HEPC Launches Microcredential Initiative To Prepare Workforce For Changing Economy

State education leaders hope to prepare the state’s workforce for big economic changes with short courses called microcredentials. Microcredentials are short, focused courses that educate and certify learners in a particular subject. 

Schools like West Virginia University already offer such courses. But the Credential WV program from the Higher Education Policy Commission is working to expand and standardize microcredential offerings across the state to meet the growing demands of industry and economic development. 

Corley Dennison, vice chancellor for Academic Affairs for the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, said teams from all of the state’s institutions, as well as industry leaders, came together for a microcredential summit earlier in October.  

“What are best practices? What’s the best advice that you can give to the institutions that want to offer these?” he said. “We had presentations from some of the institutions that are already offering these, and they were able to talk about what worked for them and what didn’t work for them. Primarily, it’s providing support at a state level, working towards some uniformity in offering credentials and advising institutions and best practices.”

Also in attendance were representatives from other states like New York, where Dennison said microcredentials are helping medical workers increase their earnings by thousands of dollars.

“There can be immediate impact off these microcredentials, and I really think it’s something that will, over time, really help the state of West Virginia,” he said.

Dennison said more than half of the workforce will need retraining in the coming decade.

“There’s a huge demand for relearning, for retraining, for giving workers new skills,” he said. “The idea is, by going to micro credentials, it will be easier and faster for institutions to be able to answer this workforce need.” 

Dennison said there are fewer students of college-going age in the state every year, and many are wary of committing to a traditional degree program. Microcredentials can offer them a more affordable way to continue education and gain useful skills.

“These micro credentials, they can be standalone, but they also can be stackable,” he said. “Someone might come in and say, ‘Well, I don’t want to commit to a degree, but maybe I’m willing to go for a microcredential,’ and then they go for another, and then they go for another, and then an academic advisor can say, ‘Hey, you realize you’re getting close to a degree program.’”