Partner As You Go

Strategies

• Integrate evaluated workplace learning, training, licenses, or certifications for academic recognition (e.g., credit) into an academic pathway.
• Embed the acquisition of workplace credentials within the academic pathway in partnership with industry.
• Integrate academically acquired credentials into workplace training and job advancement.
• Embed prior learning into academic and employment pathways.

Examples

• Evaluate workplace learning, training, licenses or certifications and embed within a credential pathway (e.g., manager training provided by an industry partner is evaluated; results become part of a microcredential, certificate, or degree in management).
• Make preparation for a national certification a formal component of the outcomes for an academic credential (e.g., outcomes in an automotive program prepare learners to earn industry certifications; outcomes in a business pathway are mapped directly to the SHRM certification).
• Gain industry approval for awarding professional certification as part of the academic programming (e.g., Cisco certifications gained within technology programs).
• Prior learning is evaluated to meet requirements for workplace credentials (e.g., to gain certifications from the National Association of Direct Service Providers, a portfolio is developed based on work experiences).
• Pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs developed with industry, educational institutions, and credentialing/certification bodies as an earn-and-learn model.
• Employer-sponsored credential programs that partner with credential providers as a part of strategic assessments of future workforce needs (e.g., Google, BP, Bank of America, Chipotle, Walmart).

Things to Consider

• Which industry partners provide training or require licenses or certifications that align with academic pathways?
• Which industry partners require knowledge and skills that can be supported by existing or new academic pathways?
• Map workplace knowledge and skills to academic learning outcomes within academic pathways.
• Which industry credentials could be satisfied, at least in part, by prior learning or academic programming?

Why Use This Strategy

• Partnerships with industries can provide a pipeline of learners into the institution and a pipeline of workers back to industry.
• Learners needn’t repeat learning they’ve already obtained; this increases persistence and completion while decreasing costs and time to completion.
• Learners are more marketable.
• Many learners have educational benefits that can be used toward a program, which goes further when workplace learning is applied to academic pathways.