Introduction
Creating opportunities for students to achieve Microsoft certification benefits both students and the degree-granting institutions they attend. When an institution implements Microsoft certification in its courses, the institution creates a pipeline of skilled graduates who are equipped with a degree and valuable certifications. Students then are desirable employee candidates for roles in industries in which skills gaps are prevalent. Industry benefits from employing skilled candidates, and the degree-granting institution benefits from improved graduate outcome metrics.
Implementing certification in academic programs offers many benefits. Microsoft certification:
- Bridges digital skills gaps in industry.
- Enhances graduate employability.
- Improves institutional metrics for graduate outcomes.
- Provides educators with access to high-quality and fully maintained learning resources.
The University of Lincoln's approach to implementing Microsoft certification in computer science courses is a case study you'll look at in this module. A case study contextualizes the academic processes that are involved for your own institution when it creates a degree program that includes certification.
In this module, you'll explore different types of certification, you'll learn about the different approaches to implementing certification at the course level and at the program level, and you'll learn how to map academic learning outcomes to certification outcomes. Embedding certification in an academic program is an optimal approach that helps sustain a graduate pipeline that meets the needs of industry. With certifications embedded for academic credit, the program or course can be positioned as "industry ready," an attractive attribute for prospective program applicants. Courses with certification embedded also have the benefit of accessing high-quality learning resources that are designed and maintained by the vendor, at a significant time savings for educators.
Learning objectives
When you finish this module, you'll be able to:
- Choose the Microsoft certifications that meet the needs of your program.
- Design your program and your approach to implementing certifications.
- Map your academic learning outcomes to certification outcomes.