GUIDES

Four-year degrees have seen a marked drop in enrolment and completion rates in recent years. Learners are critically weighing the value of full degrees against typically shorter, less expensive skills-based learning, to quickly develop high-demand workplace skills. The investment in time and money - with no guarantee of work at the end - and the rise of skills-based hiring among employers are some of the key factors contributing to the decline in the perceived value of traditional degrees. In this information-rich Credentialate Guide, we ask - How much has the education landscape changed? What are the factors impacting enrolments? Where are learners going instead? And how can educators bolster the perceived value of degrees by connecting them more directly to work?

All degrees are not created equal, and employers know that. They also know that just because a learner has completed a course of study does not mean they have both the soft and hard skills needed to perform the work in the position they are seeking. In other words, a degree does not equal employability in all cases. In this information-rich Credentialate Guide we explore what employability outcomes learners, educators and employers want.

What’s the difference between employment and employability data? What can employability data tell us about a learner's job or career prospects? In this information-rich Credentialate Guide we look at the currently available data and what data we could be capturing to give us a better understanding of learner employability, with the ultimate aim of driving graduate employability outcomes.

What do current learner and graduate outcomes look like? From a societal perspective, what are we getting for our education spending? And are these acceptable given the needs of the new global economy? In this information-rich Credentialate Guide, we will look at what data we have from countries that collect and publish graduate outcome data - including Australia, the UK, the EU, and the United States - and explore how learner and graduate outcomes align with learner expectations and future workforce needs.

We often hear the term, “21st-century skills.” However, it is not often clear exactly what that means and how it relates to things like employability, education, and hiring. As old jobs fall victim to automation and advancing technology, the need for transferrable skills and new knowledge and competencies has increased. In this information-rich Credentialate Guide, we examine the workplace needs of the global economy, 21st-century terms and definitions, what skills are important and how are they are taught and assessed.

Digital badges can be powerful symbols of achievement, skill and employability. What are digital badges? How do they
differ from, say, an image of a badge? What value do they deliver and to whom? In this information-rich Credentialate Guide you’ll learn the history of digital badges, understand the technology that sits behind them and discover the benefits, challenges and opportunity digital badges present.