This year's high school graduates are now making key decisions - what will I do next, who shall I be in the future, what kind of work will I do? This is all the more difficult today because, due to rapid technological changes, they are hearing that some professions may cease to exist tomorrow, and sooner or later, many will have to retrain. Nevertheless, research tells us that young people are optimistic about their future careers. What possible paths do they have? How can microcredentials help with this?

Microcredentials are not only a convenient tool for confirming one's skills, but also provide excellent motivation for continuously developing throughout life. However, these are just some of the benefits of microcredentials. 

Poland's record-low registered unemployment rate, 5.1% in April 2024, places it among the top EU countries with the lowest number of unemployed people. Meanwhile, as many as 77% of European employers struggle to find employees with the right skills.

Our project conducted at the Institute of Educational Research is a response to global technological and educational trends and the resulting administrative recommendations of the European community. 

Microcredentials are being talked about not only as a hope for education, but also as an opportunity for all participants in the labor market, with different backgrounds and of all ages. Today we will look at the opportunities that microcredentials offer to two different groups: people over 50 and juniors.

An increasingly fast-changing world requires us to continuously upgrade our skills. Already in 2020, the World Economic Forum reported that 50% of the world's workforce will need to re-skill by 2025. This statement is becoming a fact – if we want to be competitive in the labour market, we need to constantly develop our skills. This is fostered by the trend, which has been progressing for several years in Europe, of confirming various skills, even small ones.

According to a report by the National Information Processing Institute (OPI) entitled "Microcredentials as a new direction for the development of higher education," much could be gained from the implementation of microcredentials by Polish higher education institutions, their employees, as well as students and graduates.

Are microcredentials an opportunity to change approaches to modern education? The role they can play in the face of changing labour market demands and ways of implementing new forms of skills validation were discussed by international experts gathered at the webinar "Bridging the gap – How countries are using microcredentials to reshape the workforce," held on February 14, 2024 at the initiative of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).