The Edge: Building credentials that actually pay off

Guaranteed interviews and other employer involvement may help new credentials deliver value to learners. ADVERTISEMENT [The Edge Logo]( You can also [read this newsletter on the web](. Or, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, [unsubscribe](. I’m Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at The Chronicle covering innovation in and around higher ed. This week I report on some promising new approaches to job-focused credentials. And my colleague Graham Vyse shares ideas for how to better use mentors to support first-generation students. ADVERTISEMENT SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. What new credential models can teach us The [recent demise]( of the Capital CoLAB’s digital-credential program continues to disappoint me. But other emerging models show how colleges and employers can collaborate to create — and perhaps sustain — value for students. One of those, created by Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), guarantees that graduates of its certificate programs get job interviews. Another set, developed by two-dozen community colleges and the nonprofit Education Design Lab, incorporates a host of features to try to make the credentials accessible, affordable, and worth the time and effort of working adults who decide to enroll. Both models offer programs in fields where workers are in demand, and the credentials tend to be those already commonly recognized by the relevant industries. In NOVA’s case, funds from the state’s [FastForward]( program cover two-thirds of the cost to students for courses usually completed in six to 12 weeks. But “NOVA wanted to take that a step farther,” as its president, Anne M. Kress, told me, last week. Now more than a dozen employers are part of the college’s [Guaranteed Interviews]( program. I assumed the value of that would be mostly for students. But it’s also been a boon to employers struggling to fill positions, Steven Partridge, NOVA’s vice president for strategy, research, and work-force innovation, told me, because they get a first crack at a pool of qualified applicants. One local hospital system “almost hired the entire class” completing a certified-nursing-assistant training, he said. And some local-government agencies sorely in need of IT expertise, Kress noted, have begun paying for students to enroll in related programs. The concept of guaranteed interviews for credential earners was one feature that had excited me about the Capital CoLAB program, because of how it seemed to build value around the credentials. Industry buy-in sends a strong signal. Consider: One reason that hundreds of thousands of learners have enrolled in the Google Career Certificates is that they’re connected to 150-plus major companies in [Google’s hiring consortium](. Enrollment in NOVA’s FastForward program is now about 1,100, having nearly tripled since 2019. It’s hard to say how much the guaranteed interviews, added in early 2022, have played into the rising interest. Other factors are the pandemic-driven disruption of jobs in hospitality and retail, which prompted people to consider training for new careers, and the expanded availability of state financial aid. (Three-quarters of current students pay nothing.) But NOVA leaders consider the interview guarantee enough of a valuable benefit that Kress said the college is expanding it beyond FastForward to other programs. Guaranteed interviews and other forms of employer engagement — such as paid internships and employer-developed capstone assignments — are also features of the “microcredential pathways” developed by community colleges working with the Education Design Lab. Begun three years ago at nine institutions, the lab expects 23 colleges to be offering as many as 50 pathways this fall, and twice as many colleges to be offering some 80 pathways by next spring. More than a set of courses leading to a single credential, each pathway comprises as many as a half-dozen skill-based certificates, including at least one in a soft skill such as oral communication or critical thinking. Each pathway is developed in collaboration with employers, focused on an in-demand field with good-paying jobs, designed to take no longer than a year to complete (the average is six months), and offered in online and self-paced formats. Most certificates that are part of those pathways are noncredit, but could later be stacked and converted into credit toward a degree. Giving students a tangible way to signal their skills to potential employers was vital to the Education Design Lab, an organization that develops new learning models, said Lisa Larson, senior vice president for college transformation. So participants receive digital records of their credentials, to “own them and know how to talk about them,” Larson said. Since 2020, at least 4,000 students have enrolled in pathways offered by the nine original colleges. Unfortunately, there isn’t great data on outcomes — yet — in part because colleges don’t follow noncredit students as carefully as they do those in degree programs. Larson said the organization hopes to rectify that by using its [Data Collaborative for a Skills-Based Economy]( to track enrollments and outcomes in the pathways programs. I look forward to that. But even now, a few things about the pathways stand out to me. One is the inclusion of soft skills — or in [Design Lab parlance]( 21st-century skills. Five years ago, I reported on [the organization’s efforts to document the value of credentials]( in this realm, so it’s nice to see that work continue. Also: How nice (and I think rare?) to see short-term credential programs that recognize the value of skills like resilience, empathy, and initiative. Another thing that strikes me is that, in developing the pathways, the lab and its college and employer partners paid particular attention to learners’ needs, in some cases streamlining admissions to eliminate prerequisites or assessments that weren’t strictly necessary. Some also added staff members to serve as single-point-of-contact navigators to help students understand their first and next steps toward completion. But mostly what I appreciate about both programs detailed here is their intentional design and focus on value. In a time that organizations like Credential Engine have documented the existence of more than one million credentials, [leading to a maze of confusion]( those principles should guide all colleges and other organizations looking to add to the credential landscape. Supporting mentors who support first-gen students First-generation students often credit strong mentors — peers, faculty members, or alumni — as invaluable to their success, and campus programs that foster those relationships are vital, experts said in [a recent Chronicle forum](. Here are two takeaways from the panel, which was moderated by Katherine Mangan, a Chronicle senior writer, and underwritten by the Ascendium Education Group as part of our yearlong [series on student success](. Mentors need help, too. The main challenge one administrator hears from student mentors is: “My mentee isn’t calling me back.” That observation came from Charmaine E. Troy, associate director of first-generation initiatives at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who recommends scheduling events for mentors and mentees to get together, not leaving the planning up to them. Another way to prompt interaction is to send out monthly nudges to program participants with suggested topics of conversation, said Liz Banuelos-Castro, an adviser on internship and diversity programs at the University of Southern California. It can also help mentor training to include perspectives on setting boundaries, said Marc A. Lo, executive director of the Penn First Plus program at the University of Pennsylvania. “The value of a mentor relationship is to be close enough to understand the mentee,” he said, but to be “able to move back from where a student is and be able to identify alternative pathways.” It’s a two-way relationship. Mentors in the USC program are alumni, yet Banuelos-Castro said her program requires mentees to reach out first. That teaches them to network. She facilitates the connection by emphasizing at the start that both parties will benefit. “It’s not just a mentor sharing knowledge with a mentee,” she said. “Mentees are also bringing their own knowledge and experiences, which mentors can learn from.” —Graham Vyse How will higher ed celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday? Judging by the (few) responses I received to that question, [posed in the last newsletter,]( maybe most of you aren’t getting into the semiquincentennial spirit. Or at least not yet. If I’m wrong, [please let me know](mailto:goldie@chronicle.com). Meanwhile, one response sticks with me, from Steven Denson, assistant dean of diversity in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, who urged more attention to tribal colleges and tribal students. Denson, an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, wrote: “The almost 600 tribal nations within the U.S., old when this nation was new, continue to contribute to the development and growth of the American spirit and economy.” Got a tip you’d like to share or a question you’d like me to answer? Let me know, at goldie@chronicle.com. If you have been forwarded this newsletter and would like to see past issues, [find them here](. To receive your own copy, free, register [here](. If you want to follow me on Twitter [@GoldieStandard]( is my handle. NEWSLETTER [Sign Up for the Teaching Newsletter]( Find insights to improve teaching and learning across your campus. Delivered on Thursdays. To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, [sign up]( to receive it in your email inbox. 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