This report presents descriptive findings from a questionnaire distributed to students enrolled in CAYG-developed incremental credentials across five institutions, yielding 77 valid responses from 1,280+ invitations. Students primarily pursued credentials for employment-related goals, with skill development, time savings, and affordability cited as key attractions. However, few reported tangible employment outcomes, suggesting gaps between credential design and market alignment. Most students learned about credentials through institutional online resources or advisors, pointing to opportunities for broader employer-engaged outreach.
This report documents findings from the second round of focus groups conducted for the CAYG Priority 1 feasibility study, involving 39 institution-level staff and instructors delivering credentials across 10 institutions. Organized more granularly using the Credential As You Go Incremental Credential Readiness Model factors-conditions-actions framework, findings highlighted student life demands, readiness gaps, and financial barriers as major external factors; data systems, registration processes, and staffing as key internal conditions; and learner advising, credential design flexibility, and communication strategies as critical action areas. A recurring theme was that staff succeed in implementing innovative credentials largely by working around inadequate institutional systems rather than being supported by them.
Focus Group Summary 1 (August 2023) — This report documents findings from the first round of focus groups conducted for the CAYG Priority 1 feasibility study, involving 60 participants across 30 sessions representing administrators, faculty, employers, and learn-and-work professionals from Colorado, New York, and North Carolina. Organized around external factors and internal conditions influencing incremental credential implementation, findings covered topics ranging from broader economic pressures and employer hiring practices to competency-based assessment challenges, the credit/noncredit divide, technology barriers, and communication difficulties. The report provides the Credential As You Go Incremental Credential Readiness Model.
The CAYG Data Management Plan outlines procedures for collecting, securing, and sharing both qualitative data (focus group and interview transcripts) and quantitative data (student outcomes, questionnaire responses, and demographic information) across the project’s partner institutions in Colorado, New York, and North Carolina.
Though student financing is not listed as a discrete focus area, it is nevertheless a vital issue—one that touches nearly every area of the initiative’s work. For example, options for financing are typically a policy focus, an approach to addressing equity and inclusion, a learner support, and an area of professional development for those working in incremental credentialing. Financing issues also have implications for technology, particularly in how it might be used
to help learners navigate the system.
Credential As You Go’s mapping study identified needs including improving and connecting information about efforts to enhance the learn-and-work ecosystem, broader communication of this information, and better alignment of funding support among initiatives. The study emphasizes the importance of studying these developments in greater depth, as thousands of alliances and initiatives are working in the innovation landscape, with collaboration and resource focus seen as vital for the ecosystem to thrive. Mapping key players is recognized as a crucial initial step in achieving these objectives.
