According to one recent study, about 70% of corporate leaders currently report some type of "critical" skills gap in their organization.
Note that in this context, "critical" is defined as one that is already having a negative impact on performance - an issue that will no doubt get worse before it has a chance to get better.
To put this into perspective, it's been estimated that the digital skills gap alone could cost 14 G20 countries a combined $11.5 trillion in cumulative GDP growth.
By 2030, the gap will cost the United States alone an estimated $8.5 trillion.
Truly, this is the type of problem that impacts everyone in different ways.
Businesses want to serve their target audiences and remain competitive, but they lack the highly skilled workers to do so.
Job seekers want to enrich themselves and learn what they'll need to excel with a company, but the world is changing faster than a traditional degree program can keep up with.
Enter: micro-credentials.
In a general sense, these are short, competency-based recognition programs that aim to teach students something specific and, more importantly, relevant to the needs of the modern era.
They're also a perfect opportunity for businesses to use the present to future-proof their workforce.
This is true for a wide range of different reasons, all of which are with exploring.
The Changing Landscape of Industry Requirements
Over the last decade, in particular, there has been a major shift towards skills over degrees for businesses simply because the world is changing too quickly.
Everything comes back to consumer preferences and if the COVID-19 pandemic taught us anything else, it's that those preferences can change overnight.
Sometimes, brand-new skills and technologies are required to keep up with that evolution.
Those skills need to be cultivated and put into practice far faster than a traditional degree program can match.
But that doesn't mean that the traditional education system itself is suddenly invalid.
It simply means that micro-credentials have emerged as a complementary way to address these needs.
According to one recent study, students are 74% more likely to enroll in a degree program if they know that it offers industry-specific micro-credentials.
Not only that, but about 86% of people "strongly agree" that earning micro-credentials will help them succeed in their jobs.
All this points to the increasing importance of soft skills, particularly in the wake of the larger skills gap as outlined above.
They also illustrate why an environment of continuous learning is becoming a necessity.
Developing the skills you need to succeed throughout a career is no longer something you "do once and forget about."
The world moves too quickly for that.
If you want to attain a position and succeed over the long term, you need to be ready to adapt to virtually anything.
A micro-credential program is designed to help make that happen and both businesses and job candidates alike have noticed that.
Current Industry Trends and the Role of Micro-Credentials
To get a sense of just why micro-credentials have gained such traction in a relatively short amount of time, look no further than some of the current industry trends that are taking shape around the world.
Business process automation, for example, is something that about 80% of businesses in virtually all industries are embracing.
By automating time-consuming (but important) tasks, it frees up the valuable time of human employees to focus on more important matters.
But those systems still require skilled human workers to design, deploy, and maintain.
The same is true of artificial intelligence.
Right now, about 56% of organizations are using AI to improve and perfect business operations. 51% are turning to AI to assist with things like cybersecurity and fraud management.
47% are using AI applications as essentially digital personal assistants.
However, an AI system is only as good as the data it has been trained on, which means that there is a sudden demand for not just data scientists, but those with a specialty in AI.
Trends like these coalesce into a larger push towards digital transformation.
Especially when you're talking about a legacy organization that has been around for many years, most are using outdated technology that still represents the "old school" way of doing things.
They're barely "solutions" at this point and to truly remain competitive in the years ahead, businesses of all shapes and sizes will need to totally overhaul their infrastructures in hyper-specific ways.
Sustainability and social responsibility are also major industry trends as companies realize that consumers are more loyal to those who share the same values they do.
This extends into not only diversity and equity but inclusion, as well.
The point of all this is that these trends - and the skills they require to properly execute - are evolving faster than the traditional education system can match.
If you started your traditional degree program four years ago, the chances are high that there wasn't much of an emphasis on artificial intelligence.
Flash forward to today, and that's a major push from just about every angle.
Does that mean that you should suddenly graduate and have a degree that is already obsolete?
No - and thankfully, with micro-credentials, it doesn't have to. Businesses can prioritize finding those workers with the niche skill sets they need and job seekers can make themselves more strategically competitive in the market at the same time.
How Micro-Credentials Support Adaptability
As stated, micro-credentials are great for supporting adaptability, particularly in job candidates, because they allow for fast adaptation to new technologies and methods.
In the next five or so years, there will likely come another trend that is every bit as seismic as artificial intelligence is today.
The chances are high that we don't even know what that is yet.
When that happens, a job candidate shouldn't have to go back and earn another full degree just to prove their value in this category.
Nor should they have to wait for educational institutions to develop traditional degrees in the first place.
Micro-credentials can allow people to quickly adapt to whatever new tech makes an appearance, thus allowing them to remain as competitive as possible regardless of what life happens to throw at them.
