Takeaways and Recommendations

Broward’s experience demonstrates that the most successful efforts at embedding certifications into degree programs stem from mutually supportive commitments from institutions, certifying bodies, and state education and workforce agencies. However, our research also shows that institutions can get the ball rolling on their own. In fact, a number of the institutions we interviewed developed creative solutions to many of the most common challenges—from building on-campus testing centers, to redesigning curricula to align with certification exams, to collecting students' test scores. Colleges and universities that want to embed certifications into specific degree programs can find a way to do it.

Our research indicated that the most significant challenges to institutions that want to embed certifications into their degree programs include figuring out which certifications are in demand, how to pay for them, and how to ensure they benefit students in their education and careers. Significantly expanding the quantity of degree programs with embedded certifications beyond a relatively narrow range of disciplines will require coordination between colleges, state workforce and education agencies, and certifying bodies to address each of these three challenges. Below are three strategies that are already showing promise for overcoming each challenge.

Developing and Maintaining Lists of In-Demand Certifications: States have access to a much wider range of education and labor market data than individual institutions. Using that data to build lists of high-quality, in-demand certifications can be a big help to institutions, particularly those with limited experience with industry certifications. Secondary and postsecondary systems in Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia now provide an array of templates for building a state list. Crucially, these lists should precisely specify credentials rather than, for example, occupational categories, and should be limited to a few dozen certifications at first.

Institutions should consider “rebundling” their degree programs to include high-quality and in-demand industry certifications.

Targeting State Funding: Florida’s experience proves that incentive funding can go a long way toward helping colleges get over the biggest barrier to embedding certifications: paying for the certification exam. The reimbursement model established through the CAPE Act has enabled Florida to significantly expand the number of students earning certifications with a relatively modest state investment. The financing model also created opportunities for college leaders to use the funding to reward departments for embedding certifications into their degree programs. States that are interested in expanding the practice of embedding certifications beyond the disciplines where it is already well-established can use the CAPE Act as a model for how to target their funding.

Building a Clearinghouse for Certification Data: The one challenge cited by every institution we interviewed—but resolved by none—was the lack of data on student employment outcomes. The lack of individual-level data on certifications hampers efforts to evaluate their impact on employment and earnings for the students who acquire them. Convincing state legislatures to fund certification attainment without knowing how it contributes to employment and earnings of state residents will always be a challenge without outcomes data. There have been a number of efforts to build systemic connections between data held by certification bodies and data held by state education and workforce agencies. From 2012 to 2017, the Association of Career and Technical Education (ACTE) worked with six states and three certification bodies as part of the Certification Data Exchange Project (CDEP). Through the project, states and certifying bodies established data-sharing protocols and strategies to connect individual certification records with wage record data from each state’s unemployment insurance system.¹ The project demonstrated that while it is possible to match certification and wage record data, the process is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

A more promising approach is being developed by a public-private data infrastructure partnership between the National Student Clearinghouse, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the U.S. Census Bureau. The project aims to create an independent and self-sustaining nationwide collaborative that will collect, match, and analyze hundreds of thousands of education and labor market records, including credit and non-credit courses from higher education institutions, certification status from certifying bodies, and employment and earnings data from the federal government. Beginning with certifications from three manufacturing associations and one in the healthcare sector, the project will also integrate with the ongoing Credential Engine initiative to provide greater transparency about certifications and other credentials for employers, educational institutions, and jobseekers, as well as for certifying bodies themselves. The project is still under development, but merits close attention.

In July of this year, while planning a family trip to Disney World, Michael Coburn got a call with an offer to join the country’s largest provider of medical scribes as their information security manager. The company was willing to postpone his start date until after the Disney World trip, and until he received the last of his cybersecurity certifications, which are required for the job. For Coburn, the combination of his certifications, his recent associate degree, and the bachelor’s he plans to earn next year—all through Broward College—was key.

Certifications are unlikely to replace degrees anytime soon, but delivered in tandem, they can help degree-seekers get more from their efforts. Our research indicates that embedding certifications is not easy for institutions; neither is it impossible. Outside of traditionally certification-heavy disciplines, there has been only piecemeal progress in expanding effective certification use in higher education, but well-targeted support and coordination between state governments and institutions can quickly scale up certification practices that benefit both employers and students. Continued expansion will require a more extensive national data infrastructure, but states and colleges already have the successful examples of Broward College and others to draw on as they rebundle academic and industry credentials.