Micro-credentials for companies: issue your own, build them well

The Council Recommendation of 16 June 2022 on a European approach to micro-credentials (OJ C 243, 27.6.2022, p. 10) defines in point 5(b) who can provide micro-credentials: education and training institutions and organisations, social partners, employers and industry, civil society organisations, public employment services, regional and national authorities, and other actors designing, delivering and issuing micro-credentials — for formal, non-formal and informal learning, without prejudice to regional and national legislation.

The recitals (point 4) recommend that higher education institutions, VET institutions, adult learning providers and other providers of micro-credentials, including employers, cooperate. Under point 8(a), Member States are to support the design and issuance of micro-credentials by further providers; the text gives companies, social partners, professional associations and private providers as examples.

For a company this means: it can design and issue micro-credentials itself — for its own staff, for customers or for partners. The yardstick is not an approval but quality: assessed learning outcomes, complete information and traceable quality assurance.

Annex I of the Recommendation sets out European standard elements. The following eleven are mandatory. The right-hand column shows how a company typically fills them.

Annex II says higher education institutions should state the workload in ECTS credits. Providers that do not use ECTS may use other systems or types of information that effectively describe learning outcomes and workload. A company therefore usually states the workload in hours — honestly estimated, including practice and assessment.

ECTS credits are tied to universities. A company that wants its micro-credential to carry ECTS credits needs a university that reviews learning outcomes, workload and assessment under its own procedures and awards the credits. Whether another university later recognises those credits is still decided by the receiving university.

The level only needs to be stated "if applicable". A company can propose a justified placement on the European Qualifications Framework; that is not an official classification. Where the placement is uncertain, "not applicable" is the more honest entry.

Under Annex II, micro-credentials are subject to internal and external quality assurance. External quality assurance is based primarily on assessing the provider and the effectiveness of its internal procedures, not each individual course. According to Annex II, internal quality assurance should cover the quality of the micro-credential itself, the quality of the course, learners' feedback, and feedback from peers and other stakeholders.

In a company this can be lean but documented:

A micro-credential records learning outcomes assessed against transparent, clearly defined criteria. The Recommendation prescribes no form of assessment. Multiple-choice questions, however, mainly test whether someone recognises the right answer. Whether someone can apply knowledge in a real situation only shows in a task where they have to act.

Short practical tasks work well: judge a case study, make and justify a decision, find an error in a piece of work, transfer what was learned to a new case. Each task is assessed against a scoring rubric with a few openly named criteria that is fixed before the answer. Two independent fulfilled tasks, at least one of them on application, are more robust than a single one.

When assessing employees, note also: assessment results are personal data, and in Germany co-determination rights of the works council may be affected, for example regarding general assessment principles. This should be settled before starting.

Micro-credentials are a strong tool, but not a legal title. Anyone offering them should state the limits openly:

We develop micro-credentials for your company — with and on our system. Together we define learning outcomes, practical tasks and scoring rubrics; the course workshop turns your material into a course with a speaking avatar. The platform's competence check assesses application with practical tasks instead of multiple choice: every assessment rests on criteria fixed in advance and on verbatim evidence from the answer, and disputed cases go to a person. It is being introduced first in a pilot course.

Credentials are issued as verifiable digital credentials under the W3C Verifiable Credentials standard: cryptographically signed, verifiable by QR code without an account, revocable — and your company is the issuer. On request, micro-credentials can carry ECTS credits through our university partner; the university reviews and awards them under its own procedures. Issuing micro-credentials directly from the evidence of the competence check, with all mandatory elements and after approval by your responsible person, is the next step of development.