Are micro-credentials as valuable as traditional degrees?

“Overall, it’s a good movement. It’s a good step in the right direction of making learning more modular and bite-sized but we can’t overpromise to job seekers, especially when they’re putting significant amounts of money into this.”

So says Tricia Williams, director, research, evaluation and knowledge mobilization at the Future Skills Centre in Toronto about micro-credentials as a growing trend to be aware of.

“Right now, if [employers] come across a candidate who has a micro-credentials, these are people who are invested in learning and that ability and curiosity to learn is such a great signal,” she says.

Micro-credentials valued by employers, jobseekers

And it’s definitely a trend, judging by a recent survey from Express Employment Professionals.

Both employers and job seekers value micro-credentials, with half saying they are just as valuable as traditional two- or four-year degrees (48% of both employers and job seekers) and almost a quarter saying they are more valuable than traditional degrees (21% of employers and 22% of job seekers).

While there is no accepted textbook definition, micro-credentials can be considered “short bursts of training that confers some sort of skill acquisition or learning module. It’s moving what maybe was in a larger credential into more bite-sized pieces that are really tied to specific skills or knowledge,” says Williams.

For those industries in which skills acquisitions are more important than having a diploma or degree, these targeted courses will become more valuable in the future, she says.

“We know that there’s a huge need for people to keep learning as they’re on the job, and we’ve known for some time that the future of work will require us to be able to upskill and reskill and that you can no longer finish your education, go on the labour market, and then say, ‘I’m done learning.’ That isn’t an option anymore,” says Williams.

Speed of gaining new skills

The new white paper, titled The Big Rewards of Microcredentials, shows that companies want and need candidates with the requisite skills now, with three-quarters (74%) saying they are desperately seeking more skilled workers but don’t have the time to wait for them to receive a two- or four-year degree. Even more companies (80%) wish there was a way to expedite the time it takes for workers to obtain the necessary skills for a job.

Job seekers agree, with an even higher proportion (79%) saying they want to further their skills but don’t have the time to complete a traditional degree, and most (87%) saying they wish there was a way to get the skills necessary for a job faster, finds Express Employment Professionals survey of 507 Canadian hiring decision-makers 507 job seekers.

These micro-credentials could also play a part in alleviating labour shortages, according to Sid Gupta, Express Employment Professionals franchise owner in Burnaby, B.C.

“For example, if you are an accountant, and you are from some country and you don’t have an experience over here, you will do payroll accounting program for two months and you’re in action. You don’t go through the whole gamut of getting into college and enrolling, pay hefty fees, and then wait six months, a year or so,” he says.

As well, when organizations are struggling to bring on new talent with non-technical skills, micro-credentials might provide an answer, according to Williams.

“Employers really struggle on the soft skills, and how to measure and assess those. Technical skills, they tend to know better and micro-credentials have a lot of opportunity maybe to say, ‘Yes, this person went through a short course on collaboration, and they passed some sort of skill assessment on this, and it’s validated,’ so that employers can actually trust going forward when so many employers are looking for those soft skills.”

Acceptance of micro-credentials still low

But while the field is promising, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence they are moving the needle, says Williams.

“There’s been a lot of hype around it but thus far, we’re not really seeing yet if it is benefiting jobseekers or employers are actually saying: ‘Yes, somebody with this micro-credential has the skills that we are looking for.’”

Most employers don’t have a high opinion of micro-credentials, she says.

“We know for a fact that employers do not find them as good as a degree, and we did some research last year with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and we surveyed employers [asking] ‘What are you thinking about micro-credentials? Are you actually hiring or giving people promotions based on this?’ and they said, ‘If somebody’s already in the job, it might help us determine a skill area or promotion,’ but they weren’t using it so much for entry-evel hiring.”

Instead, organizations were looking at deploying this type of education in a different way.

“It was more of continuing education, or the kind of the workplace development that you might see on the job,” says Williams.

For recruiters, it’s important to recognize how micro-credentials can make a candidate that much more attractive, says Gupta but some realities today are holding this from fully taking hold in the market.

“Recruiters are bound by the demands of the market. Let’s say the client says, ‘I want A,B,C,’ so the recruiter cannot say, ‘I’ll give you E,F,G,’ but there’s a big play for the recruiter to understand what he’s bringing on table for the client and coaching the client, as the subject matter expert, to guide employers that this packaging looks a better deal for you and then also bring a quick upgrade on the skill set, which is really good for you as an organization.”