Microcredential Background and Microcredential Guidance Document
The Foundational Framework document provides more information about why UTEP has developed the Microcredential Pathways.
Learn more about how UTEP defines, approves, and oversees Microcredential Pathways with the UTEP Microcredentials Guidance Document.
Background and Context
The global workplace and the higher education landscape are changing rapidly. Employers and learners are increasingly demanding shorter-form courses that allow emerging or current employees to quickly upskill in a way that is complementary to an undergraduate or graduate degree. These shorter, more narrowly-focused learning opportunities, commonly called microcredentials, have seen significant growth in the number of offerings as well as in the breadth and scope of content and discipline.
UTEP’s microcredential infrastructure supports our students’ professional goals while also meeting industry demand. In partnership with the University of Texas System’s Texas Credentials for the Future initiative, UTEP has developed a catalog of microcredential offerings, an internal governance process and policy, and a support system to encourage faculty to develop relevant, high-quality microcredentials that will advance student success.
“UT’s institutions are finding innovative ways to ensure that educational offerings fit the needs of employers in order to equip our graduates for competitive job opportunities immediately upon graduation, while also reskilling and upskilling non-traditional students.” - University of Texas System Chancellor James B. Milliken
Purpose and Value Statements
Why we are offering microcredentials at UTEP:
- The need to provide more detailed documentation of one’s skills/experiences. While college transcripts can be important to provide documentation of courses completed, they are not effective in detailing the specific skills and competencies that are needed for a particular job or career.
- The need for employees to “upskill” as their position changes or expands over time. As a university, we need to be able to meet workforce demands by providing alternative educational products that enable the workforce to upskill in areas of demand without needing to go back to college for a formal degree.
- Acknowledgment of the fact that some large employers no longer require college degrees but accept microcredentials that validate a job candidate’s skills. UTEP can assist traditional college students in achieving microcredentials that validate their skills, and we can also work with other learners to achieve the skillsets that they need for current or future work.
- For our students to be competitive in being hired by employers who use “skill-based hiring practices.” Rather than accepting a transcript as evidence that a graduate has the skills for a particular position, employers may use skill-based hiring practices that can be developed and made evident through microcredential achievements.
- To remove barriers associated with achieving the traditional university degree for adult learners. For many adults, it is not feasible to return to college for a traditional degree, but achieving a microcredential associated with specific desired skills is easily achievable. The effect of these practices reduces the barriers associated with achieving a traditional college education.
- To give students credit for prior learning. Some students come to UTEP with considerable prior experience. Microcredentials can serve as a way to document this prior learning, through recognition of experiences/activities and/or by validating the learning experiences through assessment.
- To address the community’s needs. Microcredentials are a way for UTEP to address our community’s needs by developing targeted learning experiences in areas of identified need within the community.
Definitions
- Credential: A credential is an institutionally-awarded acknowledgement such as a degree or certificate.
- Microcredential: A microcredential may be, but is often not, credit bearing and is any sort of short, focused unit of study designed to provide in-demand skills, knowledge, and experience. Microcredentials have stand-alone value, and in some cases, can be combined to provide a pathway to a certificate or even a full degree through credit for prior learning. Those awarded for credit are shorter than degrees and may include specially identified minors, concentrations, or certificates.
- Badge: A visual and digital representation of a microcredential. A badge includes metadata that describes what the learner knows and can do, what assessments were performed, and may include samples of the learner's work.
- Certificate: A formal, credit-bearing award granted by an institution of higher education certifying the satisfactory completion of a higher education program.
Additional Sources
- UT System – Texas Credentials for the Future
- A Texas-sized Push for Microcredentials
- Getting Started with Microcredentials – A Primer for Higher Education Leaders
1.0 Introduction
The microcredential infrastructure enables UTEP to offer educational opportunities that will prepare our graduates for competitive job opportunities immediately upon graduation. It also allows UTEP to reskill and upskill returning students and/or learners from the Paso del Norte Community.
A microcredential may be, but is often not, credit bearing and is any sort of short, focused unit of study designed to provide in-demand skills, knowledge, and experience. Microcredentials have stand-alone value, and in some cases, can be combined to provide a pathway to a certificate or even a full degree through credit for prior learning. Those awarded for credit are shorter than degrees and may include specially identified minors, concentrations, or certificates. They are designed to add value to a UTEP degree, upskill and/or reskill students, validate students’ knowledge and skills in the marketplace, or enable students to articulate knowledge and skills they have attained.
