Happy New Year and welcome to Certified Insights, by your digital credential friends at Accredible.
Each month, we bring tips and strategies for growing your credentialing program — in less than 5 minutes. Up next:
🏗️ 5 keys to unlocking microcredentials' potential
🔮 What was the most upvoted 2025 credentialing prediction?
🔗 Scaling insights from Syracuse University, new microcredential impact report from Coursera, and a deep dive into business-higher ed partnerships that bridge skills gaps and workforce needs
Microcredentials are no longer just a trend; they’re shaping the future of education and workforce development. They open new revenue streams, signal career readiness, help employees upskill or reskill, and offer flexible, affordable learning options tailored to a fast-changing labor market — especially when integrated into stackable pathways.
The demand is undeniable:
Despite their promise, challenges remain: 36% of hiring managers find credential validation difficult, and 38% struggle to map microcredentials to job roles.
Programs need cohesive strategies to unlock their potential and address these gaps. Let’s dive into how leading training and education programs are ensuring success with microcredentials and learning pathways.
1. Establish Governance and Design Frameworks
The foundation of any successful microcredential program is clear governance and robust design frameworks. These ensure consistency, quality, and scalability while addressing elements like metadata and visual identity to communicate value to learners and employers.
When starting its program, Syracuse University created a Digital Badging Council and a 24-page governance framework detailing badge formats, taxonomy, and earning criteria. This allowed departments to develop tailored programs while maintaining alignment with institutional goals.
Arthur Thomas, Executive Director of the Office of Microcredentials, explains, “Taking the time to ensure consensus, support executive leadership, and consider how badging aligns with the academic mission has paved the way for Syracuse's success.”
2. Align Pathways with Career Outcomes
Microcredentials succeed when they bridge education and employment. Collaborating with industry stakeholders ensures credentials reflect in-demand skills.
For example, Maven Analytics designed its Business Intelligence Analyst Certification as modular courses, where learners solve real-world business problems and earn stackable digital certificates.
Stackable pathways create clear advancement opportunities, enabling learners to build from short-term credentials to full certificates or degrees. This approach has helped Maven increase completion rates and achieve promising retention and lifetime value (LTV) metrics.
3. Design for Flexibility and Stackability
Flexibility is critical to meet learners’ diverse needs. Microcredentials should allow learners to start, pause, and resume at their own pace. Stackable designs provide clear pathways, enabling learners to build from smaller credentials to more comprehensive qualifications.
These designs not only support learner success but also drive institutional outcomes by boosting accessibility, engagement, and retention. Programs that prioritize flexibility ensure pathways that work for both learners and institutions alike.
4. Engage and Motivate Learners
Design pathways that actively engage learners with interactive content, real-world projects, and timely feedback. While 92% of learners prefer projects or assessments as part of their coursework, fewer than 34% of credential issuers provide them.
Maven Analytics uses not only guided projects but also gamification to motivate learners, awarding badges for milestones like learning streaks. Founder and Chief Product Officer Chris Dutton shares, “Every day, learners reach out to say, ‘I lost my streak at 57 days, but I’m going for the 90-day badge.’ If you're not sold on gamification and how meaningful these badges can be, our learner behavior proves their impact.”
5. Maximize Credential Metadata
As Penn State University Assistant Teaching Professor of Economics Frank Sorokach points out, “Employers want to know what a badge tells them — about the student’s competency, the quality of the education they received, and the skills they have proven they have.”
Adding relevant metadata (program details, skills gained, earning criteria, evidence) to credentials enhances transparency, boosts employer trust, and helps learners communicate their qualifications effectively. UiPath certificates exemplify this approach.
Microcredentials hold transformative potential for learners, institutions, and employers. By focusing on governance, career alignment, flexibility, and engagement, you can position your program as a leader in this evolving landscape.
This is just a high-level overview. For more insights, explore our guide on “How to Increase Program Enrollment and Completion with Learning Pathways.
Keep stacking success, one credential at a time.
Until next time,
Rochelle
The people have spoken! Noah Geisel’s 2025 prediction about leaders viewing credentialing through a much wider lens resonated the most, earning 30 votes.
Are you seeing this trend happening within your organization? What challenges or opportunities do you foresee? Reply to this email and let me know.
5 Key Strategies for Scaling Your Microcredential Program: Lessons from Syracuse University
Discover how Syracuse University scaled its microcredential program, issuing 14,000 badges and increasing credential issuance by 515%. Bonus: watch an on-demand webinar for a deeper dive into their approach.
2024 Micro-Credentials Impact US Regional Report - Coursera
A new report highlights how short-term credentials are equipping learners with in-demand skills, boosting employability, and meeting workforce needs. It provides data on regional adoption and the growing importance of microcredentials for education and training leaders.
Forging Partnerships to Align Education and Industry for the Workforce of Tomorrow - Business-Higher Education Forum
Drawing on insights from nearly 400 business leaders and 200 higher ed leaders, this report highlights the critical role of business-higher ed partnerships in addressing skills gaps, advancing diversity, and building an innovative workforce that is ready for the jobs of tomorrow.
AAC&U Annual Meeting - January 22-24, 2025
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Group Demo: Building the Business Case for a Digital Credential Platform — February 4, 2024
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1EdTech Digital Credentials Summit — March 3-5, 2025
The premiere event for education leaders, employers, and edtech innovators to work toward creating a better path to the future for all learners.
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Accredible is the world’s leading digital credential platform, enabling education and training leaders to increase learner engagement and drive program growth.
Accredible is the world’s leading digital credential platform, enabling education and training leaders to increase learner engagement and drive program growth.
