Online learning offers many opportunities today that non-traditional students didn’t have in the past. But what kind of online educational program is right for you, especially if you need that flexibility and time is also a major factor? That’s where certificates and micro-credentials come in. Both online certificates and micro-credentials can enhance your educational and professional skills in a short period of time, but they serve different purposes. In this article, we will explain the differences between certificates and micro-credentials, so you can decide if one of them is right for you.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Microcredentials Task Force - PESC (white paper pending)
The Microcredentials in Data Systems Task Force is an open, collaborative, volunteer discussion group looking to provide education & information on skills and competencies; and if needed, changes and updates to PESC Approved Standards. To assist PESC Members & all stakeholders in the student and learner ecosystem, PESC establishes the Microcredentials Task Force, an open discussion forum looking to provide education & information on skills & competencies; and if needed, changes and updates to PESC Approved Standards.
Monday, June 17, 2024
Taking Action on Planetary Health (online certificate program) - University of Toronto
The Taking Action on Planetary Health certificate program focuses on solutions that address the impacts of climate change on human health and ways we can improve the health of our communities as healthcare providers. Working with other learners across 7 collaborative sessions, you’ll develop a practical and sustainable intervention you can readily implement your own clinical practice.
Sunday, June 16, 2024
Ontario Supporting More Industry-Focused Training Programs; New micro-credentials to quickly prepare learners for in-demand jobs
The Ontario government is supporting the development of new micro-credentials to help students train for in-demand jobs in priority sectors like health care and advanced manufacturing. Through a second round of the Ontario Micro-credentials Challenge Fund, the province has invested $5 million for eligible postsecondary institutions to work with industry to co-create or expand rapid training programs that respond to Ontario’s evolving labour market. “The Micro-credentials Challenge Fund brings industry and institutions together to create programs that strengthen Ontario’s workforce and economy,” said Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities.
Saturday, June 15, 2024
Connecting college students with enriching work experiences - Carly D. Robinson, Katharine Meyer, and Susanna Loeb, Brookings
Many college students have access to jobs offering multiple benefits—such as competitive pay, opportunities to contribute to society, and career development—but they often do not apply for these enriching positions. Simple outreach approaches can substantially increase college students’ applications to potentially enriching job opportunities. College students are particularly responsive to outreach that focuses on the wages of available jobs, even for jobs for which they say they are drawn by societal contributions or career development.
Friday, June 14, 2024
Google funds new cybersecurity clinics at 15 colleges - Skylar Rispens, EdScoop
Google, in coordination with the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics, granted 15 colleges, universities and community colleges up to $1 million each to create new cybersecurity clinics at campuses across the country. In addition to the financial support, the selected higher education institutions will also receive opportunities for student mentorship from Google. The company’s cybersecurity clinics fund seeks to strengthen members of the Consortium of Cybersecurity clinics and bolster the cyber workforce, according to a Google announcement.
Thursday, June 13, 2024
Work-Based Learning - Strada Foundation
Work-based learning, such as internships, apprenticeships, micro-internships, and experiential/project-based learning, allow students to engage in structured work experiences that reinforce and expand their skill sets within professional settings that are aligned with their career interests and goals. While there is value in all types of work-based learning, internships and apprenticeships have the strongest evidence base for improving student outcomes.
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Best Online Certificate Programs Of 2024 - Garrett Andrews & Brenna Swanston, Forbes
Though not as distinguished as bachelor’s degrees, certificate programs have several important benefits. They allow learners to pursue a particular interest, sometimes at the most prestigious institutions in the world. Credits earned in a certificate program can often transfer to a formal degree. Plus, certificates are significantly cheaper than traditional degrees. Certificates are essentially mini degrees. These academic programs feature short, focused courses that instill job-ready skills. Credentials help learners advance in their careers or move confidently into new ones. And today, many of these programs are offered fully online.
