‘Micro-Credential’ Courses Give Employees Lifelong Opportunities
In the Covid-19 world, the professional landscape is shifting quickly.
As technology and the job market evolves, the way people train for the workforce is changing.
Employees and employers are increasingly turning to a new form of education and training: micro-credentials.
While the traditional four-year degree or diploma is still the foundation of most professional education, micro-credentials act as a booster shot for people who want to further develop, or enhance, their current academic qualifications.
Maybe it’s a short online course on project management, or a longer in-person program in social media governance; these options are becoming increasingly more important.
Dann Downes, Acting Assistant Dean Interdisciplinary Studies at UNB’s School of Graduate Studies, teaches one of the mico-crediential courses offered at the University of New Brunswick. Downes states micro-credentials offer people who already have experience or education a way to hone or upgrade their skills—and even learn new ones.
“These programs are targeted to lift your skill level so you can move around in the marketplace.,” he says.
“To be flexible and advance in a work environment, you need to have the ability to adapt on your own as that is what employers are looking for,’” he says
Ian Allen, the Executive Director of the College of Extended Learning at UNB, is also seeing employers put more emphasis on what he calls “lifelong learning.”
The business world moves fast these days, he says, and companies are looking to upskill or reskill their teams to keep up.
“Employers recognize that more of our population is becoming university-educated. They are looking for ways for their people to build on that education, to stay abreast of the changing landscape throughout their careers,” he says.
The trend towards more targeted learning isn’t coming just from employers. Allen says new – and sometimes current – graduates are also looking to enhance their traditional degrees or diplomas with micro-credentials.
“We have seen people looking to upgrade as well as students studying for a traditional degree who want some extra training or credentials,” he says “That way they graduate with their degree plus additional qualifications.”
Allan says micro-credentials are surging in popularity because they are much more flexible than a traditional degree or diploma program.
Most micro-credentials can be attained in smaller portions over time – a course here, a course there—but those individual courses build towards a larger outcome. He says that “stack-ability” is a big draw.
“You might take four, or five, different computer science courses, in IT infrastructure, or coding, or something else. They are individual pieces of learning but put together it is a bigger computer science credential,” he says.
Institutions like UNB offer micro-credentials alongside their more traditional programs, giving students access to much better resources—not to mention the institutional heft of a respected university.
Online courses are sometimes free but often lack meaningful accredited learning, Downes says. You might get a digital badge for just watching a series of videos, but we are trying to offer a better learning environment for the student and outcomes for the employer.
“It all comes down to the reputation of the institution,” he says.
“At UNB, we are giving students in micro-credential programs the same quality of support that we give our undergraduate and graduate students,” he says.
“The way people get an education is evolving and we are adapting to keep up with that. Some student needs or desired programs don’t fit into a traditional degree, we are working to ensure education is not out of reach for anyone — together, we are all UNB.”