But providers will need a marketplace

Australia now has a micro-credentials framework, not that the government enthusiastically announced it yesterday -a paper setting it out appeared without promotion on the Department of Education, Skills and Employment website.

Which seems strange. The government is keen on m-cs, announcing in December $32m for “a systemic approach to deliver micro-credentials in the university sector” (CMM December 8).

A framework that sets out what m-cs are and what they can do is one of two things that are essential – and yesterday’s paper creates the basis for a national system.

It sets out attributes of an m-c and how they should operate, what they must cover and how they can be assessed. These are all immensely complex tasks, and the paper does more than create a framework for m-cs now, it lays a foundation for the culture of life-long learning that has been talked about but not created for 30 years.

Without this paper there would be nothing to sell in the training marketplace.

Problem is, there isn’t one.  Ministers Tehan and Cash announced in June 2020 one was coming. “The marketplace will provide a nationally consistent platform to compare course outcomes, duration, mode of delivery and credit point value, “ they said.

A year later the NSW Universities Admissions Centre received $2.12m from the Commonwealth to build it, which CMM thought was a good choice(CMM July 15 2021).

So, how’s it going CMM asked UAC yesterday. To which Kim Paino, General Manager, Marketing and Engagement replied, “’We welcome the release of the e framework as a really important foundational piece to the development and uptake of the marketplace and more broadly to community understanding of the scope and utility of microcredentials’