- Graduate and Professional Education – Postsecondary education that leads to academic credentials such as graduate certificates, degrees (e.g., master's degrees, doctoral degrees) and professional degrees (e.g., medical school, law school, business school, and other institutions of specialized fields such as nursing, speech–language pathology, engineering, and architecture). Producing original research is a significant component of graduate studies in the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. This research typically leads to the writing and defense of a thesis or dissertation. In professional graduate training, the degrees (e.g., MPA, MBA, JD, MD), may consist of coursework without a research or thesis component.
- Incremental credentials – These credentials capture learning as it is acquired along the learning pathway and formally recognize and connect that learning to a larger context. Incremental credentials can be non-credit or credit-bearing; undergraduate or graduate level; of any size, from small units of learning up through degrees. The purpose of incremental credentials is to ensure that learners are recognized for what they know and can do as they acquire the learning and to make certain they are not deprived of formal documentation of that learning.
- Incremental credentialing – Incremental credentialing is an approach to redesigning the primarily degree-centric credentialing system to meet the needs of the 21st century learn-and-work ecosystem. Significant work is already underway to better integrate learning and working. Examples include efforts to:
- Clarify competencies that are needed for learning and working.
- Align education and workplace learning.
- Create better transparency in credentials and connect them across education and
industry.
- Integrate industry credentials and prior learning into traditional academic degrees and
certificates.
- Develop new student learning records that incorporate learning acquired outside the
traditional classroom.
- Develop employer hiring systems based on applicants’ skills in addition to degrees and
other credentials.
- Develop common language and data structures to increase interoperability.
Moving to an incremental credentialing system does not negate current degree structures. Rather, it embraces them within a larger context of an array of credentials—including microcredentials—that provide learners with recognition and validation of what they know and can do as they progress through their educational and career journeys.