2.0 Scope
The University of Texas at El Paso offers three types of microcredentials:
- Academic Certificates which carry standard academic credit
- Industry Credentials which are certifications developed and offered by industry leaders such as Google and Microsoft
- UTEP Microcredential Pathways which include non-credit offerings developed by UTEP faculty and staff
3.0 Definitions and Approvals
3.1 Academic Certificates
An academic microcredential is a unique, thematic focused collection of for-credit courses offered at the undergraduate, graduate, or professional level. These credentials appear on the UTEP transcript and are governed by the academic curriculum review and approval process. Students must be admitted to UTEP and enroll in the certificate program, paying relevant tuition and fees. While some of these may be eligible for financial aid as stand-alone certificates, many are not. However, students who are enrolled as degree-seeking students may count completed coursework for the degree toward the microcredential. In addition, some of these certificates will be stackable to a degree program at either the undergraduate or graduate level.
Academic microcredentials may be offered online or in person and may require a minimum of 9 and a maximum of 30 credits of undergraduate courses and a minimum of 9 and a maximum of 36 credits for post-baccalaureate or graduate courses, depending on their purpose. Additionally, academic certificates:
- may be a subset or selection of courses in an existing degree, major, minor or certificate offered at UTEP
- are designed either individually or collaboratively by a department(s), college(s), school(s), or other unit(s) authorized to offer degree programs
- are comprised of courses, but may also include non-course curricular requirements (such as completion of portfolios, certification exams, etc.),
- are identified on a student’s transcript.
Approval: Academic microcredentials follow the standard approval process for academic programs (e.g., approval by Department, School/College, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and Faculty Senate or Graduate Council, Provost, and President).
3.2 Industry Credentials
These are microcredentials that do not carry academic credit but help earners obtain and demonstrate skills recognized by employers, frequently developed by or for a particular industry. These can include, for example, technical skills like mastery of an application or a programming language, or marketable business skills like project management or customer service.
Industry Credentials may be offered online or in person, and may be
- stand-alone and offered through UTEP’s Professional and Public Programs, Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center, or the Coursera platform, available to the general public, as well as current students, faculty, staff, and alumni
- embedded within existing academic courses or programs, available to enrolled students only.
- recognized through an industry-provided badge that may be maintained on a digital record.
Approval: UTEP does not control approval of these credentials, as they are developed by external partners. However, the identification of which of these will be catalogued and marketed as part of UTEP’s educational experiences will be governed by the Dean of Extended University, the Vice Provost for Curriculum Effectiveness and Improvement, and the Vice Provost for Professional Development, Engagement, and Strategic Initiatives.
3.3 UTEP Microcredential Pathways
UTEP Microcredential Pathways are non-credit experiences that are value-adding, multi-level, substantive, and cross-cutting, and enable students to develop intermediate to advanced skills. They are designed to assist students in articulating and demonstrating a set of competencies or achievements that they have obtained through a defined set of learning experiences or modules that may be:
- available within a regularly offered course or set of courses
- offered as part of a co-curricular experience or experiences
- offered through a stand-alone training program
- recognized through a UTEP-provided badge that may be maintained on a digital record
Approval: Faculty and staff who wish to develop or offer a UTEP Microcredential Pathway should enroll in the “Microcredentials in the UT System” course and complete the Microcredential Pathway Proposal Form. These steps will initiate a consultation with the Microcredential Guidance Committee, who will collaborate with the proposer and the proposer’s college to ensure that the microcredential pathway is:
- Relevant
- High-quality
- Rigorous
- Accessible
- Affordable
- Portable
Please see the “How-to Guide for Proposing, Developing, and Delivering Microcredential Pathways at UTEP” for more information.
4.0 Oversight
The UTEP Microcredential Guidance Committee will provide oversight for UTEP Microcredential Pathways. The oversight includes, but is not limited to: cataloging, marketing, development, delivery, and annual assessments of UTEP Microcredential Pathways. The Guidance Committee, convened by the Dean of Extended University, is comprised of representatives from the Office of the Provost, Extended University, the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, and a dean-appointed faculty or staff member from each academic college.
