The Power of Microcredentials and America’s Higher Education Dilemma
Mordecai I. Brownlee
March 23, 2023
This semester, the Community College of Aurora rolled out the first microcredentials in its history. These short courses offer students the opportunity to study behavioral health, which aligns with jobs in our region related to human services, sociology, counseling, psychology and social work.
Community colleges, which have historically served as comprehensive institutions offering associate degrees with transfer articulation agreements to four-year colleges, have also served as workforce drivers through their array of educational credit and non-credit courses. However, as industry and technology have evolved rapidly, inadequate higher education funding and rising costs due to inflation have affected higher education’s responsiveness.
