Analysts predict that demand for engineers will skyrocket during the next decade, and that the supply will fall substantially short. A Comptia report about the tech workforce estimates that there will be an additional 7.1 million tech jobs in the United States by 2034. Yet nearly one in three engineering jobs will go unfilled each year through 2030, according to a report from the Boston Consulting Group and SAE International.
Ongoing tech investment programs such as the 2022 U.S. CHIPS and Science Act seek to build a strong technical workforce. The reality, however, is that the workforce pipeline is leaking badly. The BCG-SAE report found that only 13 percent of students who express initial interest in engineering and technical careers ultimately choose that career path. The statistics are even worse among women. Of the women who graduated with an engineering degree from 2006 to 2010, only 27 percent were still working in the field in 2021, compared with 41 percent of men with the same degree.
To help address the significant labor gap, companies are considering alternative educational pathways to technical jobs. The businesses realize that some technician roles might not actually require a college degree.
Ways to develop needed skills outside of traditional schooling—such as apprenticeships, vocational programs, professional certifications, and online courses—could help fill the workforce pipeline.
When taking those alternative pathways, though, students need a way to demonstrate they have acquired the skills employers are seeking. One way is through skills-based microcredentials.
IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization, with decades of experience offering industry-relevant credentials as well as expertise in global standardization. As the tech industry looks for a meaningful credential to help ease the semiconductor labor shortage, IEEE has the credibility and infrastructure to offer a meaningful, standardized microcredentialing program that meets semiconductor industry needs and creates opportunities for people who have traditionally been underrepresented in technical fields.
The IEEE Credentialing Program is now offering skills-based microcredentials for training courses.
Earning credentials while acquiring skills
Microcredentials are issued when learners prove mastery of a specific skill. Unlike more traditional university degrees and course certificates, microcredential programs are not based on successfully completing a full learning program. Rather, a student might earn multiple microcredentials in a single program based on the skills demonstrated. A qualified instructor using an assessment instrument determines that the learner has acquired the skill and earned the credential.
Mastery of skills might be determined through observation, completion of a task, or a written test.
In a technician training course held in a clean-room setting, for example, an instructor might use an observation checklist that rates each student’s ability to demonstrate adherence to safety procedures. During the assessment, the students complete the steps while the instructor observes. Upon successful completion of each step, a student would earn a microcredential for that skill.
Microcredentials are stackable; a student can earn them from different programs and institutions to demonstrate their growing skill set. Students can carry their earned credentials in a digital “wallet” for easy access. The IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee is working on a recommended practice standard to help facilitate the portability of such records.
Microcredentials differ from professional credentials
When considering microcredentials, it is important to understand where they fall in the wider scope of credentials available through learning programs. The credentials commonly earned can be placed along a spectrum, from easy accessibility and low personal investment to restricted accessibility and high investment.
Microcredentials are among the most accessible alternative educational pathways, but they are in need of standardization.
The most formal credentials are degrees issued by universities and colleges. They have a strict set of criteria associated with them, and they often are accredited by a third party, such as ABET in the United States. The degrees typically require a significant investment of time and money, and they are required for some professional roles as well as for advanced studies.
Certifications require specialized training on a formal body of knowledge, and students need to pass an exam to prove mastery of the subject. A learner seeking such a credential typically pays both for the learning and the test. Some employers accept certifications for certain types of roles, particularly in IT fields. A cybersecurity professional might earn a Computing Technology Industry Association Security+ certification, for example. CompTIA is a nonprofit trade association that issues certifications for the IT industry.
Individual training courses are farther down the spectrum. Typically, a learner receives a certificate upon successful completion of an individual training course. After completing a series of courses in a program, students might receive a digital badge, which comes with associated metadata about the program that can be shared on professional networks and CVs. The credentials often are associated with continuing professional education programs.
Microcredentials are at the end of the accessibility spectrum. Tied to a demonstrated mastery of skills, they are driven by assessments, rather than completion of a formal learning program or number of hours of instruction. This key difference can make them the most accessible type of credential, and one that can help a job seeker pursue alternative routes to employment beyond a formal degree or certification.
Standardization of microcredentials
A number of educational institutions and training providers offer microcredentials. Different providers have different criteria when issuing microcredentials, though, making them less useful to industry. Some academic institutions, for example, consider anything less than a university degree to be a microcredential.
Other training providers offer microcredentials for completing a series of courses. There are other types of credentials that work for such scenarios, however.
By ensuring that microcredentials are tied to skills alone, IEEE can provide a useful differentiation that benefits both job seekers and employers.
Microcredentials for clean-room training
IEEE is working to standardize the definition of microcredentials and what is required to issue them. By serving as a centralized source and drawing on more than 30 years of experience in issuing professional credentials, IEEE can help microcredential providers offer a credit that is recognized by—and meaningful to—industry.
That, in turn, can help job seekers increase their career options as they build proof of the skills they’ve developed.
Last year IEEE collaborated with the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, and its DREAMS Microelectronics Superhub on a microcredentialing program. USC offered a two-week Cleanroom Gateway pilot program to help adult learners who were not currently enrolled in a USC degree program learn the fundamentals of working in a semiconductor fabrication clean room. The school wanted to provide them with a credential that would be recognized by semiconductor companies and help improve their technician-level job prospects.
USC contacted IEEE to discuss credentialing opportunities. Together, the two organizations identified key industry-relevant skills that were taught in the program, as well as the assessment instruments needed to determine if learners master the skills. IEEE issued microcredentials for each skill mastered, along with a certificate and professional development hours for completing the entire program. The credentials, which now can be included on student CVs and LinkedIn profiles, are a good way for the students to show employers that they have the skills to work as a clean-room technician.
How the IEEE program works
IEEE’s credentialing program allows technical learning providers to supply credentials that bear the IEEE logo. Because IEEE is well respected in its fields of interest, its credentials are recognized by employers, who understand that the learning programs issuing them have been reviewed and approved. Credentials that can be issued through the IEEE Credentialing Program include certificates, digital badges, and microcredentials.
Training providers that want to offer standardized microcredentials can apply to the IEEE Credentialing Program to become approved. Applications are reviewed by a committee to ensure that the provider is credible, offers training in IEEE’s fields of interest, has qualified instructors, and has well-defined assessments.
Once a provider is approved, IEEE will work with it on the credentialing needs for each course offered, including the selection of skills to be recognized, designing the microcredentials, and creating a credential-issuing process. Upon successful completion of the program by learners, IEEE will issue the microcredentials on behalf of the training provider.
You can learn more about offering IEEE microcredentials here.
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