The future is micro. What does that mean for you?

With over 500 participants signing on throughout the day, this year’s Micro-credential Forum 2021 was a huge success in helping propel the conversation about micro-credentials in Ontario forward! With its new virtual format, the event allowed for a wide variety of perspectives to be shared, making the day more open and accessible to all. Throughout the day, speakers provided clarity on the value of micro-credentials and the actions required to ensure micro-credentials continue to be legitimized and developed.

The forum was full of powerful content, much of it aligned around three key themes.

Creating choice to deliver value
Micro-credentials are creating opportunities for Ontario’s learners, educators, and employers, that may not have been considered before. By offering learners an array of choices and possibilities, they bring value to all involved: Learners can be guided by their interests and skills, educators continue to teach relevant subjects, and employers have the opportunity to close priority gaps in their workforce’s qualifications.

Staying nimble to ensure relevance
By staying current and seeing where the next upscaling opportunity lays, learners are able to receive information quickly and in a form that is easily accessible. Learners can stay relevant by developing skills in areas that are modernizing, emerging, or rapidly adapting to the changing landscape. Meanwhile, through the development of micro-credentials, can educators grow to better understand what it is exactly that learners want to explore, while employers ensure that micro-credential learning is oriented towards the future of work and what they’ll need next.

Opening doors for all learners through flexibility and accessibility
Micro-credentials provide a lot of flexibility, whether that is regarding time or money. They are living, transferable and evolve with the learner throughout their life and career. They also work well for all types of learners with different approaches to learning – whether it’s remote, part-time, or while working. When developed by educators in partnership with future employers, they can also be seen as investments in the future workforce, allowing even more flexibility and accessibility for those learning and those hiring.

In the coming months and years, Ontario will be on a path to recovery. New careers and jobs will emerge and with them, new skills will need to be developed. To be best prepared, institutions need to have close ties with industry and understand what employers need from future workers, as well as what learners need from the educational institutions. To support this future demand, work needs to begin now in building and strengthening partnerships between industry and educational institutions, developing micro-credential programs, and identifying the skills required for the future of work.

Don’t know where to start? eCampusOntario is here to help you find and connect with an educational institution or industry organization interested in partnering to continue the conversation about growing and strengthening Ontario’s micro-credential ecosystem. To learn more visit: https://micro.ecampusontario.ca/