Higher education institutions have long navigated the dual mission of advancing knowledge while preparing students for the workforce. Since the Morrill Act of 1862 established land-grant colleges to teach agriculture and mechanical arts alongside classical studies, American universities have been expected to serve both intellectual and economic development. Today, however, financial realities are forcing a recalibration of this balance.
Traditional four-year degree programs struggle to keep pace with rapidly evolving workforce needs. At the same time, colleges and universities confront mounting financial pressures as enrollment declines and operational costs rise. Recent data shows that 27% of institutions that grant undergraduate degrees have become unprofitable (Houlihan Lokey, 2024), forcing leaders to rethink not only what they teach but also how to implement new revenue streams to keep their institutions financially viable. In response, institutions are implementing innovative learning pathways that bridge the gap between academia and industry through alternative credentials, corporate partnerships, apprenticeships and flexible programming. This transformation is both necessary and long overdue.
Meeting Workforce Demands Through Alternative Credentials
The disconnect between workforce needs and educational supply has reached a crisis point. In 2025, 87% of executives reported experiencing workforce skill shortages (University of Minnesota CCAPS, 2025), while Georgetown University research reveals that credential providers must double their output in many metropolitan areas to satisfy demand for high-paying middle-skills jobs (Weissman, 2024a, 2024b). Alternative credentials have emerged as a powerful solution to this gap.
Institutions have rapidly embraced microcredentials, with adoption rising from 63% in 2022 to 84% by 2024 (Coffey, 2024). Sub-baccalaureate certificates have grown 89% since 2000 (Crockett et al., 2024), and the continuing education market, valued at $67 billion in 2024, is projected to reach $96 billion by 2030 (CE App, 2025). These credentials offer flexibility and responsiveness that traditional degree programs cannot match, allowing institutions to adapt quickly to emerging technologies while providing stackable pathways for the 36.8 million Americans with some college but no credential (Chiaramonte, 2024).
NC State has spent the last several years developing and implementing a deliberate, institution-wide approach to non-degree credentials by establishing common definitions and quality standards while planning over time to implement a unified data infrastructure that aims to track learners across non-credit programs, certificates and degrees. These aspirational shared systems will enable complete visibility into learner pathways, facilitating portfolio analysis and ROI assessment across the institution. The university has also established a Microcredential Community of Practice that brings together stakeholders from academic units, continuing education, extension, workforce development and administrative services to share best practices, identify stackable pathway opportunities, and build institutional capacity for responsive programming. This collaborative model recognizes that non-degree credentials are offered across multiple units and require cross-functional coordination to maximize impact and avoid duplication.
The growth potential for alternative credentials has prompted substantial public investment, with 32 states collectively investing over $5.6 billion in short-term credential initiatives (Murphy, 2024b; Stein et al., 2025). The question is no longer whether alternative credentials belong in higher education, but rather how quickly institutions can establish programs to meet workforce demand.
Strategic Partnerships Driving Revenue and Relevance
Corporate partnerships between universities and industry are not new. General Electric established the first industrial research laboratory in 1900, led by a professor from MIT, creating a model for university-industry collaboration that would shape American innovation for decades (Frolund et al., 2017). By 1952, GE pioneered the first corporate gift-matching program for colleges and universities, revolutionizing how corporations supported higher education (GE, n.d.).
However, the 2010s marked a fundamental shift from research-focused collaborations to workforce development partnerships. Technology companies, including Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Uber, began leveraging universities not just for R&D but as key partners in early-stage innovation and talent pipeline development, recognizing that higher education institutions could serve dual roles as knowledge creators and workforce developers.
Today, this evolution is evident in the scale and scope of partnerships. Currently, 79% of continuing education programs serve corporate audiences (Coffey, 2024). Universities like Wisconsin-Green Bay have partnered with major employers, including Kohler, Prevea and Festival Foods, to deliver customized training that improves employee retention while supporting regional economic development (Bouchard, 2024). At NC State, units like NC State Continuing and Lifelong Education (NCSCaLE) and NC State University’s Industry Expansion Solutions (IES) have partnered with businesses across North Carolina for decades to provide customized workforce development programs (NC State University, n.d.).
The financial impact of such partnerships is significant, with 74% of institutions reporting that their continuing education units generate revenue (Coffey, 2024). For institutions struggling with budget constraints, these partnerships represent not just survival, but a path to sustainable growth. Apprenticeships have expanded dramatically, increasing 64% between 2012 and 2021 (Fryer, 2024), with corporations like Accenture reporting that apprenticeships now constitute 20% of entry-level hiring (Accenture, n.d.). The federal government has invested $244 million to modernize apprenticeship systems (Feldman, 2025), recognizing that these programs deliver a 44% return on investment for employers while providing workers with average earnings increases of 49% upon completion (U.S. Joint Economic Committee, 2024). For institutions, these partnerships offer not only immediate revenue but also valuable feedback loops that inform curriculum development.
