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Microcredentials: Insights from Several Organizations

During the recent E-ATP conference, Dr. Reed Castle and I had the opportunity to talk with participants about their approaches to microcredentials.  While the approaches to developing microcredentials varied among participants, there was general agreement that there is a future and a role for microcredentials in the suite of products offered by the certification organizations.  Here are some of the things we heard from participants:

Defining microcredentials: With a high degree of consistency, most of the participants defined micro-credentials as a smaller unit of skills or knowledge; stackable smaller units; a specialized area; and refined content that is stand-alone, or complementary to an established full-scope certification.

Why microcredentials: For their organizations, several factors contributed to the exploration of micro-credentials, including:

• creating a career ladder or specialty credentials
• unbundling a large content examination into progressive sections that once passed, result in the achievement of full credential
• unbundling a large content area into smaller progressive units (certificates)
• creating new options for recertification that reflect specific advances in job skills, requirements and/or knowledge
• use microcredentials as an end-of-course assessment.
• to qualify a workforce more quickly in specific job requirements, utilizing fewer resources.

Producing Quality Microcredentials: As our participants shared their experiences in developing high quality microcredentials, they indicated that there were several areas they had explored including:

• using subject-matter-experts in the development process
• administering valid and reliable assessments
• working from established job-task analyses (JTAs) and/or developing smaller JTAs;
• market factors for prospective candidates
• affect the micro-credential may have on established credentials (internal competition)
• position of the micro-credential within the suite of program offerings
• maintaining the integrity of the micro-credential, whether a certificate/training program, or a job-based credential
• using existing content from a larger credential
• using technology to produce elements of an exam quickly (e.g., webinars, online item authoring and passing score studies).

One challenge participants consistently shared is communicating the microcredential concept to their constituents – helping them understand what constitutes a microcredential, and how it can be used as an alternative credential for certified persons and certification organizations.

As microcredentials continue to emerge and become better defined, some new models and parameters are likely to emerge.  What we learned from the E-ATP group is that microcredentials can be as creative and flexible as organizations need and markets demand.

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