By D.N. Vasuki

Industry has entered the education sector.”  What does this mean for us academicians and educationists? The issues I have discussed in this article is a result of changing education scenario at all premium institutions like IITs, IIMs, NITs and some leading Universities in India who are gearing up to realign with changing “in-demand digital fluency”  expectations from the industry.

“Being digital used to be an aspiration, now it is imperative for survival.” — Accenture

What does this mean for us? How can technical institutions improve the digital fluency of their students? While a lot of changes have already been taking place in the premier circle of education at leading IITs and NITs, what is the status in normal engineering colleges across India? How are they placed?

Industry talks about the shift in their business operation mode switching to the digital age. Over 14 percent of industry from all sectors is digitally mature. A lot needs to be done in the workplace.

Many companies including biggies like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and IBM are emphasising on “up-skilling” and reskilling for their employees to increase their “digital quotient” and “technology quotient” to stay ahead of business. Many leading industries have entered the education sector and tied up with leading educational institutions in India.

The new age skills called the “digital skills” also referred to as micro-credentials in western countries have hit our homes.

What is a micro-credential? It is a form of recognition for a skill or expertise typically using a certificate form of learning. It’s a small piece of learning. Micro-credential is for a period of learning typically anywhere between a few hours up to a maximum of 180 hours. Millions of micro-credentials are being offered worldwide through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platforms.

What is micro-credentials stacking and how does this change the future of education? Micro-credentials are not just stand-alone certificates. They are a part of a big related complex subject. The complex subject is broken down into a number of bite-sized smaller modules. 

Individual micro-credential courses can be built in blocks to learn a complex subject. Student can acquire many of them in a sequential order and stack them as a part of his sensual continuing professional development. Stacking is building up of a skill from a lower level to a higher level under assistance. Complete stack of micro-credentials shall lead to a proficiency award. You can build your stack into a definition of who you are and what you are in terms of your learning and your skills.

Future of learning and work

Continuing professional development and micro-credentials are going to be part and parcel of the whole future of learning and work.  There’s no two ways about it. We are going to move into a situation where the requirement is both continuous professional development and lifelong learning.

Now let us look at how industry is driving the inevitable change in education sector. There are two reasons for this.

First reason being the kinds of skills demanded by employers are a whole new area of skills particularly around data and digitisation of content. These are very fluid in nature and called liquid skills. Skills will change continuously. The acceleration of technology change in the world of work is going to mean that the kinds of skills needed around these technologies will constantly be changing. 

The skills you learn will constantly need to be upgraded.  It’s no longer the case that you study something for a certain period of time and then once you’ve learnt it and that is it and you are going to survive in your professional period.

Skill set upgrade

Second reason industry is getting into education. It’s been provided by individuals corporations, typically the technology sector companies like Apple, Microsoft and IBM. They are providing micro-credentials around the skill sets and technology skills they require in their business. Students required gaining further skills as a part of their long course. 

University degree alone no longer guarantees you a job and even a post-graduate isn’t providing the full range of hybrid skills. Industries believe micro-credentials would supplement the University degree in the absence of a gap in the curriculum which perhaps is not role aligned in terms of learning outcomes.

Perhaps the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 also encourages such options to students to help them build their education qualification by way of mix and match to suit their job relevance in the workplace.  May be one can acquire some micro-credentials plus 1-year of University degree and then build up his own portfolio that makes him quite differentiated in the job market place. 

Building a portfolio

There will be options available. I don’t need a degree or I don’t need a post-graduation. I don’t need to commit myself to 4 years, 6 years or 8 years of study in order to get to the workplace. We may see students dipping in to using micro-credentials, getting a job, then going back and perhaps doing a full-length degree to deck up his or her credentials. 

A demand-driven change

So, stacking up of these micro-credentials has become very prevalent. HCL “Techbee” programme is a classic initiative. Many more such changes can be expected. When a student goes back to University, can possibly ask, I already have all credentials which have been validated, why can’t I get credit for those against your existing programme? Why do I have to do everything again? 

We will soon see these changes and it’s demand-driven from the point of view of the learner as well as from the point of view of the employer so I think we’re moving into an era where the next five to 10 years everything is going to be really shaken up and I think COVID-19 has probably accelerated that in terms of the way in which we look at and what’s going to be mixed education provision.

Students collect credentials and mix and match and build their proficiency that fit them in workplace. This   means you need to have a framework which shall be a part of your offering. Institutions must start to align with industry players in the market who enable them to offer the best possible value in education. Simple curriculum changes may not prove to be a stronger solution in the future. This is more precisely is the purpose of industry connect. 

Cementing career growth

Industry connect cements relationship and helps in reviewing your offerings to students in terms of quality education in multiple options and helps you stay afloat in the competitive situation.

Where does this leave the traditional qualifications and development? University/institutions are going to be very important and they’re going to continue with their role in the tertiary education sector. Universities are already offering or developing micro-credentials for their own students in leading IITs and NITs. Efforts are being made all the time and continually to align micro-credentials frameworks with qualifications framework. 

It’s not that one will replace the other but you will begin to see the way in which they complement each other. When a student leaves the University he should have basic degree plus micro-credentials in specific skills to be proficient in his learning outcomes and technology ready or industry ready or first hour job ready. Employers are looking for people with more than just a designation or more than a degree in a certain subject.

For instance, an accountant is typically a person with accountancy background but also need other hybrid skills. The creation of jobs and job roles are hybrid in nature. An accountant is expected to be proficient in skills around accountancy and further have skills like data management, data analytics, business intelligence, cyber security, data governance, on predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.

[The author is a Director at The National Institute of Engineering and NIE Institute of Technology, Mysuru.]

IN A NUTSHELL

• Just-in-time skills requirements and bite-sized chunks of learning will be imbedded in learning process of a newly qualified job entrant.
• Micro-credentials is a process of accumulation of essential skills, be it technical skills or soft skills or behavioural skills or domain skills or analytical skills or strategic skills or entrepreneurial skills or leadership skills throughout his or her journey from newly qualified entrant to mid-career professional to an expert leadership position.
• Our education systems will see a sea of change in terms of learning outcomes restructuring.
• Educational institutions will see restructuring and align education provisions accordingly.