Micro-credentials: Benefits for businesses and employees
Publication date: 02 May 2025
Micro-credentials are small, credit-bearing qualifications that are outcome-based. To achieve a micro-credential, learners are assessed to demonstrate they have achieved the learning outcomes. Further information is available in the Micro-credentials Characteristics Statement and the Good Practice Guide for Micro-credentials and Small Qualifications in Scotland.
The Medr-funded Micro-credentials Special Interest Group (MIC.SIG) is a cross Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland Tertiary Working Group chaired by Steve Osborne, Principal Lecturer Professional & Workforce Development, at Cardiff Metropolitan University. The MIC.SIG has been established through QAA’s grant arrangements with Medr to support the development and sharing of practice in the rapidly developing field of micro-credentials across higher and further education.
The principal aims of the MIC.SIG are to:
To support these aims, the MIC.SIG will undertake a range of activities to provide information and share good practice on micro-credential development and delivery.
The Network hosted its first webinar in May 2024 looking at micro-credential policy landscapes around the UK. The second webinar took place in March 2025 with a spotlight on international perspectives - the recordings and presentations from both of these events are provided below.
Our third webinar in this series is: Micro-credential postcards from the Nations: Practice sharing event with a focus on micro-credential development around the UK (3 June 2025). This dynamic and interactive event featuring lightning talks from practitioners is free and open to all. Please go to the QAA Event Booking Site to register.
The MIC.SIG is also collecting case studies from across the UK to capture current practice in the development, implementation and evaluation of micro-credential provision. We welcome case studies on:
Micro-credentials, as short, focused packages of learning are perfect for employee upskilling and workforce development. However, we are aware that the term ‘micro-credential’ may be unfamiliar to many businesses and employers.
To raise awareness of micro-credentials and inform our future work, we have devised a survey to gather employers’ views of their workforce upskilling and CPD needs and the suitability of micro-credentials for this.
This survey will be open until 30 May 2025 and can be accessed here.
We have also created a short, employer-facing Micro-credential Fact Sheet for colleges and universities to share with their employer partners. The pared back description of a micro-credential is locked and providers can add their contact details and logo to the bottom of the sheet before sharing with their contacts.
If you use the fact sheet, we would welcome any feedback from you and/or your employer partners. Please get in touch at nations@qaa.ac.uk.
Publication date: 02 May 2025
Tertiary Working Group on micro-credentials (Micro-credentials Special Interest Group) – HEFCW-funded
The HEFCW-funded Tertiary Working Group on micro-credentials (micro-credentials Special Interest Group) is a cross Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Network chaired by Steve Osborne, Principal Lecturer Professional & Workforce Development, at Cardiff Metropolitan University. The group has been established through QAA’s grant arrangements with HEFCW to support the development and sharing of practice in the rapidly developing field of micro-credentials across higher and further education.
The first webinar, organised by the Network in partnership with QAA, shared current policy landscapes across higher and further education in micro-credentials and short course learning across each of the UK’s home nations. Each expert speaker provided a short overview of the current practice and policy developments in each of the UK’s nations, followed by a panel discussion.
Publication date: 16 Jul 2024
QAA are grateful to the following colleagues for their contributions to the webinar:
Our expert speakers, Mary Bishop and Rupert Ward, shared some of the work in which they have been involved. Steve Osborne then chaired a panel discussion, followed by Q&A from delegates.
Publication date: 18 Mar 2025
QAA is grateful to the following colleagues for their contributions to the webinar:
QAA undertook an enhancement project exploring current practice in the sector in relation to micro-credentials, building on case studies that HEFCW developed and published in December 2022. The project explored current use of the QAA Micro-credentials Characteristics Statement (published May 2022).
To undertake the project, QAA distributed a survey to all participating providers (nine HEIs and two FEIs) and subsequently undertook a series of tailored conversations with these providers.
The conversations provided an opportunity to explore some of the approaches in more detail; any challenges and ways in which they were being addressed; the use of the QAA Micro-credentials Characteristics Statement and whether any revisions to it would be helpful at this stage; and any other areas that might be valuable for the sector to explore to enhance practice.
Publication date: 18 Dec 2023
The project also held two webinars and the resources can be found below.
Publication date: 14 Sep 2023
Publication date: 14 Sep 2023
Publication date: 14 Sep 2023
Publication date: 14 Sep 2023