WFM Biweekly - May 8, 2022 - Alternative Credentials, CC Leaders, NCRN Conference, Continuing Ed & More

This Walmart-sponsored Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and SHRM Foundation study surveyed executives, supervisors, HR professionals and workers during the summer of 2021 to learn about the value of alternative credentials.

Salesforce and The Chronicle of Higher Education teamed up in fall 2021 to conduct an online quantitative survey that garnered more than 700 responses from community college staff.

The Non-degree Credentials Research Network (NCRN) at George Washington University (GW) held a face-to-face and virtual conference on April 28-29, 2022 titled “Non-degree Credentials on the Move.” NCRN is a group of more than 200 researchers and stakeholder representatives funded by Lumina Foundation. Here we synthesized one of the conference sessions titled “Employers, Skills-Based Hiring and Non-degree Credentials.” More NCRN Conference session explainers to come in future posts.  

The EvoLLLution Q & A with Austin CC Vice Chancellor addresses the importance and high value of sophisticated data analysis.

Despite continuing interest in the idea of alternative qualifications such as microcredentials, digital badges, and industry-recognized certificates, the verdict is still out on how much return on investment these credentials provide to students and how compelling they are for employers with hiring needs.

One of the problems we currently face when discussing alternative credentials is that there are (at least) four distinct ideas of what we mean by the term which are poorly differentiated in our discussion. While these different meanings are not necessarily incompatible, they aren’t automatically complimentary either.

Experts say the move could help the company strengthen its focus on selling courses to colleges rather than consumers.

Workforce Matters – in collaboration with colleagues at Grantmakers for Education – convened a group of funders to discuss community college grantmaking strategies, with a focus on approaches that expand access, promote student success, and ensure that student investments in community college education meet individual needs and provide value, particularly for students of color and other groups that have been historically underrepresented or underserved by higher education.

Twelve millennials talked to Times Opinion about the Great Resignation, returning to the office and the workplace in America today.

Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented the country’s leading companies with a historic opportunity to reverse the decades-long trends of widening inequality and shareholder primacy, making change for workers seem possible. 

Welcome to the new NSF website. We’re completely revamping our site and we’re doing it in the open so you can check on our progress. Learn more about the project.

The number of job openings was at a series high of 11.5 million on the last business day of March, although little changed over the month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Hires, at 6.7 million, were also little changed while total separations edged up to 6.3 million. Within separations, quits edged up to a series high of 4.5 million, while layoffs and discharges were little changed at 1.4 million. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector, by industry, by four geographic regions, and by establishment size class.

Through Degrees When Due, IHEP built institutional capacity to support college completion at nearly 200 institutions from 23 states to award degrees to students who have earned them, reengage former students who have stopped out, and equip students with credentials that help them realize their postsecondary goals.

People are increasingly returning to the workplace after retiring a year before - a trend that’s been dubbed “unretirement.”

The University of Iowa recently released the final report for its Future of Work@Iowa project. The project sought to “reimagine” how and where employees work after the pandemic, with a focus on “understanding the long-term potential for remote and hybrid work, flexible schedules, and other types of work arrangements”—arrangements it collectively calls “flexible work.”