Stack As You Go

Strategies

• Smaller credentials lead to larger credentials (e.g., badges lead to microcredentials lead to certificates lead to degrees).
• Bridge workforce learning and academic learning.
• Transition credentials from one academic degree or industry credential to the next.
• Bridge non-credit and credit learning.
• Build on prior learning and link to next-level credentials.

Examples

• Entry-level microcredential designed to feed into one or more associate degrees (e.g., a microcredential in basic electricity leads to an associate degree in manufacturing).
• Entry-level microcredential designed to feed into associate degree and to bachelor’s degree (e.g., a microcredential in medical coding and billing leads to a health information associate degree, which leads to a bachelor’s in health information).
• Incremental credential designed to transition an associate degree into a bachelor’s degree (e.g., a microcredential in basic management adds onto a technical associate degree and stacks into a business degree).
• A bachelor’s degree is reorganized into multiple microcredentials that accumulate into a degree (e.g., a bachelor’s degree in business administration is redesigned into three microcredentials plus general education courses).
• A graduate certificate added to a microcredential, along with a few more courses, becomes a master’s degree (e.g., a graduate certificate in urban planning, plus a microcredential in sustainable development, plus additional courses stack into a master’s in community and economic development).
• Public-private partnerships between community colleges and employers to promote stackable credential pathways (e.g., Virginia community colleges and health care organizations).
• Associate and bachelor’s degree programs designed for industry workers and the use of prior learning assessment (e.g., Pace University/NACTEL program)

Things to Consider

• How do skills build along a pathway? What skills depend on previous skills and lead to the next level?
• What academic programs or workplace training can be modularized to give learners more entry and exit points?
• What are the transition points between degrees? Between industry credentials?
• What skills that learners develop in the workplace can be integrated into an academic pathway? What skills gained in academic programs can be integrated into industry credentials?
• How can prior learning be used in an academic or industry pathway?

Why Use This Strategy

• Gives learners obtainable credentials on the way to an academic degree or industry credential.
• Helps learners transition from one credential to the next.
• Encourages learners to return to school or the workplace training to obtain next-level credentials.
• Recognizes learning already acquired.