Micro-credentialing is something that is very present in my life currently, as my workplace is looking to introduce it. This is where I am seeing an intersection of my current job (working within a mental health hospital), my previous job (working at a university), and my education (this program!). While I was always familiar with micro-credentials in an academic world, it is fascinating to see it occur in my organization: the hospital is working with the university to develop their own programs to provide micro-credentials to employees.
Nurses, for example, are heavily trained in academic domains, but sometimes, further education is needed. For example, nurses I work with may have a general nursing degree – but how familiar are they with mental health nursing? Working with mental health patients? Best practices? Creating micro-credentials within the hospital can offer this training to current employees, and even prospective employees that are students still within their nursing programs.
These micro-credentials help us build on what we know from our standard educations, and frame new skills needed, meet with new demanding and challenging aspects of work, and push us toward standardization within the hospital.
What are your thoughts on incorporating micro-credentials in organizations external to academia? For example, a law firm – could there be micro-credentials implemented here to help employees expend their knowledge and narrow their expertise?
Interesting question Emma. When I worked in academia, eCampus was just starting the micro-credentials discussions.
In my current industry, mining, micro-credentials are very important and even government-mandated. Like nurses, miners all have a general program of learning (called the common-core). Then as they start to develop, they can acquire micro-credentials to do different tasks and operate specific equipement. All these micro-credentials are registered with the MOLTSD and workers can not complete tasks without credentials or supervision by someone with credentials.
In the past (almost 10 yrs ago now!), I also worked with an international grocery/retail chain, where we introduced micro-credentials with badges where you required a badge to accomplish specific access or responsibilities. For example, to get access to SAP, you needed to earn the SAP beginner badge. For Admin access, you needed to earn the SAP pro badge.
I think there’s definetly value in micro-credentials, however, I think to be effective there needs to be a clear why, a well thought out plan and a commitment (from the top) to the program.
I agree with Sam. The ability to obtain certifications or additional credentials in a short period of time is becoming of more interest especially to show employers your interest to better yourself and gain opportunities to advance careers or differentiate themselves from their colleagues and potential competitors when applying for new jobs.
Learners seem to appreciate the recognition of micro-credentials and certification over simply learning something new for the sake of knowledge. Perhaps that incentive-focus stems from gamification. It isn’t just enterprise, like health care and corporate environments, that are embracing micro-credentials and certification. LinkedIn Learning, Udacity, and others provide certificates of completion for their training modules.