The purpose of education in any form can really be boiled down to one thing: opportunities including personal improvement, career advancement, increased income levels, and increased levels of personal satisfaction. Skills-based education, hiring, and even the creation of job listings are the future. What does that opportunity look like?
There is an ongoing transformation of education towards a skills-focused and tech-enabled educational model. The learning community is shifting away from traditional four-year degrees, with major tech companies no longer requiring them and instead emphasising skills. In this information-rich Credentialate Guide, we ask – What is the Next-Generation Learning likely to look like? What are the challenges and opportunities associated with shifting to skills-based education? How can technology, such as digital credentials, be leveraged to create a more robust and accessible system for documenting and verifying skills and competencies? What role do community colleges, vocational education, and emerging technologies like AI play in the evolving education landscape.
Community colleges traditionally were created to address the population of learners who pursued two-year degree programs, which often led to transferring into a four-year university degree. However, as global skills gaps have increased, the need to shift from a traditional student demographic and outcome, to one that meets the needs of lifelong learners seeking to re-skill or upskill to stay relevant, has become critical. Lack of funding and infrastructure created challenges for many community colleges seeking to pivot to meet this new demand.
