Advisers recommend EU standards for microcredentials

Broad consultation on ‘common and transparent’ course certifications expected for 2021

The EU should adopt standards on microcredentials—certifications for short courses or skills—to support the uptake and wider recognition of increasingly popular short-term learning, a group of advisers to the European Commission has said.

Hanne Shapiro, Tine Andersen and Kristine Nedergaard Larsen said in a report published by the Commission on 14 December that the use of short-term courses was developing rapidly in the EU, but that the impact was limited by a “lack of standards for quality and transparency in such a diverse landscape”.