New Opportunities in 2021: Improved Academic Mobility, Flexible Degree Attainment and Skills Verification

• 03/11/21

In a related trend, numerous states are permitting reverse transfer to ensure students gain a credential that is meaningful to employers and that contributes to state-wide goals of post-secondary degree attainment. According to the Education Commission of the States, reverse transfer is "the process of retroactively granting associate degrees to students who have not completed the requirements of an associate degree before they transferred from a two- to a four-year institution."

Reverse transfer has become attractive because of the decline in enrollment at four-year institutions. In response, recruiters have started dipping into the community college population sooner – often before students have completed an associate degree. But these students often don't complete their B.A., leaving them with some college credits, but no final credential. A study conducted by the National Student Clearinghouse found more than 36 million students in the US left higher education with some credits yet no degree or certificate since 1993. Community colleges were the starting and last-enrolled institution for two-thirds (67 percent) of these students.

The study identified that about 10 percent of the total students had the highest potential to complete a degree if re-enrolled. This makes reverse transfer an important tool for four-year colleges to recruit these students. Even if they are unsuccessful at finishing a four-year degree, they are paying tuition to the institution and can complete their associate degree.

A common thread for students, institutions and employers is the desire for students to leave school with workplace skills that make them immediately employable. This is true for recent graduates and for lifelong learners who hope to improve their employment prospects or advance their careers.

Interoperable learning records (ILRs) are being studied as an achievable way to communicate skills between workers, employers, and education and training institutions with the goal of creating a single profile that represents all of an individual's abilities. The value of an ILR is that it would allow efficient and consistent comparison of a person's capabilities to fulfill specific job requirements.

The adoption of an ILR system would enable:

• Employers to quickly assess whether a candidate has the requisite skills for the job;
• Students to invest in learning specific skills for a desired job;
• Workers looking for new jobs or career advancement to compare their skills to standard lists of occupational skill requirements; and
• Educational institutions and training organizations to align learning with standard competencies and skills that are in high demand.

These opportunities represent only a slice of what lies ahead for higher education as the world emerges from the pandemic. The dramatic shift in the learning landscape highlights the ways that higher education must adapt to make degree attainment more flexible, achievable and relevant for the future workforce.