Key factors:
Because the U.S. affords extra alternatives for skills-based hiring and development, microcredentials and studying and employment data (LER) can certify scholar studying and success and comprise lifelong studying information.
The Promise of Microcredentials and Studying and Employment Report Applied sciences for Youth and Okay-12 Colleges, a brand new report from schooling nonprofit Digital Promise, helps district leaders and expertise sector leaders perceive what is required to efficiently implement competency-based, learner-centered microcredentials and LER applied sciences in Okay-12 faculties.
LER applied sciences are instruments that permit people to doc and share their abilities, credentials, diplomas, and employment historical past, with the potential to strengthen or reinvent resumes by together with verifiable details about achievements in real-time.
Microcredentials are digital certifications that confirm a person’s competence in a selected ability or set of abilities. These applied sciences have the potential to foster lifelong studying and profession development, notably for systematically excluded (HSE) learners.
Digital Promise’s analysis gives suggestions and issues based mostly on insights from college students, households/caregivers, educators, postsecondary companions, and workforce companions in co-design periods and focus teams from Talladega Metropolis Colleges (Alabama) and JMG.
“The talents-based economic system is quickly and repeatedly shifting to accommodate the fast tempo of innovation,” mentioned Rita Fennelly-Atkinson, senior director of credentials at Digital Promise. “Organizations that serve youth are positioned to extend alternatives for learners by adopting competency-based credentialing and recognition, which is able to permit learners higher entry to pathways that can result in success.”
Microcredentials are more and more fashionable in partnerships between excessive faculties and neighborhood schools. Highschool college students earn microcredentials that add as much as job-ready certificates or {qualifications}, or in some circumstances, allow college students to stay on an affiliate’s diploma monitor whereas working these jobs.
Abilities-based hiring, which opens up alternatives to employees who’ve realized abilities in packages like apprenticeships and different coaching packages moderately than relying solely on two or four-year faculty diploma necessities, is receiving recognition on the federal degree as nicely. An elevated push for skills-based hiring will open up profession alternatives in federal IT jobs.
The Readiness Framework gives Okay-12 district leaders with a possibility to judge their district’s readiness to implement LER applied sciences and competency-based microcredentials whereas prioritizing the voices of HSE learners. Designed in partnership with leaders in Okay-12 schooling and competency-based microcredential and LER implementation leaders, the framework signifies what is required to efficiently introduce, handle, and maintain digital credentialing and LERs for his or her learners.
“We goal to broaden alternatives for youth to develop and acquire recognition for what they know and may do,” mentioned Christina Luke Luna, chief studying officer at Digital Promise. “The steering on this report equips schooling leaders, expertise suppliers, and funders with insights to design for higher fairness and inclusion with learners on the desk.”
Alongside the report, Digital Promise has launched a video, “Enhance Okay-12 Success with MicroCredentials & LER Tech for Talent Recognition,” which depicts the varied methods a Okay-12 learner can leverage microcredentials and LER applied sciences to assist entry and development into the postsecondary pathway of their selecting.
Materials from a press launch was used on this report.
Laura Ascione is the Editorial Director at eSchool Media. She is a graduate of the College of Maryland’s prestigious Philip Merrill Faculty of Journalism.
