needs and demands of students, as well as to our rapidly evolving knowledge economy 
. ”

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