Balancing Innovation with Quality
The rapid expansion of alternative pathways brings legitimate concerns that deserve serious attention. With hundreds of thousands of credentials now available (Johnson, 2024), ensuring consistent quality across such a varied landscape presents genuine challenges. The risk of credential proliferation without adequate standards could undermine the value of all credentials, traditional and alternative alike.
States are responding with rigorous validation processes. Alabama, for instance, requires credentials to demonstrate industry endorsement and minimum wage premiums of 20% (Murphy, 2024a). Skills-based hiring, which 97% of employers now embrace (CE App, 2025), creates additional accountability mechanisms by shifting focus from credential type to demonstrated competencies. This market-driven quality control benefits all stakeholders by ensuring that credentials, regardless of format, lead to meaningful employment outcomes.
The key lies in designing stackable pathways that allow learners to build toward degrees while gaining immediate workforce value. When done well, alternative credentials can actually expand access by providing affordable entry points for students who might not otherwise pursue higher education, particularly adult learners and those from underserved communities.
Building Infrastructure for Sustainable Change
The shift toward workforce-aligned programming requires more than good intentions; it demands evolving institutional infrastructure. NC State’s Academic Innovation Accelerator, housed in the Office of Academic Strategy, Innovation and Solutions (OASIS) within the Office of the Provost, represents a new model for developing workforce-aligned programs by funding one-year pilots in a cohort model with stakeholders and providing central support for market research, competitive analysis and labor-market analytics, so faculty/staff teams can validate demand and achieve product-market fit before full program development. This approach emphasizes speed to market through standardized processes that are intended to move several programs from concept to approval in one to two years, reducing the risk of launching programs that don’t meet market needs while building faculty confidence in central planning support across portfolio strategy, curriculum redesign, and creating pathways from non-credit to certificate to degree programs.
NC State’s non-degree education ecosystem spans multiple units serving distinct audiences, and the aspiration is to build a unified but distributed model that preserves the expertise and relationships housed in colleges, continuing education and extension while creating shared infrastructure for quality, data and learner pathways. This vision would allow NC State to serve populations ranging from working professionals seeking upskilling to rural communities accessing extension programming, while units retain program ownership and NCSCaLE and OASIS provide common definitions, portfolio visibility and support for connecting non-credit-to-credit pathways.
This infrastructure approach addresses a fundamental challenge: maintaining entrepreneurial agility while ensuring institutional quality. By providing centralized support for market validation and shared standards for quality, institutions can move faster without sacrificing rigor. Faculty retain academic control while gaining resources to test ideas before committing significant development time.
The Path Forward
Higher education’s transformation reflects both market realities and institutional adaptation. The continuing education market’s trajectory toward $96 billion by 2030 and demonstrated revenue generation point to this approach’s sustainability (CE App, 2025; Coffey, 2024). More importantly, these changes address a fundamental challenge: How can universities serve more learner populations while maintaining financial stability and academic quality?
The answer lies in embracing the evolution of credentials, partnerships and delivery models rather than resisting it. Traditional degrees remain valuable, but they can no longer be the only pathway universities offer. The institutions that will thrive in the coming decades are those that view alternative credentials not as threats to traditional programs but as essential complements that extend their mission to new populations.
This transformation makes higher education’s mission more accessible and effective while securing institutions’ essential role in creating economic mobility. The question is no longer whether to change but how quickly institutions can build the infrastructure, partnerships and programs necessary to meet the moment. Those who move decisively will not only survive but define the future of higher education.
References
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Bouchard, K. (2024, October 15). UW-Green Bay tackles corporate training. University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. https://news.uwgb.edu/phlash/releases/10/15/uw-green-bay-tackles-corporate-training/
CE App. (2025, December 4). 55 continuing education insights - 170 plus 2025 statistics. https://myceapp.com/blog/continuing-education-statistics-2025
Chiaramonte, S. (2025, October 28). Why credential terminology matters in higher education and workforce development. UPCEA. https://upcea.edu/why-credential-terminology-matters-in-higher-education-and-workforce-development/
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Johnson, M. (2024, September 16). Skills based hiring: Why states & employers must act now to build a stronger more diverse workforce. National Skills Coalition. https://nationalskillscoalition.org/blog/higher-education/skills-based-hiring-why-states-employers-must-act-now-to-build-a-stronger-more-diverse-workforce/
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Murphy, S. (2024b, December 9). State funding for short-term credentials ramps up. Higher Education Today. https://www.higheredtoday.org/2024/12/06/state-funding-for-short-term-credentials-ramps-up/
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Weissman, S. (2024b, September 5). Too few middle-skills credentials to meet future job demand. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/alternative-credentials/2024/09/05/too-few-middle-skills-credentials-meet
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