2022 I.C.E. Exchange Conference: A Deep Dive into Industry Trends and Credentialing Best Practices
Savannah, September 20, 2022:OpenEyes Technologies recently attended the I.C.E. conference; the agenda of this year’s conference was to bring industry experts and thought leaders together to brainstorm on credentialing community best practices and learn more about the upcoming industry trends that one should watch out for.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been monumental shifts in the mindsets of the workforce toward education. More and more professionals rely on certifications, certificates, and licenses to upgrade their skill sets, advance their careers or improve employment opportunities. We saw a move towards online learning and rising demand for short-duration certificate programs, also known as the “Netflix movement’. The increased demand for certifications has helped organizations grow their programs to upskill and reskill employees.
The central theme of this year’s conference was to brainstorm on aspects like- how certification programs differ and what the considerations are to protect the public. What happens when a participant performs poorly on an assessment that could directly lead to a credential loss? Does the credentialing program allow individualizing content to reflect the practitioner’s requirements or specialization better? How to make longitudinal assessment more valuable for people? Seasoned practitioners who developed and implemented different assessment programs responded to such questions. They cited evidence to illustrate how the programs meet recent demands, I.e., to maintain relevance, reduce practitioner burden, and control recertification costs.
Maximize the Impact of Research & Development to Transform Assessments
It’s essential to get the maximum benefit from investments in research and development, but all too often, this becomes an unrealized goal for organizations and practitioners. Moreover, credentialing programs use a variety of approaches to build organizational structure and select suitable models for efficient and effective governance. When organizations take the time to understand the best practices for governance, they also set a benchmark against other credentialing organizations, which will help to select the right model.
Mission-driven organizations also use micro-credentialing to meet the training needs of professionals in their field. This in turn will establish the groundwork for a future professional certification program. For instance, the Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) launched a portfolio of micro-credentials in 2021 for individuals in the health literacy field. These micro-credentials took years of planning and development to identify and understand the target audience’s needs, determine the appropriate credentialing product to meet those needs, and create a long-term strategy for the future.
According to Trushant Mehta, Co-founder, COO OpenEyes Technologies, ‘Micro-credentials have been the topic of conversation for credentialing professionals for many years. ‘Micro-credentials’ are digital certifications that verify an individual’s competence in a specific skill or set of skills. Micro-credentials are an extension of the formal and informal learning activities that individuals engage in daily. And since Micro-credentials provide a pathway to personalizing and recognizing professional learning. Organizations and employers can use them to verify their employees’ skills, regardless of where and how they learned them.’
About OpenEyes Technologies
OpenEyes Technologies Inc. is an ISO 9001: Quality Management and ISO 27001: Information Security certified IT consulting, services, and business process outsourcing organization. Headquartered in Washington, DC, we are a Small Minority Women Owned business offering custom software development, strategic IT consulting, and managed services to the non-profit, government organizations, and commercial sector.
About I.C.E. Exchange
The Institute for Credentialing Excellence, or I.C.E., is a professional membership association that provides education, networking, and other resources for organizations and individuals who work in and serve the credentialing industry. I.C.E. is a leading developer of standards for certification and certificate programs. It is both a provider of and a clearing house for information on trends in certification, test development and delivery, assessment-based certificate programs, and other information relevant to the credentialing community.