It’s true that fostering skills and remedying skill shortages are primarily tasks for the vocational education and training sector, which is often neglected because of a perceived lack of prestige. But higher education also has a vocational tradition – in the broad sense exemplified by medicine, law or engineering – and that expectation of a career pay-off has increased with higher fees and the rise of the corporate university. Meanwhile, micro-credentials would help universities respond more quickly to the fast-changing needs of industry if guided by more detailed feedback on skill shortages or national priorities. This is a chance for more competitive universities to seize the opportunities being opened up by online education technology.
