To date, 111 incremental credentials have been developed by the 2023 cohort institutions as part of the IES grant. Of these, 72 (65%) have been launched, 54 (49%) are credit-bearing, 42 (38%) are non-credit bearing, and 15 (13%) are a combination of credit and non-credit. The top five discipline areas for incremental credentials are: Information Technology, Healthcare, Business, Education, and Hospitality/Culinary.
Network Meetings
Credential As You Go’s third Network Gathering was held July 20, 2023 and attended by approximately 50 members from across the country who are working on incremental credentialing. Four Affinity Group meetings were held in June. Each meeting was attended by 45-60 members.
The September 20 and 21 Network Conference is open to all network members. The conference agenda features several panels of teams that are developing various types of incremental credentials, presenting in breakout sessions. A plenary “lightning round” component will feature quick topics on key efforts in incremental credentialing using a one-slide format. Other plenary sessions will include top questions facing incremental credentialing from the leadership team; a funders panel (Lumina Foundation, U.S. Department of Education – IES, Walmart); learners panel (three learners from colleges and universities in the Network); review of key resources available to the network including a premier of the new Credential As You Go video; and milestone markers/lessons learned to date from the work of network members. *If you are a board or network member who is attending, please show your support of the conference by using the social press kit!
Walmart Cohort 1-to-1s
Credential As You Go is holding one-hour, 1-on-1 conversations from June through September with Network members who joined in 2023 through the Walmart cohort grant. Discussions focus on: progress in the work, challenges, how institutions are using the Playbooks and other resources at the Credential As You Go website and how the resources could be more useful.
In August, at the one-third milestone of these discussions, the Credential As You Go team shared information collected from Network members. Many institutions indicated they would like more information about the following: credit and noncredit, marketing, best ideas for what works, and more on language issues (what to call things and why).
Many would like more in-depth opportunities to learn the specifics of the work.
They also noted that being part of Credential As You Go has raised trust in these types of reforms in credentialing, because their campuses can see that they are not alone – that many other institutions are working on this around the U.S. This feedback informed the development of the September 2023 conference agenda, during which time there will be several breakout sessions on topics identified as of interest by Network members.
– went live on the Credential As You Go website and via social media.
Nine playbooks are now available for viewing by practitioners, policymakers,
and others. The next playbooks to be posted soon include:
Credit for Prior Learning in Incremental Credentialing
Learner Supports in Incremental Credentialing
Leveraging Partnerships in Incremental Credentialing
Quality in Incremental Credentialing
Two NEW Reports
Credential as You Go issued two companion reports in August: Policies & Initiatives Related to Credential As You Go: Colorado, New York, and North Carolina (”state inventory” report), and Mapping Key Learn-And-Work Ecosystem Initiatives/Alliances (“mapping” report).
The state inventory report identified 27 innovation efforts in Colorado, New York, and North Carolina in the areas of state and institutional policy strategies, and key national initiatives working in the states and/or higher education institutions to strengthen components of the learn-and-work ecosystem.
The state report informed the mapping report, a prototype effort to map alignment among multiple national initiatives working in the three states. The Learn & Work Ecosystem Library was used to collect information on 11 key national initiatives and alliances. Credential As You Go then surveyed the 11 to obtain information about more than 50 features of initiatives/alliances, to determine their most and least common features.
The two reports portray the credentialing landscape in new and useful ways — for states, institutions, and the many groups working to improve the learn-and-work ecosystem. Download the new reports here. There are also new research briefs to accompany the full reports here.
2023 Credential As You Go Virtual Summit
On July 12, Credential As You Go and Workcred co-hosted Embedding Industry Certifications in Academic Programs: A Win-Win Summit. Summit registrants totaled nearly 700. The Summit featured two panels, the first including national experts defining what industry certifications are and highlighting the benefits of embedding certifications into academic programs. The second panel included educational, training, and certification providers who shared their experiences in aligning industry certifications with academic programs, providing information on who was involved, resources required, and lessons learned. Two respondents reflected on issues raised by panelists. The recorded summit can be viewed at the Credential As You Go YouTube channel here.
Advisory Board Membership
Welcome to the following new members of the Credential As You Go Advisory Board:
Kelvin Bentley, Program Manager-Texas Credentials for the Future, University of Texas System
Sarah DeMark, Vice Provost, Workforce Intelligence & Credential Integrity, Western Governors University
Kerri Lemoie, Director of Technology, Digital Credentials Consortium, MIT
Melissa Wells, Interim Director of Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development, faculty in Educational Studies Department, SUNY Empire State University
The Learn & Work Ecosystem Library
On August 1, the Learn & Work Ecosystem Library (an affiliated effort of Credential As You Go) announced a collaboration agreement with 1EdTech, a membership organization of nearly 900 members (schools, colleges/universities, employers, policymakers, and tech vendors).
1EdTech will help to make the library’s growing information resources available to their members, and the library will use feedback from 1edTech’s membership to inform improvements.
The Library has grown substantially in users and content since launch. The Newsroom is regularly updated with a content and use report here. Important revisions to be announced later in the Fall will improve the search capacity of the library.
Presentations Completed
April 14: Colorado Department of Higher Education, Spring 2023 Faculty2Faculty Conference (Travers, Goldberg)
April 19: C3: Connecting Competency Communities (Bill West, Zanville)
May 31: Urban Institute’s Future of Postsecondary Education (Goldberg, Zanville)
June 7: New Jersey Council of County College’s Workforce Consortium (Zanville)
June 9-10: Council of Graduate Schools (Zanville)
Presentations Upcoming
October 4-6: 2023 ACT Workforce Summit (Zanville)
October 24: Digital Credentials Consortium Community (Zanville, Travers)
October 26: Institute of Credentialing Excellence Exchange (Goldberg, Bailey, Dale, Fast)
November 1-2: 2023 Convergence: Credential Innovation in Higher Education UPCEA (AACRAO & UPCEA) (Zanville, Travers, Knestis)
November 8-10:CAEL Conference: Credit for Prior Learning: Institutional Resources at Your Fingertips. (Travers, Frank)
