Business management micro-credentials and incremental funding: a social impact case study Open Access

Like many other developed nations, Australia has critical skill shortages that require urgent attention. Some of these shortages can only be addressed through traditional, long-term and industry-accredited vocational and higher education degrees. Other shortages can be tackled by non-traditional, short-term educational pathways such as micro-credential courses. Both approaches are likely to need government funding to upskill key segments of the labour market to ensure Australia remains competitive with an adequate supply of competent tradespeople, business managers and professionals. The short-term government funding and election cycles in Australia add complexity to the implementation of relevant pathways and micro-credential courses, thereby accentuating the importance of establishing an alternative model that provides an enabling tool for policymakers at all levels of government. Despite these complexities, our proposed model has the capacity to present opportunities for incremental, sustainable and ultimately transformative positive social impact.

Social impact theory is adopted as the conceptual lens to investigate the phenomena of navigating the impact of short-term government and election cycles on the education and upskilling of the national workforce. In particular, the impact will be assessed across different levels, namely, individual employees or business owners, organisations of all types, sectors and sizes and the wider society or communities that benefit from the pursuit of education and upskilling. It is recognised that economic impact is applicable at all three levels; however, social impact goes beyond the financial contributions of such activity.

This study makes four contributions. First, an adaptive project design is conceptualised that has successfully widened its scope to enable affordable education to be accessed by a wider variety of labour market members. Second, the incremental design features of the project provide insight into how short-term government funding and election cycles can be navigated to align with changing stakeholder collaboration and partnerships. Third, the unique project design contributes to social impact theory by building funding resilience and continuity for individual workers. Finally, the ongoing project design sets an agenda to further investigate the impact applicable to organisations and communities.

This paper begins with a description of a state-based micro-credential project that started as an economic recovery initiative to assist business owners and managers to respond to the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The project matured from one course in one local government area (an officially defined region within a state or territory governed by a local authority) to three courses, available in three languages and accessible across the state of Queensland. The paper introduces social impact theory as a framework to assess the attributes of the project at the individual level, organisation level and societal level. The experience of developing micro-credential courses to assist the upskilling of labour markets is provided along with the nuances of government funding mechanisms applicable in the Australian context. The data collection and analysis process are explained along with findings from the first stage of the study. A discussion and implications for future research are outlined as a blueprint for further social impact investigations addressing the central research question:

In 2020, a partnership was formed between the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) and the City of Moreton Bay, a local government authority located north of Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia. The partnership was formed in response to regional discussions concerning potential economic development initiatives for small businesses impacted by reduced trade and disrupted supply chains resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The partners agreed to provide a small amount of funding to pilot a business planning course for local businesses impacted by sudden declining incomes. The course was designed in collaboration with business, industry and government representatives to enable businesses to plan for change and to increase their likelihood to access state government grants that required a well-developed business plan.

In 2021 the course was delivered in four other local government areas in addition to the City of Moreton Bay. During the same year, the Queensland Government’s Small Business Roadshow collected data from over 1,000 participants from the small business community across the state (QG, 2021). The Roadshow data revealed that Queensland’s small businesses were demanding access to practical and affordable quality education especially associated with the topic of business planning. In the period 2022–2024, the Queensland Government funded the continued delivery of the business planning course in all departmental regions of the state including Palm Island.

Additionally, the government funded the design and delivery of a continuity planning course and a workforce planning course, which are topics closely related to business planning. Further, additional funds were provided to translate the courses into the highest and second highest most common non-English speaking languages of Queensland business owners, Chinese and Vietnamese. The project was funded via ten short-term funding agreements over five years. Each agreement had a schedule of deliverables which included the measurement and reporting of the value and impact of the education delivered as micro-credential courses.

Social impact is the observation and measurement of positive (or negative) outcomes arising from activities such as projects, programs and initiatives. The outcomes may be intended or unintended and can affect individuals, organisations, regions and societies (Esteves et al., 2012; Vanclay, 2024). Positive change often begins at the individual level when intentional activities are provided for organisational members (Alkire et al., 2025) such as owners, managers, employees or volunteers. Favourable outcomes can also be attained at the organisation level (Pritchard et al., 2012) as individuals and groups apply their learning and begin to innovate within their context. This can be extended to the regional level (Hammedi et al., 2024), for example a local government area. Parkinson and Naidu (2024) claimed that activities aiming for positive social impact need to move along a conduit beginning at the individual level through to the greater community level. For maximum benefit, activity should be long-term focussed rather than driven by short-term cycles such as government funding and elections. This study adopts the definition of positive social impact provided by Parkinson and Naidu (2024, p. 115) where:

The study responds and contributes to Parkinson and Naidu’s (2024) call to evaluate the different types of social impact performance metrics, methods and methodologies and to assess the difference across various contexts. A search of management education publications that specifically evaluates positive social impact outcomes of co-designed micro-credential courses at multiple levels yielded scant results, evidencing a gap in the literature. The levels of social impact are described next.

