Chapter Audience:

• Administrators
• Program Managers
• Faculty

This chapter is about engaging external partners of micro-credential training. These are employers (in companies, non-profits, or government), as well as industry representatives, professional bodies, or Indigenous and community groups that have an interest in the training. These groups sometimes initiate new micro-credential projects by raising awareness about a training need. Most of the time they are the “recipients” of learners who have completed a micro-credential.

In this chapter, the words “external partner” are used as shorthand to refer to any of the groups listed above. These words do not refer to other post-secondary institutions or learners, whose roles in micro-credentials are different and are therefore covered in other chapters.

Why Engage External Partners?

According to a Strada-Gallup poll of 86,000 American students attending 3,000 institutions, the number 1 reason to pursue post-secondary education is to prepare for a job or career (Strada-Gallup, 2018). While 96 pre cent of academic leaders think that their graduates are prepared for the workforce, only 11 per cent of business leaders agree (Lumina-Gallup, 2014). Many other studies support these findings (Boston Consulting Group-Google, 2020; Burning Glass Institute, 2022; National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2023). There appears to be a misalignment between what post-secondary offers and what learners and external partners (particularly employers) want.

While this data comes from the United States, there is reason to believe this gap exists in Canada as well (Business Council of Canada-Morneau Shepell, 2020; Lapointe & Turner, 2020). For example, a 2015 McKinsey survey found that while 83 per cent of post-secondary education providers believe they produce graduates ready for employment, 44 per cent of those graduates thought themselves ready, and 34 per cent of employers agreed. In fact, this study found that Canadian employers were 15 per cent less likely to believe graduates are workforce-ready than their American counterparts.

This is not to say that the role of higher education is only to prepare learners for the workforce. But what the above data shows is that there is a gap between what post-secondary thinks prepares learners for the workforce and what external partners want. Micro-credentials can help bridge that gap.

To get there, post-secondary institutions will need the input of external partners. These partners can shed light on:

• The suite of competencies that are difficult to find in the workforce;
• Authentic ways in which these competencies are used;
• The types of evidence that would convince them that someone has mastered these competencies.

These partners can do more than inform. They may support the development of a micro-credential by:

• Finding subject matter experts who can help develop and teach micro-credentials;
• Contacting leaders in their industry or community to participate in the development of course materials that give learners an authentic feel for what their industry or community wants and where it is headed (e.g., a CEO is interviewed about these skills in the workplace and the video is included in the course materials);
• Providing access to their community, workplace, and/or equipment to develop curriculum, for tours and field trips, or even for work- or community-integrated learning opportunities.

In short, working with an external partner ensures that the program will be authentic, that it will meet the needs that it seeks to address, and that it can help to connect learners with the people and places where they will apply newly learned competencies after training.

When to Engage External Partners?

It is important to involve external partners early in the development of a micro-credential. Contact North (2021) identified this as one of the 10 key actions needed to ensure micro-credentials meet their targeted need. This can mean contacting a potential partner as soon as a post-secondary institution identifies a prospective industry or community for a micro-credential, even before the exact nature of the micro-credential has been defined. Involving a partner early helps to build a shared vision and ensure buy-in from all partners (see the companion chapter Employers, Indigenous and Community Partners: Stories from the B.C. Post-secondary Sector, specifically the section VCC’s Partnership with DigiBC. Part I: VCC’s Perspective).

Employer Partners

Types of Employer Groups

There are several types of employer organizations that can be engaged as partners. Consider the one that best fits your micro-credential:

Where to Find Employer Partners

There are several ways to engage prospective partners. One is to research the industry, identify suitable organizations, and, within those, suitable contacts, and send an introductory email, phone call, or LinkedIn message.

Alternatively, it may not be necessary to start from scratch. In an article in MacLean’s Agrba (2022) has observed, “Colleges have an edge when it comes to developing microcredential [sic] courses, since they’re typically in conversation with industry and well versed in targeting education for industry’s needs.” While colleges and polytechnics have close ties with employers, other types of institutions also have connections. You can leverage these existing relationships with your institution.

Here is a list of where to search for potential employer contacts at your institution:

Indigenous Community Partners

The Micro-credential Framework for B.C. Public Post-secondary Education System (2021) acknowledges the importance of working alongside Indigenous communities and institutes in the development and delivery of micro-credentials. As per the framework:

British Columbia is the first province to formally recognize the importance of these collaborations in the development and delivery of micro-credentials. As such, guidelines for forming robust partnerships in micro-credential work are still being explored. Findings will be added to the Toolkit soon. To ensure that Indigenous perspectives are authentically incorporated into this guide, the upcoming materials will be developed with by members of the Indigenous community.

