Microcredentials, certifying the learning outcomes of short learning experiences, offer a flexible, targeted way to help people develop the knowledge, skills and competences they need for their personal and professional development. In recent years, microcredentials have proliferated across economic sectors and education levels. As multitalented contributors to lifelong learning, they can increase the provision of labour-market-relevant vocational education and training (VET), support national, regional and sectoral upskilling and reskilling strategies, offer learners targeted training for better employment prospects, and help employers improve employee retention and productivity. They can play a role in the modularisation of qualifications and the validation of prior learning, and possibly even in enabling the inclusion of the most vulnerable. Thanks to their flexibility in responding quickly to emerging labour market needs, microcredentials are becoming ever more popular, especially in continuing vocational education and training (CVET). They are offered at all levels and in many sectors, allowing learners to enter the labour market or to top-up their existing qualifications. Microcredentials are increasingly prominent in discussions about education, training and labour market policy. Policymakers, educators and trainers across the world envision them as tools shaping industrial ecosystems such as innovation clusters, playing a role in business innovation and even in the economic restructuring of regions. The increasing and diversifying uses of microcredentials raise the question on how they relate to and interact with existing qualifications. How should they be assessed, recognised or certified? Integrated in national qualification frameworks? Quality-assured? Treated as stackable building blocks of full, recognised credentials or qualifications? All these features are fuelling debates across the EU as they determine the value learners and employers will ultimately ascribe to microcredentials.
© j-mel/stock.adobe.com Cedefop, with its research work on microcredentials, is at the heart of these discussions. It has been looking at microcredentials’ take-up, characteristics and functions, their benefits for end users, and why building trust in them is so important. Learners, workers and jobseekers must have a guarantee that microcredentials can really advance their learning and working careers; employers must be able to rely on them as a trustworthy reflection of job applicant skills and knowledge. Hence stakeholder expectations across the EU focus on the labour market relevance and status of recognition of microcredentials, as well as the reputation of their issuers: these are prerequisites for the different users to have assurance of their value – and trust in them. Cedefop has worked to broaden European and national stakeholders’ understanding of the perceived exchange value of microcredentials within the EU labour market and of their added value for end users. Can they become building blocks of lifelong learning and employment, improving learners’ professional status, and inclusiveness in education and training? If you want to explore this question with us, you are most welcome to join our Peer-learning activity (PLA) on microcredentials for the labour market, jointly organised by the European Commission and Cedefop, on 29 January 2024. This PLA will be an opportunity for Members of the European Parliament and other policy-makers, social partners, VET providers, stakeholders, experts and researchers to share their experiences and obtain insights into the European policy framework on microcredentials and Cedefop’s latest research on microcredentials for labour market education and training with hands-on examples from the manufacturing and retail sectors. The programme https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/events/peer-learning-activity-microcredentials-labour-market-sectoral-approach-manufacturing-and-retail is available on the event page. You are kindly invited to register here (Please note that registration is mandatory to attend the event).
Browse Cedefop’s publications with the results of its most recent research on microcredentials for labour market education and training, discussing their take-up, characteristics and functions, their link with evolving qualifications systems and their added value for end-users. Listen to Cedefop’s new podcast with our expert Anastasia Pouliou and Honorary Research Associate at University College London Paul Grainger on how microcredentials empower us to work. For more information on mobility and VET qualifications across borders, have a look at our related project pages.
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