Following the logic of evaluating positive social impact at multiple levels, relevant frameworks for assessing benefits to the individual, the organisation and the wider community of stakeholders will be addressed. At the individual level, the theory of dynamic managerial capabilities is introduced. At the organisation level, the value creation framework is applied. At the societal level, stakeholder engagement theory is provided.

Dynamic managerial capabilities help to explain the decision-making and action-taking attributes of managers in all types of organisations. Performance is improved at an individual level if organisational managers increase their capabilities through formal education, informal learning and on-the-job experience (Helfat and Peteraf, 2015). Managers who can successfully adapt to changing conditions, as well as initiate change through ideation and innovation, are more likely to develop their dynamic managerial capabilities (Helfat and Martin, 2015). At the individual level, managers who possess these capabilities are better equipped to act faster in uncertain environments and to leverage positive change where environments are more stable (Salvato and Vassolo, 2018). This suggests a sustainable competitive advantage for organisations that retain managers with these capabilities.

Dynamic managerial capability theory involves three key characteristics for an individual manager to improve their performance and meet the needs of changing environments. These characteristics are sensing, seizing, reconfiguring and transforming (Helfat and Martin, 2015; Teece, 2014). The capabilities of sensing and seizing environmental opportunities and responding to threats are particularly beneficial for organisational leaders responsible for strategic planning (Wolf and Floyd, 2017). Added to this, the ability to reconfigure and transform required resources within the organisation, including the development of new products and services (Teece et al., 2016) enables sustainable performance in the short to medium terms (Teece, 2007). Social impact at the individual level can be enhanced when managers have developed advanced dynamic managerial capabilities.

The social impact of organisations can be evaluated by applying models designed for social learning. Once such model is the value creation framework (Wenger et al., 2011). Here, value is defined as importance, worth or usefulness, rather than other recognised definitions of value such as moral standards, beliefs and expected behaviours (Wenger-Trayner et al., 2019). The framework follows seven cycles of value creation activity. That is, a social learning intervention produces the initial and “immediate” value commonly operationalised when learners first get together and are motivated to learn. As learning begins there is “potential” value when connections and insights occur. Following this, “applied” value is generated as learners are given scope to relate and utilise their new knowledge. This type of social learning yields “realised” value as learners gain benefits from their various applications. When these benefits go beyond knowledge creation, and organisational benefits are evident, there is “transformational” value. When organisations collaborate with wider stakeholders the value becomes “strategic” and when this equates to societal support with communities the learning produces “enabling” value (Wenger et al., 2011). This framework has been applied to similar contexts such as micro-credentialed business management education delivered by London-based universities (McCauley-Smith et al., 2022) and proposed as an assessment tool within open universities delivering micro-credentials (Chandler and Perryman, 2023). This confirms the appropriateness of the framework to evaluate organisational social impact through the lens of value creation.

The triple helix model of stakeholder engagement is a relevant framework to evaluate social impact at the societal or community level. The model considers the interactions between governments, industry groups and universities for mutual gains to foster innovation and knowledge creation (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff, 2000). Educational institutions are increasingly engaging with external stakeholders driven by the desire to stay relevant to their regions, changes in government policy and performance-based funding mechanisms (Oliveira et al., 2024). As a result, communities are now more often the beneficiaries as government-funded projects led by universities in collaboration with industry groups provide a positive social impact (Kuckertz, 2021). Notwithstanding, this type of engagement requires substantial investment in time and effort to establish meaningful relationships which are often hindered by competing demands and changes in policy (De Lima Figueiredo et al., 2023). However, when stakeholders have a shared vision and are committed to meaningful relationships with mutual benefits, their regions experience positive outcomes which are, arguably, also beneficial for society at large.

