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Microcredentials are a record of focused learning achievement verifying what the learner knows, understands, or can do. They include an assessment based on clearly defined standards and are awarded by a trusted provider. They have stand-alone value and may also contribute to or complement other microcredentials or macrocredentials, including through recognition of prior learning. They meet the standards required by relevant quality assurance.
Microcredentials are qualifications focused on specific professional or career disciplines and typically consist of one or more accelerated educational experiences. They can be online or digital educational credentials and usually cover more than a single course but less than a full degree. It is a certification - or representation of learning - that indicates a demonstrated competency in a skill set and is awarded upon completion of a short program. It is sometimes related to other credentials.
Microcredentials typically focus on a specific set of learning outcomes in a narrow field of learning over a shorter period of time. They are often provided by employers, private providers, professional organizations, commercial entities, training providers, and community organizations.
Definitions from various organizations include:
Microcredentials provide job-ready skills and experiences, and can also provide a pathway to an initial or advanced degree. Microcredentials verify, validate, and attest that specific skills and/or competencies have been achieved, and therefore are parts of the credentialing ecosystem. Microcredentials can pair with other credentials and be used to build upon a worker’s capabilities in order to demonstrate skills to employers.
MicroMasters (edX), Nanodegree (Udacity), and Specialisation (Coursera)
The State University of New York (SUNY) was one of the first Systems (or institutions) of higher education to adopt a broad micro-credential policy in 2018, largely following recommendations of the SUNY Micro-Credentialing Task Force that had begun its work three years earlier. SUNY now offers more than 500 microcredentials in 60+ discipline areas in high-demand fields, across its campuses.
Micro-pathway: A micro-pathway is two or more stackable credentials that can be packaged as a validated market signal connecting learners to employment in high-growth careers.
Skills and Competencies: Skills define specific learned activities, and they range widely in terms of complexity. Knowing which skills a person possesses helps to determine whether their training and experience has prepared them for a specific type of workplace activity. Competencies identify the observable behaviors that successful performers demonstrate on the job. Those behaviors are the result of various abilities, skills, knowledge, motivations, and traits an employee may possess. Competencies take “skills” and incorporate them into on-the-job behaviors. Those behaviors demonstrate the ability to perform the job requirements competently.
Credential: A credential is a documented award by a responsible and authorized body that attests that an individual has achieved specific learning outcomes or attained a defined level of knowledge or skill relative to a given standard. Credential is often viewed as an umbrella term that includes degrees, diplomas, licenses, certificates, badges, and professional and industry certifications. Some do not include degrees within the term, credentials, creating confusion as to whether degrees are credentials.
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