The bad news is that studying and working at the same time is often a balancing act that feels impossible for people, even if they are eager to upskill or add a qualification. The good news? There is now an alternative.
Microcredentials are short, flexible, and accredited courses designed to help learners quickly acquire in-demand skills and can even be “stacked” over time to earn a diploma or degree. Often highly subsidised, they also help employers to quickly address skills needs on their teams as the world of work continues to evolve.
Simply put, microcreds, as they are colloquially known, fix the problem most of us have – a lack of time. This is one of the main barriers to upskilling, says Tony Murphy, head of lifelong learning at South East Technological University (SETU).
“Ireland is still at full employment and people are time poor,” Murphy says. “Shorter courses allow people to dip their toe in the water of participating in a higher education course in parallel to maintaining their work and family responsibilities.”
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This, he adds, includes cohorts who already have higher education attainment but also affords a ready access route for people who had not previously participated in higher education.
“But many employees don’t necessarily need to pursue a further major award qualification,” Murphy says. “Rather, they often seek shorter courses to keep up to date and/or build up their skills in their area of professional practice, given the challenges and opportunities being continually presented in our rapidly changing world with the onset of digitalisation, artificial intelligence and the need for sustainable practices.”
Noreen Fitzpatrick is acting director of communications, branding and strategy with Solas. Its Skills to Advance initiative provides upskilling and reskilling opportunities to employees and employers throughout Ireland, delivering further education and training (FET) micro-qualifications.
“Skills to Advance aims to equip employees with the relevant skills needed to progress in their current role, to adapt to the changing job market, and gain accredited qualifications while working,” Fitzpatrick explains, adding that there is “strong and growing” employer demand for flexible, incremental and accredited upskilling.
Micro-qualifications are delivered flexibly, short in duration – around 50 hours – and structured to fit around busy work schedules. “They are also available at little to no cost, which helps remove monetary barriers for employees and employers,” she says.
SETU offers microcredential courses across all of its faculties, including business, science and computing, engineering, humanities, health sciences and education, and these range from levels 6 to 9 on the national framework of qualifications.
“The majority of microcredential activity is with short courses of five, 10 or 20 credits, while the university is also piloting a suit of microcredentials in the truer sense of the term, in that they carry one to five credits, which allow for even smaller components of learning,” Murphy says. Institutions are also working to enhance the ‘stackability’ and ‘transferability’ of shorter courses so that learners can build towards further higher qualifications, he adds.
“Interest in microcreds at TU Dublin has grown significantly as more professionals seek flexible ways to update their skills without stepping away from work,” says Sinéad O’Neill, senior manager, lifelong learning, at the university, noting that many of them are financially supported at least in part by schemes such as the Human Capital Initiative.
“Many of our learners are already working in industry and want to build new expertise while staying in employment, but those returning to education can access bite-sized learning that fits around their commitments while also opening pathways to further study,” O’Neill says.
The University of Galway has also seen strong growth in this innovative approach to professional development, says Emma Goode, microcreds project lead at the university.
The university began offering microcredentials through its Centre for Adult Learning and Professional Development in the 2022/23 academic year with 27 courses. Its portfolio has since expanded significantly to 80-plus microcredentials for the coming academic year across both semesters.
“This growth is driven both by identified industry and enterprise skills gaps and by the expressed needs of our prospective learners,” Goode says.
For example, available courses include environmental impact assessment of marine renewable energy developments, digital construction technologies, digital twinning, green hydrogen technology, sustainable construction, and entertainment law.
“These align with national priorities such as housing, climate action, and digital skills, as well as European lifelong-learning targets,” Goode points out.
Orla Bannon, director of careers and development at Trinity College Dublin, says the university started with 11 microcredentials in 2021 but now offers 40 across a broad range of subject areas. Some of its most popular microcredentials in recent years have been in high-demand areas such as AI and sustainability.
“To date, more than 1,500 learners have upskilled with a Trinity microcredential, many of whom had not done a course in a long time,” Bannon says. “We have found microcredentials offer a great entry point back into education for people who may be anxious about a return to formal learning. Lots of people get bitten by the lifelong learning bug and we’ve had learners return to us for multiple microcredentials.”
Indeed, microcreds are gaining significant traction as people become more aware of the possibilities they offer. Since 2019, for example, more than 122,000 upskilling opportunities have been provided under Skills to Advance, and Fitzpatrick says uptake of the 37 available FET micro-qualifications is growing as part of the wider expansion of the initiative.
“New programmes have been developed and are currently in the validation pipeline to target other emerging skill areas, such AI strategy, biopharma, data management, corporate sustainability reporting, and skills strategy for business,” Fitzpatrick says.
This agility is one of the main selling points of microcreds, SETU’s Murphy adds. “Targeted shorter courses can be developed, rolled out and completed more quickly than traditional higher education courses, which allows higher education to be more responsive to the fast-evolving skills needs of the economy in a dynamic way at a time of great change.”
Goode agrees. “Microcredentials increase workforce agility, strengthen university-enterprise links, and make higher education more accessible, thereby contributing to Ireland’s competitive edge.”
