Growing attention to microcredentialing in graduate/professional education began with the master's degree because, for much of the past decade, virtually all the growth in graduate enrollment was driven by growth in master's degrees (Graduate Enrollment and Degrees Report, 2023). And the degrees themselves have long been a locus of innovation—in formats, delivery modes, and curricula.
Beginning in the early 2000s, graduate schools began implementing graduate certificates. At the time they were seen primarily as a complement to existing degree curricula, though some certificate programs allowed employed learner/workers to upskill and reskill (Graduate Enrollment and Degrees Report, 2023).
More recently, growth in certificate programs has accelerated rapidly. The CGS reports year-over-year growth and the conferral of graduate certificates of around 20% (Graduate Enrollment and Degrees Report, 2023fdfd). Enrollment increases in these programs stem in part from the efforts of graduate administrators and coordinators to offer students cheaper, more flexible ways to obtain graduate degrees and pursue rewarding careers. The growth also reflects a response employer demands— particularly in the dynamic fields of health care, education, data science, and cybersecurity.
Microcredentials have relevance to graduate/professional education in three key ways:
Because incremental credentialing is a rapidly changing field, it confronts many challenges, including lack of agreement on terminology and language. This imprecision makes it very difficult to discuss and scientifically measure developments in the field.
At a recent annual meeting of the CGS, participants discussed the difficulty of assessing the quality of these emerging credentials and raised questions such as:
Credential As You Go has acquired three phases of funding to date. Lumina Foundation funded Phase I, resulting in the Incremental Credential Framework for testing. The Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education funds Phase II (Grant R305T210063), which focuses on rapid prototyping of and research on incremental credentials with a national campaign. An anonymous private donor fund at the Program on Skills, Credentials & Workforce Policy at George Washington University funds the development of the prototype Learn and Work Ecosystem Library. Walmart funds Phase III, which focuses on systems change for expansion and sustainability of incremental credentials. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of Lumina Foundation, Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S. Department of Education, Walmart, or George Washington University.