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Pew Research: Is college worth it? Yes, with caveats - Nathan M Greenfield, University World News
Almost one third of Americans do not believe that a college education is worth the cost and 47% believe it is worth it only if they don’t have to take out loans, says a new study by the Pew Research Center. These findings are in line with a trend dating back to at least 2017 when only 49% of Americans reported believing that a college education was worth the cost.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20240531153022807
Monday, June 10, 2024
Funding Student Success: Internships for Humanities Students - Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed
A$5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will boost internship participation rates among students in the humanities at Old Dominion University in Virginia, providing needed experiential learning and career support for students. Launching this fall, the Monarch Humanities Internship Academy will support hundreds of students each year in securing paid internships to help them in their careers, as well as build talent pipelines for regional employers and beyond. The Monarch Internship and Co-Op Office at ODU is leading the development and rollout of the academy, which began this spring, working to an institutional goal to provide all students with experiential learning by 2027.
Sunday, June 9, 2024
PNC targets young talent, brings hundreds of summer interns to Pittsburgh HQ - Patty Tascarella, Pittsburgh Business Times
An estimated 1,500 interns come to the Pittsburgh region each year and 500 have descended on PNC for a two-day summit at the bank’s corporate headquarters downtown. It’s an annual gathering at the region’s biggest — and nation’s 6th-largest — bank. And it’s also a key component of the talent acquisition strategy at PNC Financial Services Group Inc. The program is one of PNC’s primary early career talent pipelines and it has become increasingly important as the bank expands into new markets.
Saturday, June 8, 2024
Interns, Trainees, and Volunteers Under the FLSA - Practical Law THE Journal
Guidance on how the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) applies to interns, trainees, and volunteers, including when interns and trainees must be classified as employees entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay, and under what circumstances private sector employees may volunteer time and services. This article discusses FLSA issues associated with internship and training programs and employee volunteer activities, including:
- The primary beneficiary test used by the Department of Labor (DOL) and federal courts to determine the employee status of interns and trainees for minimum pay purposes.
- The compensability of volunteer activities by employees of private, for-profit employers.
- The potential consequences of misclassifying employees as unpaid interns, trainees, or volunteers.
Friday, June 7, 2024
3 High-Income Skills You Can Learn For Free In 2024 - Forbes
The more you upskill, the more of a specialist you become, and the more you increase your credibility and quality of work. High-income skills pay much because they are either rare, or they provide strong tangible value to the businesses they serve. They solve or tackle a problem that is at the root of the company being able to make more money. Becoming specialized in your high-income skill puts you in a fortunate position to be able to generate unique and creative solutions to problems, and enables you to command higher pay rates and salaries. If you're wondering where to begin, here are a few you might want to consider learning this year (and remember, you can learn these through bootcamps and online learning platforms, both free and budget-friendly options available).
Thursday, June 6, 2024
Stryker WISE Group Sponsors Female Engineering Excellence Prize with DCU - Dublin City University
Éabha was recognised for her project on “Single Value Metric for Text-To-Video Model Evaluation,” which made significant advancements in a complex and topical area of artificial intelligence. The project successfully communicated a lengthy and complex concept concisely and with great enthusiasm. Awarded by Stryker’s employee resource group, WISE (Women in Science and Engineering), this prize is a recent example of WISE’s role in cultivating diversity, encouraging women to enter technical industries, and building the next generation of STEM leaders.“The Female Engineering Excellence Prize in particular is important to WISE as our mission is to advocate for the growth of women in technical fields. Supporting women coming into the industry underscores our commitment to fostering talent and diversity. By sponsoring these awards, we hope to build the confidence of these students to see the true value of their own skills as they enter industry.”
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
The Importance of Understanding Non-Degree Credential Quality - the Burning Glass Institute
The number of non-degree credentials (NDCs) has ballooned in the past decade. But despite having hundreds of options to choose from, learners, funders, and employers have little guidance on which NDCs may be best for them. This report offers an overview of NDCs, their significance in the modern labor market, and the pressing need for a framework to evaluate non-degree credential quality.
