Microcredentials

What are microcredentials?

The UG, along with 33 other educational institutions, is participating in the national pilot Microcredentials.

Microcredentials are digital certificates that allow learners to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they have acquired after completing a unit of education, smaller than a full degree program. Unlike a private course, the microcredential represents accreditation-worthy education, whose learning outcomes are traceable and verifiable. Microcredentials can be specially designed courses or units of study from an existing program. The size ranges from 3 to 30 EC. For the time being, microcredentials in the Netherlands can only be issued to professionals and not (yet) to regular students.

Participation in this pilot fits in with the UG's intention to make learning outcomes, content, grading and certification of educational units more transparent and courses more flexible and accessible.

Why Microcredentials

• Taking a full course is often not feasible or useful for a professional: if there is a need for additional, upskilling, or retraining, smaller units of instruction are sufficient. Private courses do not allow learning outcomes to be traced and verified, and are therefore poorly comparable. Microcredentials therefore offer a solution:

• Professionals get the opportunity to gain specific knowledge and be able to show valid proof of this, without going through a full retraining or training program.

• The microcredential adds a seal of quality: you can be sure that the course is designed to achieve learning outcomes.

• Third parties (job market, institutions, etc) can be confident that the recipient of the microcredential has mastered the associated knowledge or skills because the learning outcomes are traceable and verifiable. In addition, microcredentials are registered nationwide.

• Because of the recognized value of microcredentials, professionals gain more control over their own development. They can design a development path through the years, at different courses and institutions, and be assured that learning outcomes achieved will be recognized elsewhere.

Would you like to participate in the pilot?

The Microcredentials pilot was created to further shape microcredentials. The pilot started in October 2021 with a start-up phase and will run for more than two years, until December 31, 2023.

The national Microcredentials pilot was set up to further shape microcredentials. The pilot started in October 2021 with a start-up phase and runs for more than two years, until 31 December 2023. At the UG, several microdentials are currently under development:

• Religion & Diplomacy course, Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society (in English)
  This intensive course will introduce participants to essential knowledge, concepts, and approaches to understanding religion’s relationship with core portfolios of diplomacy and foreign policy, specifically security, conflict, peacebuilding, development, humanitarianism, and human rights. It will also equip participants to design and implement their own training program in religion and diplomacy, tailor-made for their specific ministry or organization.
• Digital Leadership course , Campus Fryslân (in Dutch)
• Summer School Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Social Sustainability , Faculty of Spatial Sciences (in English)
• Course 'Oriëntatie op Educatief Leiderschap', Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences

• Educational Policy course, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences

For questions about the pilot and participation opportunities, contact project leaders Hans Beldhuis and Caroline Roth of the Strategy Education and Students department via microcredentials rug.nl.