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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1351663
BCBUSINESS.CA APRIL 2021 BCBUSINESS 17 Prosperity Partnership (SIPP), an alliance of governments and businesses that fosters economic development in the Greater Victoria area. Her organization convened a task force among its stakeholders last April to find ways to reboot a local economy smothered by COVID-19. Making micro-credential programs available emerged as a top priority. "When you're experiencing an economic crisis—like the one that we're in—there is a tremendous amount of layoffs in some sectors. Yet other sectors are needing more people," de Rosenroll explains. "So we need to get the workforce rapidly skilled in a short amount of time—in a matter of months, as opposed to a matter of years." So in August, SIPP partnered with Alacrity Canada and the B.C. government to launch the online digital marketing boot- camp that Kolb joined. "I felt it was one of the micro-credentials where I could really use the skills and transfer them to multiple con- texts," she recalls. "For me, versa- tility was a big draw." Kolb did transfer her skills, to a new field surprisingly close to home. She's become a digital mar- keting assistant for the Alacrity Canada Foundation. Just-in-time training For years, universities and colleges across the continent have offered short, non-credit courses via con- tinuing studies departments, which teach everything from creative writing to code writing and book- keeping to beekeeping. Although students often take such courses out of sheer interest, many want to add job-related skills. However, these programs traditionally don't offer credentials recognized by employers or universities. Changes are just beginning to happen. As most continuing- studies departments shift toward professional development and away from classes taken for personal interest, they're starting to include micro-credentials. Last September, the continuing studies divisions of Vancouver Community College and UBC joined the Canada Skills Program, a collaboration with Microsoft Canada that delivers training and certification for Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform. VCC also offers testing for the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certi- fication exam. Claire Sauvé, VCC continuing studies' senior programming coordinator, explains her school's aims for its micro-credentials: "The key is that they are industry-relevant, they're short in dura- tion, and they have some kind of assessment built in." Workers are increasingly becoming what she calls whole-career learners, she says. People might shuttle between jobs and school- ing multiple times as they add skills toward promotions or pivots. "This kind of cyclical nature of work and training has driven the need for more flexible, bite-sized, just-in-time training for profes- sional development," Sauvé points out. 2021 EDUCATION GUIDE UVic's dean of continuing studies, Jo-Anne Clarke, sees technology and automation disrupting the workforce at a rapid pace that's grown faster since the pandemic struck. " COVID did not crush the future. It merely brought it forward," she says, quoting a recent article by RBC senior vice-president John Stackhouse. Her department is racing to add shorter professional development certificates —likely two to three courses long—to help midcareer learners acquire new, nec- essary digital skills. Rather than teach basic technical components like coding, these programs will help leaders and administrators gain competen- cies in several areas, such as using technology to communi- cate with their teams or incor- porate data analytics into their decision-making. "We're just developing them right now as quick as we can, to get them out the door," Clarke says. Stack your way toward a degree Because schools like to play to their strengths, micro- credential programs take on similar characteristics. Royal Roads University is mainly a graduate-level institution, best known for its MBA and other leadership programs. "The aver- age age of our learners is around 40," explains Zoë MacLeod, associate vice- president, professional and continuing studies. "So, you know, coding kind of isn't our market demographic." MacLeod's department offers a variety of business leadership classes on topics like project leadership for the digital future and effective workplace communication. These are designed with an increasingly popular feature: stackability. Learners can bundle several courses with an assessment process to earn a micro-credential—a non- degree professional certificate. In turn, they can use those as credit toward a Royal Roads graduate certificate. The stackability of some micro- credentials allows learners to keep build- ing on the skills they've acquired. Some stackable credentials are also portable: students can earn certification at one institution and take it to another for credit "When you're experiencing an eco- nomic crisis, there is a tremendous amount of layoffs in some sectors. Yet other sectors need more people. So we need to get the work- force rapidly skilled in a matter of months" –Emilie de Rosenroll, founding CEO, South Island Prosperity Partnership