In the space of just over a year since the launch of a new national platform for micro-credentials, the short courses have emerged as a key tool enabling people and enterprise to upskill quickly in various topic areas covering everything from business management, to sustainability to artificial intelligence.
Micro-credentials are short, flexible, enterprise-informed courses which have been developed by the 7 founding Irish Universities Association (IUA) universities (Dublin City University, Maynooth University, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, University College Dublin, University of Galway and University of Limerick).
“The aim of micro-credentials is to provide a flexible, accessible and affordable way of injecting fresh thinking into organisations, at speed,” explains Marian O’Connor, MicroCreds project lead at UCD.
“Hundreds of these bite-sized courses have been developed across MicroCreds partner universities, including UCD. The courses, which can be explored on MicroCreds.ie, take just a few hours a week to complete, are either fully online or hybrid, credit-bearing and typically last between five and 12 weeks,” she explains.
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“Their modest size is designed to pack an outsize punch, with each micro-credential offering a research-led, university-backed and quality-assured curriculum allowing learners to advance their knowledge in short, effective bursts which fit around professional and personal commitments,” says O’Connor.
This is why earlier this year the Government announced funding to subsidise up to 80 per cent of the fees across hundreds of micro-credential courses addressing skills in key priority areas, including sustainability. “The new HCI Pillar 3 Micro-credential Learner Fee Subsidy is a great opportunity to engage in upskilling this new year. Subsidies are limited though across selected micro-credentials, so learners should investigate their options sooner rather than later,” urges O’Connor.
Becoming more sustainable
Given the growing imperative of tackling climate change, and concomitant challenges such as biodiversity loss, these university-accredited courses play an increasingly important role.
“Sustainability means meeting the needs of society now and in the future while living within planetary boundaries,” explains Prof Tasman Crowe, UCD’s vice-president for sustainability.
“Moving towards a more sustainable future requires us to address challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss, poverty, hunger and inequality and shortcomings in water supply, sanitation, energy and healthcare experienced by many people around the world. It is an extremely complex and urgent global challenge but addressing it needs action at national, local and individual level.”
Using the success of the plastic bag levy by way of example, an international first, he believes Ireland has a clear opportunity to take innovative and effective steps in relation to sustainability, providing leadership for other countries.
“A key pillar of Ireland’s capacity in this regard is its innovative, creative, educated population. This is not something that can be taken for granted, though – education needs to evolve continuously to meet the continuously evolving needs of our society and indeed our environment,” he explains.
Providing the key green skills
Education and in particular lifelong learning has an enormous role in guiding us to a greener future.
“A lot of people really want to take action for sustainability but are often unsure of what action to take and what’s the best way to take it. For others, there is a direct workplace requirement to know more. Indeed, there is a rapidly expanding green economy full of opportunities for new ventures to address sustainability challenges,” he points out.
He believes a good starting point for each of us is to gain a clear overview of sustainability, and how its many facets interact with each other.
“It’s very useful to be aware of the wide range of policies and emerging legal requirements relating to different aspects of sustainability, and to learn about organisations engaged in sustainability,” says Prof Crowe.
There is then a need for more specialised knowledge, he adds, pointing to carbon literacy and climate action leadership as key topics.
“Areas like waste management, renewable energy and transport are also critical for climate mitigation. Climate adaptation, risk and resilience is another – so that organisations are better prepared for the environmental, economic, societal and governance changes that will arise as our climate changes,” he adds.
Skills are also needed in relation to biodiversity.
“The National Biodiversity Action Plan explicitly recognises an urgent skills shortage – even just in terms of being able to survey, monitor and identify species and habitats so that current and potential impacts of human activities can be assessed and reduced,” he points out.
Micro-credentials in law, ethics and green finance are vital too, given the advent of new legal requirements, including the EU’s new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive which is already in place for large corporations and will ultimately require all companies to report on a wide range of sustainability indicators. There is a huge skills shortfall in this area too, he adds.
Lifelong learning holds the key
“Our understanding of the challenges, and our development of solutions, are rapidly evolving and we really need people to help interpret both, and take a lead in taking action,” explains Prof Crowe.
“We need people to continuously engage with emerging ideas and practical solutions. Lifelong learning through short accessible courses like micro-credentials are fantastic for this as they can be taken by anyone, at any time, to fit around people’s already busy lives.”
UCD offers a range of sustainability micro-credentials, including courses such as Creativity and Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems, a 12 week, 100 per cent online course, whose next intake takes place in January 2025. For a subsidised price of just €125, it explains why rethinking current food systems is now an urgent priority.
Environmental Food Processing, another 100 per cent online micro-credential, focuses on how a rapidly growing world population is increasing demand for safe, high quality and nutritious food, and looks at the environmental impacts of that.
Innovative thinking, accessible delivery
Climate Change Law and Policy, a micro-credential run by Dr Andrew Jackson, assistant professor in planning and environmental law at UCD, critically examines the regulatory responses to climate change internationally.
The course, which runs for 12 weeks from January 2025, is interdisciplinary in nature and includes seminars on issues including the science of climate change, international, EU and Irish climate law, climate litigation, and climate justice.
“As with any environmental law subject, it’s really important to understand not just the law and how climate change is regulated, but also to understand up-to-date climate science,” explains Dr Jackson.
This micro-credential is of interest to both lawyers and non-lawyers working in, or with an interest in, climate law and policy, as well as those working in Government and local Government bodies and agencies, NGOs, the private sector, and researchers. The course is delivered 100 per cent online and comes at a subsidised cost of €315.
The fact that the micro-credential is in fact a module of UCD’s online master’s programme in environmental and climate law speaks to the academic rigour behind it.
The varied background of its students adds to the experience. “We’ve had people taking the course from all sorts of backgrounds, including from regulators, businesses, practising lawyers and those working in the NGO sector. It’s of huge value to both employers and to individual learners to have an up-to-date understanding because it’s an area of law, policy and indeed science that is fast moving. It’s also an area that is only going to grow in importance,” he says.
That’s why micro-credentials are so important. “From a learner’s perspective, the academic experience is the same, the quality is the same, but for me, what is great about the programme is that it increases choice for people,” he explains.
“Someone might not be in a position to, or want to, study for a full master’s degree – indeed they might already have one. But they do want to gain new knowledge and skills in a particular area. That’s what micro-credentials allow them to do.”
Find your next micro-credential at MicroCreds.ie