In the meantime, readers are directed to three resources to help them in their work:

• First, most of the approaches to collaborating with a partner described in this chapter apply to working with Indigenous groups. This includes reaching out to prospective partners early in the life cycle of a micro-credential, co-building the project together, and ensuring frequent means of communication between partners.
• Second, many institutions have an Indigenous engagement office. People interested in collaborating with a local Indigenous community are advised to reach out to their Indigenous engagement office as a first step. The office maintains frequent communication with local Indigenous communities and may be able to direct you to groups who may be interested in collaborating, and to suitable contacts within those groups. They can also counsel you on protocols and approaches to working with your prospective partner in a respectful and productive way. Finally, as the institution’s main point of contact with the local Indigenous communities, the Indigenous engagement office can manage the institution’s many requests and ensure that they do not overburden the Indigenous community’s resources.
• Finally, consult the Pulling Together Indigenization Guides. These resources were informed by a steering committee consisting of Indigenous education leaders from B.C. universities, colleges, and institutes, the First Nations Education Steering Committee, the Indigenous Adult and Higher Learning Association, and Métis Nation in collaboration with BCcampus and the Ministry of Post-secondary Education and Future Skills. The guides help post-secondary institutions begin or supplement ways to Indigenize the institution and professional practice. There are six guides, each written for a different post-secondary audience:
  • Foundation Guide
  • Leaders and Administrators
  • Curriculum Developers
  • Teachers and Instructors
  • Front Line Staff, Advisors, and Student Services
  • Researchers, Hiłḵ̓ala.

Several of the Stories from the B.C. Post-secondary Sector in this Toolkit showcase examples of engaging and partnering with an Indigenous community to offer micro-credentials. See NIC and Learning Councils Meet the Needs of the Community, An Instructional Designer’s Role in Creating FILMBA (CapU’s Experience), and TRU’s Experience with PLAR.

How to Engage External Partners

Once an institution has determined that they would like to work with an employer, indigenous, or community partner, what are the steps to engaging in this collaboration? There are matters to consider before initiating the project, during the development of the micro-credential, and after the pilot offering of the program. Some of these steps are listed in Table 1 and described in the sections below. They can serve as a guide or checklist to ensure that some of the main questions are considered.

Pre-Project

Once an institution has identified that they would like to collaborate with an external partner in the development of a micro-credential, it is worth reviewing the institution’s policies and procedures that might apply. This may include policies guiding partnerships, engagement of an indigenous community, contracts, and service agreements, intellectual property, and collective agreements. For example, is it appropriate and possible for you to offer consulting fees to an employer group for their assistance on the project? What are the rules guiding the hiring of subject matter experts that are recruited from industry? If the micro-credential is co-created, who owns the intellectual property of the curriculum? Who at your institution should serve as the point of contact with the indigenous community?

This is a good time to clarify for yourself what you want out of the partnership. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What expertise can the employer and community or indigenous partner contribute to the project that you do not have? What is their value to the partnership?
• What is the unique thing that you can contribute to the partnership? Why would the partner invest their time in working with you rather than with another institution? Why will working with you yield success?
• What’s in it for them? How will they benefit from working with you on this project? Consider both ideological reasons (e.g., alignment with mission) as well as concrete goals (e.g., sharing revenue to meet revenue goals). Knowing this will help you convince them to partner with you.
• Review your experience of working with external partners. How can you make this an even better relationship? What opportunities exist for a more productive and cohesive partnership?
• What is your desired brand for the product of this partnership? What should it evoke?
• What are your contingencies and where do you have some flexibility?

Once a prospective partner has been identified, it is worth approaching them right away, even before the project is clearly defined. This will ensure that if a partnership is struck, both organizations will have the opportunity to contribute to the development of the micro-credential and, in so doing, feel ownership over the final product.

The initial conversation with a partner will gauge whether there is the potential for a partnership. It is possible that during this discovery phase, the partner will bring an existing workplace or community training forward that they would like recognized by a post-secondary institution. For information on this form of partnership, please consult the Educational Pathways chapter (see the section TRU’s Experience with the Credit Bank).

Once it appears that both partners are interested in working together, Careless and Downing (2021) suggest asking the following questions to identify the competencies and training needs that may be fruitful topics for a micro-credential:

• What are the competencies that the external partner spends the most time training new hires to acquire?
• Which competencies do the external partners want but have a difficult time determining that a candidate possesses?
• What does a valid assessment for one of these competencies look like to the external partner?

Note that while external partners may be able to describe their needs in general terms (e.g., “I want someone who knows MS Excel”), they may not be able to provide the granularity of a needs assessment required to develop a training program (e.g., “an employee needs to be able to use the Pivot Table function of MS Excel to conduct detailed analysis of sales”). This is where the knowledge and expertise of external partners and institutions complement one another. Educators can undertake a needs analysis to identify a competency with sufficient detail to develop a micro-credential. In turn, this can help external partners identify discrete needs to support competency-based micro-credentials (Franklin & Lytle, 2015).