The number of higher education micro-credential courses being developed to meet specific industry demands has risen dramatically since 2020. Many courses were developed in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic (Brown et al., 2021) enabling universities to reach new and different types of students including those willing to study online (McGreal and Olcott, 2022). Micro-credential courses have grown in popularity in Australia and elsewhere with various classifications of what distinguishes a micro-credential course. Other nations include New Zealand, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Singapore, South Korea and the USA (Ashizawa, Ziguras and Yonezawa, 2024; Varadarajan et al., 2023). The development of micro-credential courses is not usually the sole responsibility of universities, but often includes multiple stakeholders including governments, business leaders and industry representatives (Varadarajan et al., 2023). These stakeholders can have multiple roles, including the provision of industry demand data, course content knowledge, financial funding and promotional support through networks, databases and communication.

The benefits of designing and delivering micro-credential courses in collaboration with key stakeholders are well documented. Workplaces that are seeking affordable education for their employees can access short courses that provide the immediate skills required to meet changing industry demands (Desmarchelier and Cary, 2022). Employees who desire career advancement and upskilling to remain competitive in their industry can access education that is recognised with certificates or digital badges (Clements et al., 2020) which in-turn often be applied towards further study (Varadarajan et al., 2023). As such, those who pursue such pathways can benefit from reduced costs associated with higher education degrees (Wheelahan and Moodie, 2022). Industry stakeholders are often the primary beneficiaries as labour markets are upskilled, leading to benefit across all levels: individual, organisational and society. Despite these benefits, various challenges exist. A unified definition of micro-credentials has yet to be determined including the minimum and maximum hours for courses. National accreditation frameworks are yet to be established and many educational institutions are reluctant to adopt micro-credential courses as legitimate education offerings (Varadarajan et al., 2023). This study attempts to address the legitimacy issue.

The Australian Government through its Department of Education, Skills and Employment released the National Micro-credentials Framework in November, 2021 (DESE, 2021). The Framework is an attempt to clarify the incongruent and inconsistent definitions of micro-credential activity across the various national entities of higher education, vocational education and industry training bodies. The Australian Government expressed concern about the rise in micro-credential courses being developed within a policy void or in close alignment with institution-based policy (Wheelahan and Moodie, 2021). The National Framework has four aims, that is, to set in place a national definition for micro-credentials, to determine a unifying set of principles for micro-credentials, to establish critical information requirements and to outline a minimum standard for micro-credentials (DESE, 2021).

The definition of micro-credential, according to the National Framework, is a certification of assessed learning or competency, which could potentially be a digital badge (Jones-Schenk, 2018) with a minimum volume of learning of between one hour and less than an accredited qualification (DESE, 2021) such as a diploma or bachelor’s degree. The unifying principles, or guidelines that attempt to connect, explain or integrate diverse elements into a coherent whole (Ableser, 2012) of the National Framework are that micro-credentials should be outcome-based, responsive to industry needs, tailored to support lifelong learning, transparent and accessible.

The micro-credential courses project presented in this study was first commissioned, championed, seed funded and supported by the City of Moreton Bay, a local government in Queensland. This occurred without the National Framework, without any government guidance and without any university micro-credential policy. Throughout the duration of the project, policies and procedures were established at the project level and informed by the emerging literature (e.g. Selvaratnam and Sankey, 2019). The initial impetus for the courses was related to difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and then fuelled by industry demand as identified by the state government.

Industry bodies were calling for affordable access to quality business management education, especially planning, with the highest priority being practical skills development for owners and managers. Some universities, including UniSC, responded to this call, and further developed teaching methods and additional courses to enable a larger scope of learning options for business communities within and beyond the university’s regional geographical boundary. The Queensland Government agreed to partner with UniSC with funding agreements for additional courses in additional regions, thereby providing the learning simultaneously onsite and online for greater reach. Another initiative was the addition of free vocational education through the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) colleges in trades where there is a known critical skill shortage. As such, the UniSC micro-credential courses were developed through industry consultation and further informed by the Small Business Roadshow initiatives and research advocated by the Queensland Small Business Commissioner.

