Micro-credentials aim to have maxi-impact
Tim Hance plans to proudly display his digital micro-credential badge for math and coding on his resumé and his LinkedIn profile.
Hance, 27, is finishing up his bachelor of education degree at Ontario Tech University with a teaching practicum at Ajax High School. Although he hopes to teach history or elementary school, Ontario Tech requires all its teaching candidates to take a coding course so they are conversant with the skills their students need to acquire.
Faculty members Iain Brodie and Diane Tepylo offer their coding students the chance to earn a microcredential by doing an additional course assignment that proves their basic coding competence.
“Why not do it, put it on my resumé and incorporate it into my teaching practice as best I can?” asked Hance. “Education is headed toward these new ideas, so let’s get on board. It could be the difference when it comes to getting a job.”
Micro-credentials are relatively new to the education game, but they are gaining traction worldwide, both at post-secondary institutions, such as Ontario Tech and Western University, and corporations like EY and IBM.
The government of Ontario is also on board. In April, the provincial government created the $15-million Ontario Micro-Credentials Challenge Fund to build on earlier pilot projects that led to offerings such as a micro-credential in donning and doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE), a micro-credential in data analytics and one in electric vehicle battery maintenance. Each was developed in partnership between industry and a college or university.
So what exactly is a micro-credential?
“Micro-credentials are intended to be short, intense learning opportunities targeting a particular skill or competency. They are tightly focused on a specific skill rather than being comprehensive,” said Rachel Sumner, CEO of Ontario Tech Talent, a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary of the university that develops industry-approved micro-credentials.
They are also low risk for learners, she added, since they don’t require the time commitment of a certificate program or a graduate degree.
In addition, they verify claims made about skills — something a transcript can’t do — and that allows employers to make better hiring decisions.
Learners who earn micro-credentials can obtain digital badges for them, reminiscent of Girl Guide badges but encrypted and containing metadata, such as the class syllabus, how the learner demonstrated the skill and the assessment rubric.
“An employer knows you have participated, learned and done the required work,” said Fiona McArthur, strategic project manager in the office of the president at Ontario Tech. “The badges have rigour.”
They can also be stackable; in other words, they can be part of a pathway toward a particular degree or certification if the user accumulates them all. For example, Humber College offers a REVIT Architecture Professional certificate of completion upon earning three micro-credentials in using the aforementioned software.
Sumner and her Ontario Tech Talent staff work hand in hand with industry partners and with Ontario Tech to develop micro-credentials in the advanced manufacturing, health-care and energy sectors, but micro-credentials can be created in any field. Many are partnerships between academia and industry.
“We want industry to work with us so we can determine which micro-credentials we need to develop,” Sumner said. “There isn’t a wealth of workforce planning data in any sector, but we need data to show that developing something would be worthwhile.”
Travis O’Rourke, president of Hays Canada, views micro-credentials as one way for employers to bridge skills gaps and for employees to commit to ongoing learning. Unfortunately, the company’s 2022 Canada Salary Guide indicates that 44 per cent of employees said their company hadn’t initiated any training to help them develop their skills.
However, 36 per cent of employers were providing ongoing training as a way to keep good employees. Given the growing skills shortage in Canada and the desire to get the economy rolling again despite the pandemic, training and microcredentials are becoming more valuable than ever.
“Employers think that if they upskill employees they’ll leave, so why invest in their own programs?” O’Rourke said. “That’s not a longterm solution, however, because people end up leaving anyway for organizations that will invest in them.
“I’m a big fan of micro-credentials. For an individual, these short snippets make you better at your job and speak to your work ethic and ambition.”
Hance, the graduating teacher, is eager for any edge he can obtain in a crowded education marketplace.
“A micro-credential could be the difference when it comes to getting a job. It could make it or break it,” he said.