Credentialing Market Is ‘Innovation’ and ‘Chaos’
In The News Piece in Inside Higher Ed
Dec. 7, 2022
Shalin Jyotishi was quoted in an article by Inside Higher Ed about the growing market of secondary and postsecondary credentials in the United States.
Shalin Jyotishi, senior analyst at New America, a Washington, D.C., think tank, said the many credential options offered by nonacademic providers aren’t a bad thing, as long as federal and state lawmakers make efforts to ensure they’re of high quality.
“Certification bodies, which can be nonprofit or for-profit, employers, nonprofit workforce providers, MOOCs, other entities can offer high-quality credentials of value that serve sort of a niche that traditional higher education institutions can’t fill or don’t want to fill or struggle to fill,” he said.
He also doesn’t see this development as bad news for higher education institutions but perhaps an opportunity for colleges and universities to partner with nonacademic providers. For example, he highlighted that Miami Dade College offers college credits to students who complete the Google data analytics certificate, offered through Coursera. He believes these partnerships can be a recruitment tool for colleges and universities at a time when enrollment in higher ed continues to decline and also give students pursuing noncredit credentials an “on-ramp” to degree programs, which still lead to the greatest earning gains later in life.
“It makes sense to create on-ramps into traditional higher ed from these nontraditional options,” he said. “That’s what I would point to as the most prominent selling point is this is a recruitment strategy to stem hemorrhaging enrollment.”
Read the full article here