This also brings with it the bonus of cultivating a culture of lifelong learning.
Continuous education is always a priority for businesses because just as job candidates want to remain agile, businesses depend on their ability to do the same.
Micro-credentials and a push to always look for opportunities to improve yourself go a long way toward helping both groups accomplish this increasingly important task.
Micro-credentials also help embrace not only employee flexibility but their problem-solving skills, as well.
If they get on the job and realize that there is a particular skill that they lack or there is an area that they're not as good at as they could be, they can use micro-credentials to fill in those gaps.
This makes them more valuable employees, and it helps to create a more effective, forward-thinking business as well.
How To Identify Industry-Relevant Micro-Credentials
When it comes to identifying industry-relevant micro-credential opportunities in the first place, you'll want to begin by conducting market research and using tools like surveys to gather as much actionable information as possible.
Businesses have needs.
Nobody is more familiar with them than the leaders themselves.
Therefore, if you want the most complete picture to work from when making decisions in the future, you should go straight to the source.
Always consult industry leaders and experts.
Some people have built careers around their ability to not only understand and contextualize an industry where it is today but to also anticipate where it might be five years from now.
These people, too, are invaluable when it comes to putting together a micro-credential program that is as closely aligned with industry trends as possible.
Beyond that, always try to solicit employee feedback and conduct skills gap analysis whenever you can.
Anyone who has ever tried to find a job for an appreciable length of time can probably tell you where and why they're coming up short.
If it is the result of needing a skill they do not possess, they'll be more than willing to tell you.
At that point, it's up to you to take that information and adapt it into a micro-credentials program of your own.
Ensuring Micro-Credential Alignment Over Time
Making sure that your micro-credentials program not only begins with relevancy but stays that way requires a multistep approach.
First and foremost, you need to conduct periodic research into the industry that your program is designed to serve.
Read reviews and look for updates to identify what skills are currently needed, where the gaps are, and what you can do to fill them.
Again, this is important enough that it demands repeating: things move fast.
This research is something that you'll have to do periodically and consistently to make sure that your micro-credentials strategy is as relevant five years from now as it is today.
Adaptability to market changes is another crucial aspect of maintaining micro-credential alignment over time.
Never let yourself forget that industries are constantly reshaped by technological innovations and economic shifts.
Micro-credentials must therefore be adaptable, reflecting these changes to remain pertinent and beneficial to learners.
This adaptability extends beyond content updates to encompass the flexibility of delivery methods and assessment criteria.
You'll also want to make sure that you prioritize not only getting consistent feedback from all key stakeholders but putting in place the mechanisms needed for continuous improvement as well.
Learners should have an easy way to offer feedback on the program's curriculum, delivery methods, and overall impact on their career development.
To put it another way, your micro-credentials strategy was supposed to help them become more competitive, more valuable employees.
Did it do that?
Why or why not?
These are the questions that you need to have an easy way to answer moving forward.
Then, based on the answers to those questions, you can make efforts to continuously improve the program yourself.
Always look for opportunities to refine course content, update learning materials, or revise assessment methods.
All this will help make sure that you align as closely as possible with industry needs and learner expectations.
The Ongoing Importance of Micro-Credentials
In the end, it doesn't matter what industry you're talking about - the world is moving quickly and things often change before our eyes.
For the average company, becoming an industry leader is incredibly difficult and once you've achieved that status, actually maintaining it for any appreciable length of time can often seem impossible.
As new industry trends and needs emerge, businesses need to evolve to meet them.
If they don't, and those businesses stagnate, those trends and needs transform from an opportunity into a liability in an instant.
A micro-credential strategy keeps students and job seekers agile enough so that businesses can remain flexible, capitalizing on the opportunity represented by an industry that is forever changing all around them.
When it comes to developing your own micro-credentials program, one of the keys is to keep it as relevant as possible.
There's no such thing as a program that is "too niche" or "too specific."
Program administrators need to zero in on not just what precise industries need today, but what they're projected to need tomorrow.
Of all parties, it's most important for them to always stay one step ahead of the trends so they can have the educational resources in place today that people can call on tomorrow.
Overall, the changing landscape of industry requirements isn't going to slow down anytime soon.
If you take a look at the current industry trends as they exist today, they vary wildly from the ones that would have been a focus even as recently as five years ago.
That's why micro-credentials are crucial for just about everyone.
They support adaptability, they meet industry needs, and they help overcome significant issues like the major skills gap that just about everyone is grappling with in the modern era.
They're an essential resource and a failure to acknowledge that would be a mistake that most cannot afford to make, regardless of whether you're a business owner, an educator, or a job seeker.
