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There’s no doubt there are significant benefits to micro-credentials. The perfect union of industry and educators, these bite-sized courses are ideal for innovating any learning program.
However, when you start reading a lot of the information out there, the benefits are focused on employees and employers. With organisations having changing training demands and individuals needing to stand out in a difficult job market, it’s fair. But what about the benefits to educators?
Read on to discover our top five reasons.
Education institutions can help individuals
Unfortunately, some of the lasting impacts of Covid-19 are the economic ones and more specifically, the employment market. More than ever, individuals need to find a way to stand out in a competitive job space and micro-credentials allow them to do that.
With a focus on in demand skills, micro-credentials offer an easy way for individuals to develop new skills, articulate their knowledge and stand out amongst candidates. This can be both for new graduates looking to find their first job in the market and also older workers who need to validate and expand their skills set (Interesting fact: 40% of IBM’s micro-credential program are participants are 50 or older and this statistic predates 2020.)
Educators can aid organisations in future proofing
More than ever before, organisations are looking for unique skill sets, particularly relating to soft skills. With resilience and change management in exceptionally high demand, educators can provide tailored courses to address these with far more speed and flexibility than in the past.
Organisations are also looking to cross train and maintain high levels of technical proficiencies. These both open up another path for industry and educators to work together to ensure organisations can meet their future needs and continue to succeed.
Micro-credentials offer faster course development
The process of developing micro-credentials is obviously far quicker than your traditional course creation. This happens in two ways - firstly, you are not as subject to the regulations around full degrees, and secondly the actual structure of micro-credentials allows you to develop your course in stages. Instead of requiring the entire course upfront, you can simply start with the most critical parts and chip away from there.
This speed allows educators to be more agile in response to their students' and business partners' changing needs, capitalising on opportunities they wouldn’t have been able to before. It’s important to note here that this is even more true for organisations with a good reputation in the industry. Much of your micro-credentials credibility comes from your name itself, as much as from the topic offerings.
Enjoy alternative methods to profits
Educators often look for new ways to create profit for their organisations beyond the traditional course structure and micro-credentials offer two unique ways to do this.
Firstly, they allow educational institutions to partner with big organisations to build a tailored approach to learning. This allows educators to do what they do best - create courses that drive knowledge - while organisations can enjoy courses custom built for their unique situation. Many educators also choose to devise basic courses on popular topics and then customise them as required for larger partnerships, making it even more cost effective.
Micro-credentials also allow educators the flexibility to create new courses that would not fit their traditional degrees and profit off these. This is particularly true in current circumstances, where the need to develop a variety of soft skills is at the top of the list of many organisations.
Micro-credentials can recruit students
Particularly for postgraduate studies, individuals are looking for more flexibility in the way they pursue education. Not only do micro-credentials promote a culture of ongoing learning, but they also offer a unique pathway for individuals to enrol in education without impacting their work or personal life. Students can simply enrol in the single courses most relevant to their needs at the time and then return to different courses as time and needs permit.
As micro-credentials can be stacked together however suits, this is even a future pathway to achieving a degree. This allows universities to even capture a new audience than they ever had before.