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Publicerades:  28 Mar 2023

Community workshop on micro-credentials

The European Digital Education Hub hosted a two-day workshop on micro-credentials in Castelldefels, Spain, on 20 and 21 March 2023. The workshop aimed to identify the best ways to implement the Council Recommendation.

Participants at the Micro-credentials workshop

This was the third community workshop of the European Digital Education Hub and was held in conjunction with the Micro-Credentials Summit, which took place from 21-24 March 2023. The summit was an international gathering of thought leaders, innovators, policymakers, and practitioners working to improve the flexibility and responsiveness of educational systems. It aimed to build on the EU Council Recommendation on a European approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability, by finding ways to use this legislative basis to accelerate adoption, acceptance, and recognition of short-form education across the continent and beyond.

Activities and outcomes

The workshop brought together participants from 16 countries and from various educational contexts, including: higher education, vocational education and training, adult learning, non-formal education as well as public, non-governmental and international organisations. They explored the value and use of micro-credentials and identified best practices for a way forward.

Day 1: Identifying challenges and possible solutions

The workshop began with an introduction on the value of micro-credentials in different contexts and for various groups such as employers, employees, educators, and public authorities. This was followed by a session where participants shared their visions for micro-credentials. Yann-Maël Bideaud from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture presented the European approach to micro-credentials. The Council Recommendation marks the first time that multiple EU states agreed on a shared definition of micro-credentials, as well as the potential to use them to specifically target disadvantaged groups.

The participants reported current challenges in education and discussed possible solutions. For instance, employees have difficulties getting recognition for prior learning and generally lack knowledge and information regarding micro-credentials.

Day 2: Establishing a working group on micro-credentials

The second day of the workshop featured a round table session during which participants discussed about how the challenges related to micro-credentials impact the identified groups active in the field. This discussion led to identifying next steps, including creating a working group on micro-credentials that will collaborate in the European Digital Education Hub environment and will address the challenges discussed during the workshop.

What is the European Digital Hub?

The Hub is the open online collaborative community for digital education stakeholders in Europe and beyond.

Background

Micro-credentials have emerged as an important policy topic in recent years, particularly with regards to the European workforce need for reskill and upskill. The Council Recommendation on a European approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability was adopted in June 2022, while 2023 has been declared to be the European Year of Skills, which means that there are several policy developments on the broader topic of skills.

Tagged in:  Knowledge-building
Publicerades:  28 Mar 2023