Summary —

An Australian Government committee of industry and tertiary education leaders has defined ‘microcredential’ in a way that has a high degree of utility. It’s activity that is of critical importance as the role of microcredentials in post-secondary education is being extensively assessed by governments.

Key Issues —

As leaders from the tertiary education sector have been meeting to discuss the development of the proposed National Microcredentials Framework, coming to terms with the vastly different offerings by the vocational training and higher education sectors has been a challenge. The bigger piece of the puzzle is how to recognise the plethora of microcredentials offered outside the accredited training framework.

The substantial offering of nationally accredited training by Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) is not the main game when it comes to the delivery of microcredentials. And the offerings of the higher education sector are small enough to barely even rate a mention in government statistics. By any metric it is the delivery of training outside the nationally accredited system by individuals businesses to their clients, by professional bodies and also industry associations that accounts for the bulk of activity in the existing microcredential marketplace.

A report from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) published in 2021 established that 52.2% of employers provided unaccredited training for their staff and it can reasonably be assumed that microcredentials formed a large part of this training. The NCVER report also shows what’s driving this, with 61.8% of those employers providing unaccredited training saying that they could not find any comparable nationally recognised training available.

This highlights the importance of the proposed National Microcredentials Framework. There is the need to balance industry-driven skills needs with the different regulatory frameworks that exist across the higher education and vocational training sectors. It also highlights the need to recognise those microcredentials offered by organisations other than higher education providers and RTOs.

As the proposed National Microcredentials Framework continues to develop, perhaps the most significant issue to grapple with has been settling on an agreed definition of microcredential. Here, discussions have considered minimum and maximum volume of learning requirements, the mandated need for an assessment and recognition by the relevant industry.

Once the definition is settled, another consideration where views of stakeholders are mixed is the importance of the ‘stackability’ of microcredentials. Here, an option may exist for a student to complete several microcredential programs and package them together so that an AQF-level qualification may be awarded. Whereas stakeholders in the higher education sector have favoured this approach, vocational training stakeholders were more relaxed, promoting the sector’s understanding that in most cases the microcredential is in itself the destination, where upon completion the student has acquired the desired skill or knowledge. These discussions about volume of learning, stackability and provision (e.g. through government-endorsed providers or via unaccredited training) are important as they inform the development of a new National Microcredentials Framework which is before government for endorsement. The document, when released, will be critical to a number of decisions on microcredentials.

A major driver of vocational training reform is set out in the Heads Of Agreement For Skills Reform signed by the Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers. In this agreement, there is a commitment to develop and fund nationally accredited micro-credentials and individual skill sets, in addition to full qualifications, and supporting lifelong learning through an integrated tertiary education system. Allied to this commitment of all governments, the Review of the AQF explored the importance of micro-credentials and recommended that policy guidelines be developed to allow the recognition of micro-credentials for credit.

To allow students to compare short courses and help you understand how they can be stacked and used for credit towards a complete qualification, the Australian Government is funding the development of a microcredentials marketplace. At a cost of around $2.1 million, this initiative, was included in the Australian Government's JobReady Graduate funding package.

The Australian Government’s interest in microcredentials extends to the higher education sector. There is a commitment of $32.5 million over three years to support the higher education sector to develop and deliver microcredentials for the international and domestic education markets. One of the challenges for government is to develop a funding framework for microcredentials that both supports students and allows for quality delivery by the vocational training system. The Queensland Government has a three-year project, at a cost of $5.5 million, designed to test how microcredentials can be used to address current, emerging and future skills needs. Other states and territories have made similar investments.

The debate of on the role of microcredentials in tertiary education continues, and the new National Microcredential Framework will be a major step in that journey. There is no doubt that the tertiary education sector will need to be innovative and adapt to the growing demand from students at all stages of their learning journey place on microcredentials, and also recognising the value that employers place on them.

The role of independent vocational training and higher education providers in delivering microcredentials will be a key discussion item at the ITEC22 Conference on the Gold Coast over 2-3 June 2022 and you can register for this event today.

Getting Involved —

Members with an interest in qualifications development come together at meetings of the ITECA Microcredenetials Interest Group.  ITECA Membership – It's a great time to get involved.

Further Information —

If you're an ITECA member and would like more information on this matter, the ITECA team would value the opportunity to talk to you.  Simply send an email to [email protected] or telephone 1300 421 017.  Stay up to date via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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