Fall means it’s college application season, but a growing number of students are looking for post-high school opportunities outside a traditional four-year university.
Hundreds of thousands of young people have pinned their hopes on what are called microcredentials as a quicker pathway to in-demand careers. Programs vary widely, with students getting certified to become phlebotomists or welders or earning credentials for specific information technology skills.
Sara Weissman, who reports for Inside Higher Ed, said microcredentials run the gamut and can be issued for a specific skill set, or even for more general skills like emotional intelligence or networking.
“They’re offered by a really wide range of providers,” she said. “Community colleges, nonprofit and for-profit universities and all sorts of companies, from big names like Google or LinkedIn to others, and online course providers as well.”
Weissman, who looked at credential programs in Texas and several other states for her reporting, said it’s hard to know how many microcredentials are on offer but by some metrics the number is growing.
“What we do know is, including degrees, there are at least a million secondary and post-secondary credentials being offered across the country right now from about 50,000 different providers, and most of them outside of academia,” she said. “That’s triple the number of credentials counted in 2018 by an organization called Credential Engine. So we know that there is tremendous growth. …
“We also know that certificate earners at higher ed institutions are on the rise. More people earned certificates last year than any other year in the last decade. And a good chunk of the certificate earners were young people ages 18 to 20.”
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For those considering pursuing a microcredential, Weissman said not all options are created equal.
“From the research we have on certificate programs, we know that in general, these programs overall increase students’ probability of being employed,” she said. “They do offer an earnings boost, but that boost can wane after a few years. And sometimes students don’t know that to reach the next raise, the next step in their career trajectory, they might need another credential or further education.
“Some of these programs have been found to offer no returns or even seem to have a negative effect. So they really vary. And that partly depends on what jobs are in demand in a student’s area, how well they pay and the kinds of relationships programs have with their local employers.”
Microcredentials are also not mutually exclusive with further higher education, including college.
“Research still shows that degrees are the surest route to a good wage. And as much as there’s kind of questions about the value of higher education and its cost right now, I think that holds true,” Weissman said. “But I do think we’re seeing more traditional higher ed institutions — outside of community colleges which have had these offerings for a long time — start to consider adding certificates and bootcamps and these kinds of alternative options as they’re seeing demand grow for it.”
Some students completing microcredentials plan to go to college later, while others hope their credential program will be enough.
“I talked to students who did microcredentials and then went on to degrees. And I also talked to students who had no plans to return for a number of reasons: affordability, juggling life responsibilities or simply going into careers like the trades that they felt didn’t require it,” Weissman said. “What I will say is that higher ed institutions have been putting some effort into making microcredentials stackable, meaning students can earn credits toward a degree as they’re doing these shorter programs. And I did see some students who were taking advantage of that.”
Weissman said the research shows it’s best to look for certificates that target specific in-demand fields, like health care, if the goal is to get a job
“(That) tends to offer better outcomes in the labor market than a sort of more general microcredential,” she said. “So that’s certainly something that students can keep in mind.
“And there are also organizations working now on setting quality standards for these kinds of programs and making sure that there are platforms where students can look up data on these programs outcomes. I think it’s a growing arena, but it’s starting to sort of come into its own.”
