Microcredentials play a significant role in shaping the future of engineering careers. A growing number of engineering students and professionals find microcredentials useful for gaining specialized skills to help them excel in an ever-changing industry.
What Are Microcredentials?
Microcredentials are four-week intensive online courses designed for professionals who are looking to expand their skill set and do their jobs better. According to an article by Siemens, “credentials help bridge the gap between academia and industry by offering proof of learning for key skills.”
“In contrast to a traditional degree that may take four years to obtain, many credentials can be earned in days, weeks or months.”
Microcredentials are designed to be easily transferable to the workforce. After completing a microcredential, a learner will receive a digital badge to showcase the achievement. Digital badges include metadata that detail course specifics or verification links that click through to the program itself. Microcredentials are designed to be stackable which allows learners to build on different skills over time.
Closing the Skills Gap, Expanding Career Flexibility
Engineering degree programs arm students with the fundamentals but may not be able to always align with rapidly evolving industry trends. That’s where microcredentials step in: Gain skills in more specialized areas to support professional development throughout a career or to facilitate a promotion.
Microcredentials are career advancement boosters and may enable earners to:
- Advance a current career or transition to a new field.
- Demonstrate knowledge or a new skill set to employers.
- Enhance an online resume.
- Prepare for industry certifications or licenses.
- Demonstrate a commitment to lifelong learning.
Receive certification in a shorter time instead of pursuing a long-term academic degree. Technical professionals can choose from a wide range of areas such as robotics, additive manufacturing, advanced computational fluids and professional areas such as business fundamentals, project management, and leadership — all centered on the technical context they need.
Employers Encourage Education
According to a 2023 survey by Coursera, 72% of employers agreed that they would be more likely to hire a candidate who has earned a microcredential. When it comes to pursuing microcredential courses, the survey found that 77% of employers said they’re already using or actively exploring skills-based hiring; 97% are considering it.
Skill-based learning models like microcredentials can be an asset to both employees and employers, especially when they are aligned with continuing education credit (CEU) standards and Professional Engineer (PE) licensure requirements. Penn State College of Engineering Microcredentials are designed to help professionals meet CEU and PE continuing education mandates. Employers may even sponsor these programs or provide stipends for professional development that directly supports an employee’s current role and long-term career path. With a focus on highly relevant, applied topics, microcredential courses enable engineers to gain specialized skills, maintain licensure, and stay competitive in their field. Companies also benefit by ensuring engineers are equipped to tackle evolving industry and organizational challenges.
Microcredential Courses Tailored to Bridging the Skills Gap
In 2024, the Penn State College of Engineering partnered with Siemens Digital Industries Software to create a four-course microcredential series to prepare students for the workforce. The “Career Ready Series” was offered to current students at no cost with the purpose to close the skills gap.
“These microcredentials, developed in collaboration with industry partners, empower students to fully leverage their Penn State education and enter the workforce well-prepared,” said Meg Handley, associate director of engineering leadership development undergraduate programs and associate teaching professor in SEDI.
“Through our microcredential format, students gain targeted skills in manageable increments, fostering networking opportunities with professionals and earning digital badges that highlight their industry-relevant knowledge and capabilities.”
“Siemens enriches our curriculum with real-world applications of career-ready skills,” Handley said. “They provide crucial context for understanding business concepts in technical settings, exemplify inclusive team dynamics and offer insights into daily project management practices crucial for engineers.”
Learn on Your Schedule, at Your Own Pace
Much like nontraditional higher education courses, microcredential courses are often fully online with any synchronous sessions scheduled for weeknights or weekends. This allows a learn-as-you-go type of schedule enabling students and professionals to prioritize their everyday lives and learn when convenient for them.
Microcredentials, also known as modular learning opportunities, offer technical engineers a flexible way to build targeted expertise without committing to a full degree program. While these courses do not currently map back to academic credit, they can still support technical professional growth, licensure maintenance, and career advancement. Engineers can use microcredentials to sharpen technical skills or expand into complementary areas such as project management, leadership, or business — on a schedule that fits their professional and personal commitments.
“The microcredential learning experience provided a flexible learning environment where I developed relevant skills for my career goals. This experience has opened doors for future advancement within my company.”
— Gregory Blickley, GDC IT Solutions
The Need for Technical and Professional Skills
While microcredential courses cover a wide range of topics, they also touch on different types of skill sets. For example, institutions may bring in a professional or specialized engineer to communicate the latest developments in emerging technologies in the marketplace — information that may not be as easily accessible in a traditional academic setting. From things like smart manufacturing to robotics or automation, these microcredentials may give students and professionals an edge in evolving fields.
When it comes to soft skills, microcredentials also include training on important competencies such as communication, teamwork, and problem solving. These skills may be demonstrated by professionals in the career field who can give a first-hand account of how challenges were faced in specific situations or provide testimonials and advice for those seeking leadership roles.
In a presentation to participants of a 2020 video introducing the microcredential model for STEM learning, Andrea Gregg, Ph.D., and director of learning experience design and associate research professor at Penn State University spoke about the importance of learning professional skills within a microcredential setting in STEM fields such as mechanical engineering.
“From working with our industry partners and research in general that we’ve all known for years, there’s a significant gap in industry hiring highly technical undergrads who are lacking the four c’s, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity; … Things that allow you to work across teams and departments. That was identified,” Gregg said.
“We also have done alumni surveys to ask [graduates] ‘what do you wish you would have learned in mechanical engineering’ and we bring in industry expertise largely because they have expertise that our faculty may not, in terms of these areas.”
“Our STEM curriculum is very rigorous and tight, there’s not a lot of wiggle room and it’s not always agile enough to reflect the newest approaches and as we all know getting a new course into rotation is easier said than done so this has allowed us to address topics that are relevant, current, but not necessarily integrated into any particular classes.”
Where Industry Meets Education
Many higher education institutions partner with businesses and industry leaders to offer microcredential programs tailored to their specific needs. This creates a more flexible yet focused learning experience for students, as they pursue a microcredential course based on real-world issues. This provides a more supportive and innovative educational experience while arming students with the knowledge they can deploy upon graduation.
Choose Microcredentials That Align With Your Career Goals
Before signing up for a microcredential course, explore what skills might align best with your career goals. There is a wide range of educational and technical institutions that offer different credentials, and it may be overwhelming at first.
- Research which engineering skills and knowledge you want to gain.
- Consult a mentor or supervisor about professional development opportunities.
- Look for microcredentials that are offered by reputable institutions.
- Review who is instructing the course and if their background or subject matter is right for your circumstances.
- Think about how the microcredential will be perceived by employers.
Microcredentials help engineers have an edge in an already competitive field. Microcredentials offer a path to education and specialized skills that can augment a traditional education. With new technologies evolving every day, engineers can rely on microcredentials to bridge the gap between foundational skills and innovations to further their careers and stay agile for the future. Visit beyondengineering.psu.edu to learn more about Penn State’s College of Engineering Microcredentials program.