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
NSDC and ILO collaborated to enhance Skill Development and Lifelong Learning - PSU Connect (India)
The partnership aims to facilitate public-private partnerships and knowledge exchange to enhance Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), develop micro-credentials, and promote Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) through a global knowledge-sharing platform. By strengthening the comparability of skills and qualifications, digital tools will be developed and deployed to assess and compare the skills and qualifications of Indian workers with those required in potential destination countries, improving mobility and global employability prospects for Indian workers.
Monday, June 3, 2024
A ‘Great Misalignment’ Between Credentials and Jobs - Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed
Anew report from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce found a “great misalignment” between projected job demand in many local labor markets and the mix of credentials available to workers seeking jobs requiring more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree. The report, released on Wednesday, focuses on “middle-skills credentials,” which include sub-baccalaureate certificates and associate degrees, in 565 local labor markets across the country. It noted that, as of the 2020–2021 academic year, there were nearly 4,800 providers of these kinds of credentials, including community colleges, nonprofit and for-profit colleges, private work training organizations, and technical and cosmetology schools.
Sunday, June 2, 2024
New programme of free and subsidised upskilling courses up for grabs at TUS Midwest - Ellen Gough, ClareLive (Ireland)
Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) has been awarded €2 million worth of subsidised places on programmes specifically designed to meet industry skills needs across the Midwest region. The 1,000 places are available through HCI and Springboard+ initiatives, providing upskilling and reskilling places on programmes that are subsidised between 90% to 100%. Speaking about the announcement, TUS Dean of Flexible and Work-based Learning Seamus Hoyne said, “TUS prides itself on delivering upskilling and reskilling opportunities to individuals that meet our regional industry demand. Our programmes have been developed to ensure a pipeline of talent in emerging and growth areas in our region”
Saturday, June 1, 2024
Microcreds can turn volunteering activities into recognised skills - FE Week
Micro-credentials are increasingly being recognised as an effective way to meet employers’ skills needs. But they offer much more than that, not least in terms of social value. The idea that learners can build up sets of industry-relevant specialist skills through accredited ‘bitesize’ modules is pioneering. It provides the flexibility and agility needed in fast-moving sectors where technology is changing all the time and employers need adaptive training models. But micro-credentials themselves have lots of scope to be adaptable, including in the social impact and enrichment space.
Friday, May 31, 2024
PEI’s WCB lauches online certificate courses and multilingual resources - OHS Canada
Prince Edward Island’s Workers Compensation Board (WCB) is offering free online certificate courses that cover a variety of compensation and occupational health and safety topics, as well as resources in a broader range of languages to reflect the Island’s changing workforce. “As part of our 2024-2026 strategic plan, we have identified the need to adapt our outreach and communications to the growing diversity in our workforce,” said Dan Campbell, CEO of the WCB. “By providing these courses free of charge to Island workers and employers, our goal is to empower each and every one of them with knowledge and understanding of topics that affect them in the workplace, both individually and collectively.”
Thursday, May 30, 2024
States are leading the effort to remove degree requirements from government jobs - Papia Debroy, et al; Brookings
Over the past two years, more than 20 states have expanded access to state jobs through a simple move: assessing or removing bachelor’s degree requirements. With state, local, and federal governments employing 15% of the U.S. workforce, these actions are of enormous consequence, especially for “STARs,” or workers who are skilled through alternative routes. STARs—who have gained their skills through community college, the military, partial college, certification programs, and, most commonly, on-the-job training—represent over half of the nation’s workforce, and currently occupy approximately 2 million state jobs. Government leaders see removing bachelor’s degree requirements as critical to meeting their hiring needs and public service delivery obligations. And at a time when states are struggling to fill a high number of open roles, removing these requirements can attract a larger pool of talent.
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