Strategies

• Create credentials of different lengths than traditional degrees.
• Develop field-specific credentials that capture learning acquired in smaller increments.
• Develop credentials that capture common learning across disciplines.
• Create credentials that capture what a learner has already acquired through coursework or other prior learning.

Examples

• Create credentials in high attrition areas (e.g., credential STEM courses completed successfully, credential social science and humanity courses).
• Create a general education credential (e.g., a microcredential in general education).
• Create equivalent credentials (e.g., a two-year credential at a four-year institution equivalent to an associate degree).
• Create smaller credentials designed at specific exit points that still stack into larger credentials.
• Create a self-designed credential that captures learning already acquired (e.g., degree audit against criteria set for credentials).
• Create credentials for specific prior learning areas (e.g., evaluate workplace training and create a credential for that training).
• Form a partnership between employers and credentialing organizations that allows experienced workers to receive credit for existing credentials (e.g., employer-recognized credentialing systems in Singapore).

Things to Consider

• Develop criteria for different types of credentials, including non-credit and non-degree credentials.
• Examine patterns of attrition based on studies completed, and develop academic and workplace credentials to capture learning that is typically acquired at different points along the pathway.
• Design a general education credential that can be used to capture learning already acquired.
• Use degree audits to capture learning already acquired to meet new credentials.

Why Use This Strategy

• Can help learners earn credentials for what they already know and can do.
• Provides pathways toward degree completion and/or workplace advancement.
• Links general education studies with many different fields and industries.
• Formally recognizes prior learning.