Australia features three distinct levels of government. At the national (also referred to as Federal or Commonwealth) level, parliament has the responsibility to discuss and establish laws and governing principles for all of Australia. The areas of responsibility are determined by the Constitution and covers issues like immigration, taxation, defence and foreign affairs. The next level of government is at the state level, where Australia has six states with parliaments and two territory governments with legislative assemblies, often referred to as a parliament. The establishment of laws and governing principles at this level are limited and enforced within the state or territorial jurisdiction. Specific state-level authority is not mentioned in Australia’s Constitution except in reference to Chapter V which aims to protect state authority over issues like primary and secondary schools, public hospitals, utilities and transport. Put another way, state and territory legislation remains in force unless a federal statute over-rules that legislation. Although universities are primarily funded by the Commonwealth Government, each university operates under its own act which is governed by their corresponding state or territory government. At the local level, councils are responsible for non-state issues including local roads, local parks, rubbish collection, library services and local street signage. Australia has 566 local councils and Queensland has 77 local government areas (ABS, 2021).

The election cycles for local, state and national governments differ in their duration and their timing. Election cycles range from three to four years which means Australian voters could face up to three elections in one year. This inconsistency presents considerable challenge to funding initiatives given the large range of considerations political leaders face when choosing recipients of public funds. Numerous factors influence policy decisions including economic conditions (Seidl, 2023), issue partisanship (Schulze, 2021), intensity of media coverage among politicians (Mullin and Hansen, 2023), political ideology (Tanewski et al., 2025), socioeconomic and demographic factors among voters (Busemeyer, 2023), compliance costs (Culhane et al., 2021) and the degree of influence of special interest groups (Dur and Bievre, 2007; Koskimaa et al., 2021). The observation that responsibility for education and skills development falls across different government levels further complicates these considerations and, ultimately, funding decisions. Additionally, many authors suggest that because of these considerations, policymakers turn to short-term funding options, known as “short-termism”, often at the expense of long-term options, despite potential benefits (Boston, 2021; Ogami, 2024). This sharing of responsibility and the multitude of considerations that policy makers face influences the ability of government to provide long-term consistency in funding, thereby making it increasingly difficult to plan projects around grant funding opportunities that are better suited to a long-term approach, such as knowledge and skill development. To address this apparent failure, a range of options are available, which together, provide one approach to securing funding on an ongoing basis, despite this volatility in policy making.

This project asserts the merit of an incremental approach which leverages all related funding opportunities at the various levels of government. At the local level the project aimed at assisting small business owners to develop resilience through knowledge of business planning. The successful delivery of the first round of courses provided the standing which underpinned the additional grant agreements for new courses. The approach adopted for this project relies on three key strategies, namely, effective communication of the long-term benefits of the project including its alignment with economic development priorities, developing non-partisan relationships with key policy and decision makers, and executing the project efficiently and effectively.

From the literature review, the overall research question is:

The following conceptual framework is presented in Figure 1. The framework guides the study within the contextual environment.

Case study methodology is adopted in this study as the aim is to demonstrate how access to quality, practical and affordable business management education can achieve positive social impact through incremental funding that is aligned to industry demands and policy priorities. Interviews, observations and document reviews are the chosen methods of data collection and analysis. Data was triangulated from interview transcripts, field notes from observations and text from developed business plans to derive patterns and themes. Thematic analysis of data followed the process of developing codes, categories and themes (Braun and Clarke, 2006) to describe social impact at three different levels. A sample of 31 participants were recruited by invitation and taken from 78 managers and owners enrolled in a co-designed micro-credential business management course. Participating attendees consented to observations, interviews and submission of their written business plans. The sampling method adopted criterion-based parameters whereby participants needed to attend the workshops and complete their business plans and respond to questions in a semi-structured interview. Participation was voluntary and participants could withdraw without reason at any time.

A research protocol guided the data collection process following Yin (2018). The protocol empowered the researchers to approach the data collection and analysis from a neutral position whereby the multiple sources were analysed for analytical generalisation. Interview questions were derived by the researchers and included What has been the impact of the course on you? What has been the impact of the course on your business? Do you think your capabilities have changed since your involvement in the courses and if so, how? What do you think about your capabilities as a small business owner-manager? What do you feel has been the most significant change for you? What (if any) has been the impact on the performance of your business?

Observations took place during the delivery of the co-designed micro-credential course. Field notes were developed based on comments provided by participants during course discussions. Two of the authors were involved in assessing the submitted business plans and evidence of learning was captured from the written material provided in the documents. Validity and reliability were assured by enabling participants to review their comments and receive feedback from their submitted plans. Results from the single case study were compared against established theory at each level of impact. The research protocol now serves as a guideline template that can be applied to other similar studies with different contexts for validity purposes.

