What is a micro-credential programme?
A micro-credential programme or microqualification is a comprehensive continuing education module that comprises several courses.
It is a longer comprehensive continuing education programme that is based on the courses or modules of a degree-study curriculum. The purpose of a micro-credential programme is to offer fast-paced and effective training courses that meet the needs of the labour market and provide competence in a specific field.
Nowadays, people all over the world need to be more and more versatile in their knowledge and skills to fill the gap between the education they have already acquired and the needs of a rapidly changing knowledge society and the labour market. Both the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and the transition to a more environmentally sustainable and increasingly digitalised everyday life require people to continuously improve their skills and knowledge. We need to acquire new competences or keep up to date the ones already gained, thereby allowing us to participate fully in today’s society and ensure our personal, social and professional capability.
In response to the need for a more flexible and learner-focused education and training structure, educational institutions in both public and private sectors across Europe are rapidly developing short training courses. Interest in such short study formats is high, and thus the course completion certificates are increasingly valuable. These short-format courses are thus called micro-credential programmes.