Unboxing micro-credentials: an inside, upside and downside view
Brown, MarkORCID: 0000-0002-7927-6717 and Nic-Giolla-Mhichil, MairéadORCID: 0000-0003-1885-6723
(2022)
Unboxing micro-credentials: an inside, upside and downside view.
Education and Culture, 34
(4).
pp. 938-973.
ISSN 1578-4118
Micro-credentials are the latest shiny new thing attracting the
attention of politicians, policy-makers and educational leaders.
This paper endeavours to ‘unbox’ the micro-credential by peeling
away inherent tensions in competing definitions and underlying
drivers. It reports the tripartite methodology adopted for a state-of
-the-art literature review which offers an inside, upside and downside view on the micro-credential. Selected findings illustrate how the growth of the micro-credential needs to be understood in
a wider socio-cultural context. The micro-credential movement is
part of a complex credential ecology steeped in history, politics
and cultural norms. In response to major societal and technological change forces, the paper invites debate on what counts as valued skill and knowledge in today’s rapidly changing digital society. It challenges existing business models for higher and further education and the traditional status of the university
degree. Therefore, the micro-credential is not just another passing educational fad, as it brings into question much bigger issues concerning employability, the changing nature of work and new models of life-long learning.