The analysis of multiple sources of evidence adopted in this study began with a familiarisation of the data by two of the authors. The researcher’s inherent understanding of the subject and context was essential. For many of the small business owner-manager participants, their experience of applying the new knowledge was a remarkable discovery. These noticeable insights warranted attention and development from codes to themes exploring causal mechanisms during the phases of data analysis. Familiarisation with the data included the editing and correction of the interview transcripts. Next, was the open coding of data. This inductive process captured key words associated and guided by existing theory. Following this, was the development of categories and the beginnings of theme creation. Here the condensing of codes into categories was a process of reading over the data again in each code, making annotations as ideas for categories and themes from beginning to end.

Case study research is well suited when the investigator(s) seek to explain behavioural events within a real-life context (Yin, 2018), especially if this involves phenomena that are complex in nature (Baxter and Jack, 2008). Case study research provides insights for developing new theory (Eisenhardt 1989) from contemporary issues (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007) when “how and why” questions are proposed (Yin, 2018). The case study methodology is applied here to conceptualise social impact at the individual, organisational and societal levels. Findings from the micro-credential participants are provided next to inform positive social impact at each level.

Responses to the overall research question are provided here. Findings from the observations, interviews and document reviews are provided against each level of social impact. Individual-level findings are explained through the theoretical framework of dynamic managerial capabilities. Organisational-level findings are presented through the theoretical lens of the value creation framework, and societal-level findings are provided through the theoretical lens of stakeholder engagement theory.

Sensing and seizing capabilities were recognised from observations, document reviews and interviews with participants of the business management micro-credential courses. Participants who developed and documented business plans overwhelmingly reported their personal growth in confidence to embrace the opportunities they identified in completing strategy tools such as the environmental analysis, competitor analysis and industry analysis. Observations made by the teaching team during the course noted that participants increased their capacity to sense changing customer preferences, changes in the rate of technological advancement relevant to their industry and changes in national economic outlook. Each of these identified senses were evident in their contributions to the workshop discussions. Sensing and seizing were identified from the interviews, with one participant stating:

Transforming resources as a dynamic managerial capability was also acknowledged from the case study. Observational notes from the workshop discussions identified that many participants changed their focus from a blanket advertising approach aimed at attracting a broad range of customers to increasing their sales through targeted promotional activities. One participant noted that this adaptation increased overall sales while costs remained static, thereby increasing profitability and cash flow. The participant noted this decision was a direct result of learning from the business management micro-credential course. Many of the developed business plans stated an intention to change the allocation of resources away from broad-based advertising to dedicated market research which would then enable the identification and targeting of a specific market segment using evidence-based strategies and campaigns. From the interviews, transformation as a dynamic managerial capability was recognised, especially changes in their approach to increasing sales and managing finances, with one participant affirming:

Overall, it was evident through these findings that at an individual level participants developed their dynamic managerial capabilities through a greater awareness and appreciation of different aspects of business management and development.

Realised and transformational value for organisations was noted from observations in the workshops, review of documents such as business plans, presentation slide decks and participant interviews. Many participants expressed their gratitude during the workshops as they learnt business management concepts that they were able to apply directly to their organisation during the course. Participants commonly noted the value their organisation received from the subsequent decision and action as learning occurred. One participant who was interviewed said:

At the organisational level, it became clear that through the individual learning, participants’ understanding about their business environment improved and as a result, allowed them to better strategize, plan, prepare, implement and remain resilient through difficult times. In many cases this meant the business survived and, in some cases, thrived.

The collaboration between the Queensland Government as a funding provider, industry groups including Chambers of Commerce as promotion and support partners and the university as educators, was highly visible to participants who noted the social impact given to their communities. This “triple helix” stakeholder model was well received by participants and noted in the workshops in observational notes. This was also identified in documents such as business plans and regularly in participant interviews. Much discussion was based on the high levels of support provided by the industry group. On one occasion during the course, a local Chamber of Commerce organised a group of mentors for each participant to assist their learning. The volunteer mentors joined the participants in the workshops while also making themselves available between workshops, to assist with the development of their business plans. Many of the submitted presentation slide decks acknowledged the three-way collaboration and expressed their gratitude. One participant stated:

