There's a growing demand for students to graduate with skills they can implement immediately in the workplace. Traditionally, a co-op student's performance is assessed through a performance evaluation. However, the skills and competencies a student develops throughout their degree aren't always formally recorded for students to present to future employers.
Here's where microcredentials come in.
Microcredentials allow recent graduates to provide real evidence of their technical and soft skills to make their résumés stand out when applying for jobs. This makes it easier for organizations to find and choose talent with the skills they’re looking for.
What do employers and students know about microcredentials?
Researchers surveyed and interviewed employers and students to find out. They focused on three questions:
- Are students and employers aware of microcredentials?
- What is the perceived value of microcredentials to students and employers?
- How motivated are students to earn microcredentials?
Both the employer and student surveys asked about the value and awareness of microcredentials and the student survey also asked students about their motivation to obtain microcredentials.
Awareness of microcredentials was low among students and employers
We asked respondents how familiar they were with microcredentials using a sliding scale. The average response from ~1,120 surveys was 2.5/5. Of the seven interviews that were conducted, five of the students had no or very little awareness of microcredentials prior to the work term they were completing at the time of the interview.
Two students we interviewed were aware that microcredentials often provide a digital credential that can be shared with employers. Another student mentioned that they had no interest in microcredentials until their current work term.
The low level of familiarity with microcredentials provides an opportunity for Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) stakeholders to increase awareness and promote the benefits of completing microcredentials.
Perceived value of microcredentials
According to survey results, employers and students that were already aware of microcredentials were more likely to see moderate to high value in them– with a few particularly interesting findings.
- More value was placed on microcredentials that demonstrated the participant gained both knowledge and competence in a work environment.
- Respondents viewed microcredentials as more of a complement to a degree rather than a substitute for it.
- Microcredentials that focused on technical skills were more highly valued than those that focused on soft or transferable skills.
This research indicates that microcredentials hold more value when they are demonstrating knowledge of a particular skill and it has been completed in a work environment. The lower value of microcredentials that focus on soft skills may be linked to some concerns about the ability to accurately assess those skills.
Microcredentials motivate students
When examining student motivation, more than 50% of students stated that they would apply extra effort in their courses or workplace if they had the opportunity to obtain a microcredential.
However, this motivation is dependent on the granting body offering the microcredential. More students (66%) felt that microcredentials offered by the University of Waterloo would be more valuable compared to an online educational platform (i.e., LinkedIn Learning). This indicates that not all microcredentials are seen as equal and the reputation of the granting body does matter.
While the WxL team's research focused on student perceptions of microcredentials, the findings present interesting questions about the role of microcredentials in motivating full-time employees to continue their own professional development and workplace performance.
Does your organization offer microcredentials to employees? If not, it’s something you should consider. Join us for our online event, “Upskilling to prepare for the future of work” to learn how you can upskill employees to enable growth and success in an increasingly complex workforce.