This Episode will air at 5:30 pm EDT on Saturday October 8th
Microcredentials that Add Value beyond Degrees and Certifications with Katie Sievers, Brittany Storie, and Scott Van Pelt
Today, learners face an unprecedented challenge: adapting to a world that is changing more quickly than ever before. The skills, tools, and knowledge needed to thrive in a global knowledge economy are evolving at breakneck pace, and the artifacts we’ve traditionally relied on to capture these skills (e.g., the four-year degree) aren’t well-suited for the task. Learners and employers need a more agile, accessible, and specific way of recognizing what people know and can do.
In this episode, we’ll explore how non-degree (“alternative”) credentials might support a future-ready education system. We will hear from a lifelong learner who has experienced career benefits since earning alternative credentials, and we’ll discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the credentialing ecosystem more broadly.
Episode Guests
Katie Sievers: As Senior Manager for Professional Services at Credly, Katie Sievers partners with enterprises aiming to make skill and achievement recognition – in the form of digital credentials – a cornerstone of their workforce planning and talent management strategies. She has helped over 140 diverse organizations structure, launch, and scale their credentialing programs, and she cares deeply about ensuring that credentials create opportunities and measurable impact for credential earners and issuing organizations. Outside of Credly, Katie researches and writes on issues related to alternative post-secondary education and credentials.
Brittany Storie: Brittany Storie is Head of People Operations – Credly. In January 2022, Pearson acquired Credly, the world’s leading platform for creating, issuing, and managing digital credentials. This acquisition expands Pearson’s presence in the workforce skills sector, helping to bring together end-to-end portfolio of workforce analytics, learning, assessment, and credentialing services to meet the needs of learners and employers in a rapidly changing global economy.
Brittany studied Politics, Philosophy, & Economics at The King’s College in New York City, and holds the SPHR credential through the HR Certification Institute and the SHRM-SCP credential through SHRM.
Scott Van Pelt: Scott Van Pelt, along with Arthur Levine, is co-author of “The Great Upheaval: Higher Education’s Past, Present, and Uncertain Future.” Drawing on the trends explored in the book, Scott has presented on the factors shaping the future of higher education to audiences as varied as state education systems, faculty groups, and various institutions and organizations within higher education.
Over the past ten years, Scott has held a variety of roles in higher education in areas such as academic advising, admissions, instructional technology, and curriculum design. Currently, Scott is an associate director with the Communication Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In this role, Scott designs and implements the curricula for business communication courses within the MBA core curriculum. He also teaches several courses in the program. Scott is a skilled facilitator, with experience designing and delivering sessions to groups such as Wharton’s Non-Profit Board Fellows Program, PhD students in the Fulbright Scholars Program, and certificate students in the Strategic Leadership in Education program at the Penn Graduate School of Education.