It is evident from this study that the “triple helix” stakeholder model is an effective approach to leverage funded learning opportunities in targeted social groups. This approach to skills development, particularly for those outside traditional vocational and tertiary educational paths, provides society at large with tremendous opportunity.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how access to quality, practical and affordable business management education can achieve positive social impact through incremental funding that is aligned to industry demands and policy priorities. The answer to our central research question is presented in three parts. Firstly, positive social impact is achieved at the individual level through enhancing the dynamic capabilities of sensing and seizing. Secondly, positive social impact was achieved at the organisational level as key managerial theoretical concepts were shared throughout the organisation; the individual completing the micro-credential served as a type of catalyst for improving awareness throughout the organisation. Finally, positive social impact was achieved at the societal level due to the evidence of awareness and appreciation of the “triple helix” stakeholder model. All these factors contributed toward a significant and positive social impact because of the business management education provided to the community.

The theoretical contribution of this study primarily enhances dynamic managerial capability theory. In relation to social impact at the individual level, it is evident that participants demonstrated personal development primarily through a subjective increase of awareness and confidence in embracing opportunities. This learning provided a basis for advancing individuals’ dynamic managerial capabilities, in particular, sensing and seizing of opportunities that were, until then, unidentified by the individual. Consequently, this individual learning and subjective confidence improvement had a positive impact on their capabilities, enabling a more competent approach to their business management practices and the potential for increased longevity of their business. As such, at the organisational level, value creation was evident through the participants application and confidence in sharing of managerial theory, being applied to their business from their learning experience. This demonstrates that social impact was realised wider than just the participant level, as the wider collective of personnel within the organisation gained benefits from the transfer of knowledge by their participating owner or manager. At the societal level, social impact was transferred from the organisations to the stakeholders, where each of the members (industry groups, government agencies and the university) gained an appreciation of the social capital comprehended by participants and their organisations. Our study advances dynamic managerial capability theory from the educator’s perspective. It is the educator’s duty to instil a greater awareness and appreciation of different aspects of business management, development and capability. For these capabilities to become dynamically positive to the individual, they must first gain awareness and appreciation for the affordances they provide.

The practical implications of this study expound on the importance of a co-design approach in creating management education micro-credentials. The positive benefits achieved from co-designing a business management micro-credential course for small businesses through a collaboration of industry groups, government agencies and a university presents an argument to embrace short-term funding cycles and leverage the aspects of incremental development. This is where projects, programs and initiatives at all levels (i.e. individual, organisational and societal) embrace a gradual approach starting with small amounts of funding and increasing each round of funding as iterations are reviewed and modified (Berman and Fox, 2023). This approach contrasts with larger “one-off” funding models aimed at transformative change (Patterson and Paterson, 2024). Importantly, this approach aligns with established research demonstrating that effective micro-credentials require validated assessment design, industry-aligned content and transparent accreditation (Desmarchelier and Cary, 2022; Varadarajan et al., 2023), while also enabling stackability through clear pathways to higher qualifications (Ahsan et al., 2023; Varadarajan et al., 2023). By incorporating these principles, our study provides a guideline for an incremental development model. This approach not only enhances responsiveness to labour market needs and addresses immediate skill gaps but also creates a lasting social impact across communities, organisations and individuals. This incremental approach has the potential to be more sustainable in the long-term as its iterative nature allows for continuous improvement and adaptation to changing needs.

This study demonstrates the incremental approach to project development leveraging short-term funding cycles to achieve positive social impact at the individual level, organisation level and societal level. Social impact was achieved over five years from ten short-term funding agreements from local and state governments in Queensland, Australia. The conceptual framework derived from this study is limited to the analysis of data at the individual level of social impact and serves as a guideline for future research projects aiming to measure positive social impact at other levels and by adopting other methods such as surveys within a quantitative methodology. Future studies are encouraged to investigate contexts beyond the limitations of university delivered business management micro-credential courses by considering other educational settings. The social impact of government funded vocational education such as the free TAFE initiative in Australia would be particularly pertinent given this policy is aimed at disciplinary areas facing skill shortages. This radical subsidised model of funding could be assessed against the incremental model presented here.

Funding for the design, delivery and evaluation of micro-credential short courses including higher degree research stipends is provided by the Queensland Government with seed funding offered by the City of Moreton Bay.

The research project has been approved by the authors’ institutional Human Ethics Research Committee (approval number: S211529).