Chapter 9: Industry–Academia Manifesto: The Evolving Essentials

Perhaps the pandemic permanently shifted peoples’ perceptions of job skills that offer a sense of self-sufficiency. Blended learning that worked well with working from home allowed learners to tap into credentials with swiftly deployable skills and further exposed an untouched segment of potential learners who previously were not in the clear vicinity of higher education (HE) credentialing radar. If there were barriers and hesitations for micro-credentialing in the pre-pandemic world, the pandemic cleared many obstacles for learners to access time-wise credentialing instead of traditional credentialing that is largely rooted in credit completion. In a way, the pandemic was a game-changer in blurring the boundaries between soft and hard skills and core and supplementary competencies. At its least significance level, micro-credentialing provided a prompt response to the pandemic skill shift that required HE and industry to prioritise socio-economic continuity during uncertain times.