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It goes without saying that most modern workspaces are continuously looking for advancements and optimisations. The central pillar supporting this continuous progression lies in the development of individual employees and creating an environment of lifelong learning that extends past any individual employee and into the broader company culture. As the preference continues to shift from traditional learning methods to online, blended or virtual offerings, and our corporate workforce being ever more immersed in the online world, the rise of microcredentials and shorter form learning experiences are taking centre stage. In this blog we are going to dive into this rapidly growing segment of microcredential learning, its contributions to addressing today's skill shortages, and the opportunities it opens up for anyone seeking out this approach to learning.
When we discuss microcredentials, in particular, those on the more rigorous end of microcredential design spectrum, we are referring to learning experiences that tend to command in the range of twenty hours of active participation. Such longer form credentials are becoming increasingly valuable in corporate settings and they have the potential to positively contribute to a culture of lifelong learning in a meaningful way. They achieve this through being richer and more detailed than short form skills training, providing new career development opportunities for employees due to ever more education providers recognising such offerings from a credit perspective towards further study, and with them being not quite as intensive as formal certificate or degree offerings they draw participants away from core functional responsibilities in a reduced manner. By offering the opportunity to engage with microcredentials as part of their professional development, it creates a culture where employees are enabled and encouraged to continuously develop their skills. This is the lifelong learning culture many organisations strive to realise.
As companies are continuously looking for education solutions to keep up with the continuous drive for improvement, microcredentials are showing themselves to be a viable, and desirable, option to meeting such demands. By offering a practical solution to bridge skills gaps, these flexible, focused, and accessible learning experiences are allowing companies and employees alike to:
Embrace a culture of lifelong learning
By supporting a culture of continuous learning through offering opportunities for employees to constantly update their skills and knowledge.
Boost learning effectiveness
Long-form microcredentials offer a more rigorous experience that creates greater depth of knowledge, increasing ability and likelihood for more seamless application of learned skills in the workplace.
Real time application
The structure of long-form microcredentials allows for immediate implementation of learned skills. This is due to the nature of this form of learning in that it facilitates skill application through reiterating real life scenarios in a risk adverse environment - enabling employees to apply new knowledge directly to their current roles.
By opening opportunities for your employees to engage with microcredentials as part of their learning activities, you are simultaneously addressing the demands of both the individual and the company. These targeted yet flexible learning solutions equip employees with the nearterm skills to excel in their current roles, but also create a stepping stone towards more significant study options, or professional accreditations. By facilitating these opportunities you are constantly developing your team's skills and in turn closing workplace skills gaps. By perpetuating this constant development, you are forming the basis of a culture of lifelong learning.