Ulysseus European University as a player in the micro-credential movement

Micro-credentials for lifelong learning

The Council of the European Union has set a recommendation on eight key competences for lifelong learning in 2018: (1) literacy competence, (2) multilingual competence, (3) mathematical competence and competence in science, technology and engineering, (4) digital competence, (5) personal, social and learning to learn competence, (6) citizenship competence, (7) entrepreneurship competence and (8) cultural awareness and expression competence. This recommendation serves as a reference tool for education to promote their development through innovative learning approaches, assessment and supporting their staff.

Ulysseus European University considers all of them in its core activities. Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences as a partner of Ulysseus alliance is responsible for “Building up competences for the Future” responding to the key goals for digital skills, personal, social and learning to learn competence, entrepreneurship and multilingualism. Entrepreneurship summer camps, online courses and also MOOCs, as well as, 30 online language courses and 6 open access language courses in 10 different languages will be jointly developed in the related tasks. Ulysseus is a European University for the citizens of the future.

The above-mentioned 8 competences are crucial for the future job market and may also be acquired through micro-credentials, among other solutions.

What is a micro-credential?

Micro-credential is an emerging and still somewhat foggy term. According to the European Commission they may be defined as certified, open, flexible and short-term modules of courses and they are particularly useful for people who want to upskill or reskill to meet labour market needs. They may be categorized as being something more than an individual course, but smaller than a full degree.

What are the benefits and challenges micro-credentials pose for higher education?

Micro-credentials offer higher education institutes with new opportunities to reach wider geographically-dispersed audiences of learners. They are typically free-of-charge and open in nature, especially in the case of MOOC-based micro-credentials, which makes learning more accessible. Compared to traditional courses, the learners in micro-credentials typically tend to be more skilled, educated and possess prior knowledge. Therefore, the learners bring in richness to the contents and learning when they collaborate and communicate with one another in the courses.

Micro-credentials also pose challenges. Because the majority of universities still lack a clear micro-credentials strategy, the courses are not always recognized in full degrees. Moreover, the vast majority of employers still lack knowledge of what they really are and therefore may not perceive the value of them. The major players in the area use commercial platforms, which have a lot of power when it comes to assessing which courses qualify to be offered and the requirements may not always align with the requirements of higher education institutions. The higher education institutions using non-commercial platforms have this power, but may find it challenging to compete and attract audiences in a similar way.

Ulysseus as a player in the micro-credential movement

Ulysseus partners are currently jointly creating a life-long-learning educational offering, which includes also micro-credentials. Some Ulysseus micro-credentials will be MOOC-based, which will give anyone, anywhere in the world a possibility to participate free-of-charge. Ulysseus will use its own digital platform for providing the courses and therefore has full authority in making sure the course is of high quality and meets each partner university´s requirements. The main target group will be higher education students. However, depending on the micro-credential certain specific external target groups will also be targeted in the case that they are open for all. This open-to-the-world model will offer students possibilities to connect, network and learn from a whole new group of peers with versatile backgrounds and prior knowledge. In turn, it will make learning more accessible globally and, therefore, possibly reach wider audiences and create stronger societal impact.

Haaga-Helia´s valuable prior experiences in micro-credentials

Haaga-Helia has gained solid experience in building a MOOC-based micro-credential on startup-corporate collaboration for over 2,400 learners from startups, corporates and higher education institutes in an Erasmus+ project during the years 2018-2021: CORSHIP : Corporate EDUpreneurship - Benefitting Start-ups, Universities and Corporates across Europe