During the Project

Once the project is greenlit, it’s time to formalize the partnership. This will require a conversation with the partner to understand what each is willing to contribute to the project. Once an agreement has been reached, it can be documented to ensure that both parties have a common understanding of the collaboration and to hold both parties accountable. You may wish to consult your institution’s contract or legal department for assistance in selecting and drafting the right kind of agreement. The Suggested Resources section also provides information on drafting a memorandum of understanding (MOU).

A formal agreement may take one or several forms. Here are two ways to formalize the partnership:

• Memorandum of understanding (MOU). This document formally recognizes the desire of the two organizations to work together toward a common goal. An MOU typically articulates the framework for the partnership at a high level, and its purpose is to endorse collaboration between members of each organization (i.e., people working in these organizations know that the collaboration has been authorized by their leadership). They typically do not provide details (i.e., logistics) of how the partnership is to be implemented. It can be seen as a way to open the door to the partnership. The contents of an MOU are not legally binding. An example is provided in the Suggested Resources section.
• General service agreement (GSA). This document is a contract between two parties that outlines what each party is committed to providing. If the external partner will be compensated for their consulting or marketing services, this is an appropriate way to define what they will contribute. A GSA may detail the roles or deliverables, the scale and scope of that work (e.g., how many hours per week? How many subject matter experts will the external partner contact? How many social media posts will they make?), timelines, and compensation for these services. A GSA usually also includes conditions for terminating the contract and/or whether it automatically renews or must be renegotiated each time the micro-credential is offered.

Having a GSA in place can give the institution peace of mind when interacting with the partner. Instead of coming to the partner with a request for assistance, the institution is coming to the partner asking for services as agreed upon in the contract.

The partner compensation, if included, can take several forms. It may include:

• Fee-for-service;
• A referral fee for each student registration that comes from the partner’s website;
• A shared revenue agreement;
• Licensing fees to utilize existing curriculum, content, or equipment owned by the partner;
• Reduced tuition for the organization’s members.

External partners may play roles in defining, developing, promoting, and offering the micro-credential. Each collaboration will engage the partner in a different way that aligns with the goals of the institution and of the external partner. Here are some areas where the partner may provide their expertise:

• Needs assessment. Identify the training gaps of employees and challenges of hiring for the required skill.
• Subject matter experts. Connect the institution with subject matter experts who have expertise in the micro-credential domain and who can collaborate on the design and development of the curriculum.
• Advisers. Provide expertise to guide the design and development of the curriculum, including target learner profile, best format and timing for the program, curriculum, tuition, and best method of reaching prospective learners. Assessment of competencies is particularly important, notably the development of methods that reflect how the competency is used in the workplace or community and what would constitute acceptable evidence of proficiency for the partner (Contact North, 2021).
• Access to industry or community. Conduct surveys of members; contact leaders for involvement in the curriculum; provide access to industry- or community-specific equipment and environment (to develop curricular materials or to coordinate workplace visits); find work experiences for learners, etc.
• Promotion. Use their network to help promote the training and recruit learner.

Not all external partners will want to be engaged at the same level. Different layers of collaboration with external partners are possible. Forms of engagement include:

• Awareness. The partner agrees to share the launch of a micro-credential with their network.
• Co-producer. The partner officially acknowledges that they were involved in the development of the training when they share news of it with their network.
• Endorser. The partner recommends that people who are in the industry (or want to enter the industry) or in their community take the micro-credential (Everhart et al., 2016).
• Accreditor. The external partner has evaluated the micro-credential and accepted it for a formal purpose in their industry. For example, it may be a requirement for application to a role, or it may count towards continuing education requirements in the profession.

So far, this chapter has focused on ways to collaborate on the development of a micro-credential with external organizations as partners. Consider that you may also consult with external groups in other ways. For example, you may send out surveys to organizations to request their input on their training needs, or you may form and consult a focus group composed of representatives from external organizations to request feedback on (rather than requesting that they help co-design) the program.

Post-Project

Once the micro-credential has been developed, promoted, and offered, it is time to reflect on and debrief the project and partnership, extract the lessons learned, share those lessons, and plan for the future. Partners should be included in any project evaluation so that they can review the data about the project’s performance and participate in the decisions about what to do next. Some of those decisions may include to repeat the offering, modify and improve the offering, expand or develop new ones, or retire the micro-credential.

It may be helpful to conduct a separate review session to assess the partnership. This will provide both parties an opportunity to review the stages of the partnership and what took place, and to celebrate what was achieved. It will also provide a forum to provide open feedback about some of the challenges to strengthen future partnerships with this and other organizations.

Suggested Resources

Works Cited