Summary —

The Australian Government’s new Microcredentials Marketplace look set to fail spectacularly as it won’t recognise vocational training unaccredited microcredentials, having been designed only to support microcredentials in the in the higher education sector. This is despite the fact that higher education microcredentials are estimated to represent less than 1% of the microcredentials used by businesses and their employees.

Key Issues —

The Australian Government will this year launch its Microcredentials Marketplace online platform that is designed to provide guidance to those seeking to take-up a microcredential. The challenge is that the website, as currently designed, has been solely designed to support higher education providers.             

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. 

Microcredentials largely exist outside the tertiary education sector and in many ways predate the microcredentials offered by the higher education and vocational training sectors. For decades, industry associations, professional societies and companies have offered training and certification processes to engage in lifeline learning to support their career development.

In 2021 a committee convened by the Australian Government met several times to develop an agreed definition of a microcredential.  Experts from across the tertiary education sector and the business community developed an agreed definition a microcredential with the firm understanding that it would be used to support the new Microcredential Marketplace.

As you may be aware, the Australian Government has undertaken a considerable effort to define a microcredential as part of its skills reform package. Indeed, in the heads of agreement for skills reform the Prime Ministers and state / territory leaders committed to “developing and funding nationally accredited micro-credentials and individual skill sets, in addition to full qualifications, and supporting lifelong learning through an integrated tertiary education system”. So far, so good.

The microcredentials offered by the vocational training sector, industry associations, professional bodies and businesses highlights the importance of the proposed Microcredentials Marketplace. It would provide a platform for students to evaluate the microcredentials offered by not only the tertiary education sector, but also businesses. Alas its not to be as the Australian Government has decided that the Microcredentials Marketplace shall only be open to higher education providers, rendering this investment largely irrelevant to most potential students.

The Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) was awarded the Australian Government grant to build the nation’s first ever marketplace for microcredentials. According to public documentation released by the Australian Government, the cost of establishing the microcredentials marketplace is $2.12 million over three years.

The Australian Government set up an unnecessarily restrictive scope for the project, effectively limiting it to the microcredentials offered in the higher education sector. This is clear in the scope of the document that stated that the “Marketplace will be a nationally consistent platform for students to compare short courses and credit point value. The Marketplace will also show arrangements for recognition of courses across higher education institutions that will support student decision-making and help students understand how they can stack short-courses and credentials to build credit value, contribute to a larger qualification or skill set and understand which courses are recognised by other providers and can be used as credit towards qualifications at other institutions.”

The inability of the Microcredential Marketplace to recognise the vocational training sector's offering is odd in the context of the heads of agreement for skills reform the Prime Ministers and state / territory leaders which committed to “developing and funding nationally accredited micro-credentials and individual skill sets, in addition to full qualifications, and supporting lifelong learning through an integrated tertiary education system”.

The Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA) has seen a beta version of the Microcredential Marketplace website and has confirmed it’s higher-education centric model.

“As a platform for higher education short courses the beta version was fine, but as a microcredentials marketplace the website is not fit for purpose,” said Troy Williams, ITECA Chief Executive.

ITECA has made strong representations to the Australian Government with the view to ensuring that the Australian Government’s new Microcredentials Marketplace has a broader focus that higher education and is able to support those offered by the vocational training sector and the private sector businesses themselves.

Getting Involved —

Members with an interest in the Australian Government's approach to microcredentials participate in meetings of the ITECA Microcredentials Interest Interest Group held every quarter.  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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