Keith Bird On Credit, Noncredit, & Competency-Based Learning

by George Lorenzo

This post is based on a conversation I had several months ago with Keith Bird, Senior Policy Fellow for Workforce and Postsecondary Education at the Corporation for A Skilled Workforce located in Ann Arbor, MI. Keith served as chancellor of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System for ten years and has been president of two community colleges during his illustrious career to date. He serves on a variety of advisory boards and councils and is a frequent speaker at conferences on the involvement of community colleges in economic and workforce development.

Devising a Competency-based Framework

Keith and I talked about the creation of what he calls a set of “rigorous” methodologies that can guarantee that both credit and non-credit community college courses and programs be more closely aligned to the labor market.  In addition, and more importantly, these methodologies could form the basis of a new postsecondary system that awards students valid credentials that employers can trust. Such credentials would be based on a student’s demonstration of competencies that have been established by industry, as opposed to awarding only degrees and certificates based solely on the historic credit hour.

To further elaborate and clarify this topic, Keith pointed me to a highly informative and eye-opening report he coauthored titled “Giving Credit Where Credit is Due: Creating a Competency-Based Qualifications Framework for Postsecondary Education and Training.”  To put it succinctly, the premise of this paper is that  the U.S. needs to “devise a competency-based framework within which states and institutions can award educational credit for academic-equivalent competencies mastered through formal and informal occupational education and training. Educational credit based on competence, rather than on time (i.e., the credit hour), would result in a postsecondary credential that is portable, accepted by postsecondary institutions, and recognized across industry sectors.”

There are a good number of organizations with substantial efforts and policies that address this issue, such as the American National Standards Institute, which accredits educational certificate programs, among many additional efforts; the American Council on Education, which evaluates and validates noncredit instruction to assist students with the prospect of obtaining credit for workplace learning; the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, which awards credits for prior learning assessment; and many others. However, as noted in the Giving Credit report, even combined “they are insufficient compared to the scale of need.” Plus, they “vary widely in methodology and cost.”

The Great Disconnect Between Credit and Noncredit

It was also cited in the Giving Credit paper that our nation’s two-year colleges, in 2009, served more than 6.5 million students in credit-bearing programs and about 5 million students in noncredit education and training. The noncredit offerings included customized employee training courses and programs, incumbent worker programs for employee advancement in their existing jobs, English as a Second language instruction, and courses in a variety of employability skills and personal enrichment. Historically, however, such noncredit offerings have typically been given a low status at community colleges, resulting in less funding and less attention overall by institutional curriculum approval administrators. In short, “the disconnect between the credit and noncredit sides of community colleges hinders the sharing of best practices and takes pressure off the credit side to be responsive to diverse employer and student needs.”

Solving the Challenge

In the end, Keith had a good number of recommendations – too long to completely list here – for solving his call for a set of methodologies that would ultimately get credit and non-credit community college courses and programs more closely aligned to the labor market, as well as for the creation of a postsecondary education system with a stronger emphasis on a competency-based framework.  Some of the recommendations that stuck out more prominently with me than others include:

• Raise the bar for business engagement by promoting the joint establishment of rigorous competency/standards/curricula/credentials and quality assurance mechanisms between businesses and community colleges.
• Create a national competency-based framework for postsecondary education modeled on Lumina Foundation’s Degree Qualifications Profile to establish learning outcomes for multiple levels of academic credentials, including one- year certificates. It should be constructed with input from multiple participants, including education, workforce, and employer stakeholders.
• Develop a national clearinghouse for credentials with standard terminology and methodologies to document the development and documentation of standards for competency- based qualifications and curricula. Include a central database to count numbers and ensure proper categorization of programs. Get recognized by federal and state governments and industry,   accredited by a third party and based on national/international standards and regulatory standards.

Finally, today’s college-aged 21st century learners are highly mobile and increasingly gaining the knowledge and skills they need from the availability of a growing number and wider variety of informal learning experiences (that are frequently less expensive than the tuition rates at public institutions), including more options for noncredit courses and programs that are based around employee-desired competencies that have increasingly sophisticated assessments (through advanced technologies) that clearly demonstrate proficiencies.  

As stated in the Giving Credit report:  “With the ability to earn postsecondary educational credit by demonstrating competencies, it becomes irrelevant whether a student obtains competence through a noncredit or credit-bearing path.”  As that line of thinking becomes more prevalent, it becomes easy to see that the facilitation of truly granting valid credit where valid credit is truly due is changing the entire landscape of community colleges, corporate training and workforce development in ways we have yet to truly see. 

COMMENTS WELCOME

Comments

[David]

I am happy to see that the discussion on competency-based learning is gaining momentum.
I am presently working in a technical institute in the Caribbean where all teaching and learning is competency based. These competencies are based on the standards of the various industries.
Graduates are better prepared for the job market and employers give preference to them than graduates with the traditional academic certificates.

[Chari Leader Kelley]

The competency movement is one we fully endorse. Various efforts around the country are yielding interesting new ways to document learning. Competencies will actually make life easier for mobile students and lifelong learners who continuously add learning and skills.

Chari Leader Kelley,
LearningCounts.org
CAEL

[Chris M. Olson]

I couldn't agree more. I was part of a team in Indiana that developed Certificates of Technical Achievement awarded to students and workers. It was competency-based, was supported by industry, the competencies were industry-developed, and the assessments were "scenario" based which required someone to perform in real-time to a standard set by industry. This was a part of a state-wide system that linked education and industry. The Certificates had more value than the traditional diploma as they documented what someone knew and was able to do as opposed to what and where something was learned.