Navigating the Challenges of Micro-Credentials

Micro-credentials: A timeline of rapid rise

In 2017, Ontario began introducing micro-credentials, focusing on short courses that develop skills demanded by employers. By 2019, a framework for the design and deployment of these credentials had been established, alongside the development of various pilot projects. 

In 2020, the Government of Ontario allocated $59.5 million in funding, with $57 million dedicated to financial support for students enrolled in micro-credential programs. This investment significantly increased the availability of micro-credentials, launching 36 in the 2019-20 academic year alone. The funding was further supplemented by an additional $15 million in 2021, with more resources added in the subsequent years of 2022 and 2023.

Following Ontario's lead, Alberta and British Columbia also invested in micro-credentials, though to a lesser extent.

In 2022, the Ontario government tasked the Postsecondary Education Quality Assessment Board (PEQAB) with consulting and developing a Micro-Credential Quality Assurance Framework. This framework suggested that institutions could use a protected trademark, OMC, to signify that their courses have been quality assured, though participation in this system remains optional.

As of summer 2023, the Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer (ONCAT) reported approximately 1,750 micro-credentials available in Ontario, with a third offered by colleges (both public and private) and the rest by universities. By April 1, 2024, the number of micro-credentials available in Ontario had increased to 2,130, as reported through the studyonline.ca portal. Across Canada, there are an estimated 10,000 micro-credentials offered by public and private institutions.

Let's take stock of the 10 big challenges

1. How can we clarify for employers the concept of micro-credentials and their potential value in the hiring process, given the current low level of industry recognition and support?
2. What strategies can we implement to increase awareness of micro-credentials among those eligible to earn them, considering that less than a quarter have heard of them?
3. How can we encourage more institutions to develop and offer micro-credentials?
4. How can we better align micro-credentials with specific skills in demand and employment opportunities, given that many currently do not meet these criteria?
5. How can we position micro-credentials beyond “loss leaders” to genuinely enhance college or university education, particularly for university courses?
6. What steps can we take to make more micro-credentials stackable and transferable to recognized certificates, diplomas, or degrees?
7. How can we navigate the highly competitive market for short courses, ensuring effective pathfinding guidance and course choice support for potential learners?
8. How can we develop micro-credentials that are more closely tied to job-competency profiles or competency-based assessment and not be restricted to the format of traditional online college and university courses?
9. What measures can we implement to clarify the marketplace confusion between badges and micro-credentials, and explain whether badges can be considered a form of credential when they can be stacked and converted into certificates?
10. How can we better integrate micro-credentials into longer forms of learning — e.g., certificates, diplomas, degrees — through a reimagining of prior learning assessment?

Let’s collectively continue to work and progress toward micro-credentials in which:

• The learner completes a competency assessment. They submit evidence of their knowledge, skills and capabilities (video, audio, text, other) linked to a competency profile for a specific set of skills linked to jobs in demand.
• The learner’s capabilities are assessed by a qualified assessor who determines if they possess the capabilities or not. For those skills they are deemed to have, they receive instant recognition. If they don’t have those skills, they are directed to specific short forms of learning that will enable them to develop the knowledge, skills and capabilities needed. This is known as “gap-based learning.”
• The learner completes the needed learning — self-study, asynchronous learning, boot camp or whatever form it is offered — and then submits new evidence of their capabilities, which are then assessed.
• This process continues until all competencies have been assessed as successfully completed, and then a credential is offered.
• The credential is focused on what the learner can do, not whether they participated in a course. 
• The competency framework for assessment and some of the assessments themselves are undertaken by employers or their professional associations to determine whether the learner can demonstrate the required skills.

It's a challenging time, but we are up to it.

The road ahead is not easy, but it is filled with opportunity.

Let's embrace these challenges as a call to action, a chance to refine and improve upon a concept that holds immense promise for learners and employers alike. The future of micro-credentials is a collective endeavour, and it's time for us to rise to the occasion.