Microcredentials offer higher education a unique opportunity to bridge academic and workforce needs. These short, skills-focused credentials offer flexibility and accessibility, making them appealing to working professionals and nontraditional learners. However, institutions often struggle with lack of internal alignment when pursing a microcredential strategy.
At UMBC’s Institute for Extended Learning (IXL), we recognized the need for a unified approach when developing the Community Leadership Skills microcredential series. Designed to complement our 30-credit community leadership master’s program, the microcredential initiative has two primary goals: providing graduate students with stackable, career-relevant credentials and opening doors for nonmatriculated learners who may not otherwise engage with higher education.
Through this initiative, we learned that a unified strategy centered on collaboration, flexibility and governance is essential for success. This is what we’ve learned and what others can apply.
Start with Shared Goals
The development of UMBC’s Community Leadership Master’s program was deeply rooted in community engagement and faculty collaboration. Faculty from multiple departments worked alongside community partners to create a program that addressed real-world leadership needs. However, during this process, faculty recognized that many individuals who could benefit from community leadership education faced barriers such as time and finances that prevented them from enrolling in a graduate program. They wanted to ensure a broader audience, beyond our matriculated students, could access the essential community leadership skills and competencies. Faculty didn’t just want to build a degree; they wanted to build access.
That’s how the Community Leadership Skills microcredential series was born. We started by breaking the master’s curriculum into smaller, focused skill sets such as grassroots advocacy, restorative practices and grant writing for social change. These five-week courses could stand alone or stack into something more. They were open to any learner, not just those enrolled in the graduate program.
Faculty were on board from the beginning because the goal aligned with their own: to share knowledge in ways that truly serve the community. A unified microcredential strategy cannot succeed without faculty buy-in. Rather than viewing microcredentials as an external initiative, faculty saw them as an extension of their own goal of providing an accessible community leadership educational experience, with microcredentials being a tool to increase access.
Build a Bridge Between Credit and Noncredit Learning
One of the biggest hurdles in implementing microcredentials is the disconnect between traditional academic programs and continuing education. Many institutions struggle to integrate microcredentials into existing degree pathways, leading to a proliferation of standalone offerings with limited recognition.
To address it, we structured Community Leadership Skills microcredentials as a flexible, stackable learning pathway that worked for two types of learners:
- Graduate students, who earn microcredentials through credit-bearing courses that count toward their degree
- Nonmatriculated learners, who enroll in the same courses for noncredit and earn standalone credentials, with the option to transfer those experiences if they later applied to the degree program.
This model has expanded access while preserving academic rigor, demonstrating that microcredentials can serve both traditional and nontraditional learners. For institutions, tools like credit articulation agreements can help bridge traditional and continuing education models.
Build a Campus-Wide Governance Structure
The success of a unified microcredential strategy depends not only on its design but also on its seamless integration within the institution. At UMBC, a dedicated effort to align microcredential offerings with existing academic structures and systems laid the foundation for this integration. A key driver of this effort was the creation of a microcredential advisory committee (MAC) and a microcredential review board (MRB), which combine to ensure microcredentials are strategically designed, rigorously assessed and effectively embedded within the university’s broader credentialing ecosystem.
The MAC is a governing body that guides UMBC’s microcredentialing strategy by aligning offerings with institutional goals, faculty expertise and workforce needs. It facilitates cross-departmental collaboration, ensuring microcredentials complement existing academic programs rather than compete with them. The MRB consists of faculty and staff who evaluate microcredential proposals and assess their quality and relevance using a detailed rubric.
These groups bring faculty and staff together to vet new microcredential proposals and ensure alignment with institutional goals and workforce needs.
Scale with Workforce-Aligned Competencies
A unified microcredential strategy must go beyond academic considerations. It should also address employer needs and workforce trends. At UMBC, aligning our microcredentials with the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) career competencies ensured learners develop skills they could directly apply to their careers.
To enhance workforce relevance, institutions should do the following:
- Regularly update credential competencies based on market demand and emerging skill gaps
- Use labor market data to inform program development and demonstrate return on investment for learners
Bringing It All Together
At UMBC, microcredentials are much more than simply adding more credentials to one’s resume. They are about building bridges between departments, between learners and institutions, and between education and work. If your institution is exploring microcredentials, we suggest doing the following:
- Starting with shared faculty goals
- Designing for multiple audiences and stackability
- Building governance early
- Aligning with workforce-relevant skills and competencies
Microcredentials represent a pivotal opportunity for higher education institutions to expand access, enhance workforce relevance and innovate credentialing models. To realize their full potential, they must be implemented as part of a cohesive institutional strategy rather than fragmented initiatives.
At UMBC, the Community Leadership Skills microcredentials have reinforced the importance of cross-departmental collaboration, faculty engagement and workforce alignment. By breaking down silos and fostering a unified approach, continuing education leaders can ensure that microcredentials are not just an add-on but a powerful and transformative tool in higher education’s future.
You Might Also Like
