More than 600 institutions have banded together to develop a common vision as part of an effort to scale competency-based education in higher education.
A new initiative from the Competency/XChange reveals that colleges and universities have begun to embrace competency-based education (CBE) with more than 1,000 CBE programs being offered across 600 institutions. New research projects that CBE programs will continue to grow over the next five years. The value of CBE is it allows students to get credit for competencies—knowledge, skills, and behaviors.
If the initiative is successful, it will be able to make credentials more flexible and relevant. However, there are institutional structures and practices as well as how education is funded that stand in the way of using competencies as the currency for the future of work, so there is work to do.
Urgency and Equity
Many Americans have earned bachelor’s degrees but are underemployed because they lack critical knowledge and skills for higher-paying jobs. More than 11 million jobs are unfilled because potential workers don’t have the skills. Women and people of color are especially likely to be locked out of these jobs. Learners need a better path forward, and CBE offers a valuable alternative–not just for the future, but for now.
The Competency/Xchange benefits from a group of national higher education leaders that understand we need a shift to competency-based solutions to meet the talent needs of our nation while providing equitable access to economic opportunities. Their vision is that by ensuring all learners have access to credentials that represent their proficiency and skills, they will be able to thrive in their lives and their career.
Moving Forward
A task force was formed with experts and leaders from seven areas of expertise to review the vision and principles of an action agenda that can systematically ensure that CBE options are more available to learners. Those seven areas include: Policy, Quality Assurance, Employers, Providers, EdTech, Research, and Community. To help scale CBE, workgroups recommendations include specific strategies:
- Policy: support innovative policies across K–12, higher education, workforce training and licensure, as well Veterans Affairs.
- Quality Assurance: shift to a rigorous set of standards for establishing, measuring, and maintaining outcomes.
- Employers: employers can demand quality and action from higher education and contribute meaningfully to solutions themselves.
- Providers: serve learners by measuring learning through mastery not coursework. The workgroup envisions one-third of educational institutions will offer outcomes-based competency driven learning models.
- EdTech: platforms need to accommodate collaboration, communication, and assessment. Technologies need to support interoperability and open standards.
- Research: helps the field understand what constitutes effective practice and demonstrate how competencies can be applied and scaled in different learning environments with diverse groups of learners.
- Community: partnering with education providers, workforce development agencies, and employees, community organizations can ensure equitable economic development that benefits local learners.
The Competency/Xchange conversation and planning will continue by working with organizations who support competency-based learning to bring K–12 education and post-secondary education colleagues to work together on an action agenda for each of these seven areas.