The State University of New York is expanding its microcredentials program.
In mid-February, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the expansion of fast and flexible learning options with more than 400 microcredentials across 31 SUNY campuses.
She says the program will help everyone from current students to working professionals gain skills, knowledge, and experience that employers are looking for.
Chief of Staff & Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness at Dutchess Community College Susan Rogers explains they’re designed to provide in-demand skills, know-how and experience.
"A microcredential is a local credential offered by a college or institution of higher education," said Rogers. "And it's designed specifically to be shorter than a degree or a certificate. And it really explicitly tries to deliver skills, discrete skill sets, that typically people would be able to use in some form of work, whether that's the gig economy, or whether it's advancing a job in their career, or whether it's picking up a new skill to try to begin a new career."
Rogers says microcredential courses are shorter than a degree, which for a full-time community college student is two years. And they're also shorter than an academic certificate, which usually takes a year. She adds colleges try to structure microcredentials so that they can be completed within one semester, or sometimes even more quickly than that.
"One example of a microcredential that doesn't earn college credit at this time, but it's still a really, really neat program, is our new drones microcredential." Rogers said "With our drones microcredential, students are invited to come and pick up three credit-free classes. And in those classes, they learn the basics of flying a drone, they earn their license for commercial drone operations, so that they are now allowed to operate this drone as part of a business to earn money. And then they also learn the basics of drone videography. And all together, students will complete these three classes and they will earn the drones microcredential."
Assistant Vice Chancellor at SUNY System Administration Kyle Adams says microcredentials are all about opportunity and flexibility.
"Many of these microcredentials result in a digital badge, which you can put on your resume or a profile like on LinkedIn, to show employers that you know these skills," said Adams. "That's really where the value is. They're designed to teach in demand skills to working professionals, current students, to enter their degree program, really anyone who can benefit from learning a new skill or competency, quickly. SUNY has really been a leader in developing high quality microcredentials. And that's for a couple of reasons. One is the focus on educational quality. Every microcredential is strictly vetted goes through a very rigorous process. The second is that they're stackable. So not only are you going to get the immediate skill, but you also get academic credit."
Adams says stackable microcredentials can also provide a pathway to a certificate or full degree.
Microcredentials fall in line with the governor's State of the State call to lead in adult learning opportunities and help New Yorkers close the skills gap. The governor’s office says “according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 74 percent of hiring managers agree that the market is seeing a skills gap, with 48 percent of candidates lacking the skills needed to fill open positions. In addition, 74 percent of human resource managers say they now require the submission of a credential when hiring.”
