Strengthening Partnerships Between Community Colleges and Certification Bodies
Introduction
There are a growing number of credentials in the marketplace including degrees, certificates, certifications, microcredentials, and licenses. Each is designed to fulfill a different purpose.[1] For example, certifications are third-party, independent assessments of a minimum level of competency for an occupation.
Meanwhile, there is also an increasing focus on outcomes, such as employment, earnings, and job satisfaction, for college graduates and the use of skills-based hiring by employers. And states are enacting policies that allocate funding based on student outcomes.[2] This focus provides an opportunity to explore how outcomes can be improved when certifications are integrated into academic degree programs. While many community colleges prepare learners to take certifications after graduation, some embed the certification as part of a for-credit degree program. There is value in ensuring that learners can earn multiple credentials at the same time and in helping colleges and universities align their curricula with prevailing industry standards.[3]
Workcred, in partnership with the Higher Learning Commission and the League for Innovation in the Community College, and joined by four community colleges—Community College of Aurora, Delta College, Kirkwood Community College, and Moraine Valley Community College, explored strategies to develop and launch new pathways that incorporated both associate degrees and certifications.[4] Each college launched two new pathways focused on either information technology or health science. This initiative provided an opportunity to examine how certification bodies and community colleges can more effectively work together and to identify strategies to expand these types of partnerships to more academic disciplines and institutions.
Recommendations
The following recommendations are for how certification bodies can support community colleges to more effectively and easily embed certifications into their academic programs, or successfully prepare learners to take certification exams after graduation from their academic program if the certification has prerequisites that must be fulfilled after graduation.
Clearly define the value proposition. Faculty and students must understand what skills the certification is assessing and how employers value the certification. Certification bodies should provide easy access to publicly available detailed information about how certifications can help learners meet their career goals as well as meet employer workforce needs.
Provide career information and pathways to other certifications. Lifelong learning is critical to today’s labor market and learners want to know how a certification relates to other certifications or postsecondary education programs. Certification bodies can provide information on their websites about how certifications lead to education and training opportunities, employment opportunities, and career advancement.
Offer guidance on standardized test taking strategies and make practice exams available. Many learners may have not taken a standardized exam for a long time. In addition to learning the skills that will be assessed on the certification exam, learners also need to understand standardized test taking strategies. Certification bodies can provide information about the test taking environment, guidelines about how to approach taking a standardized exam, and practice exams to help students gain familiarity with the process and to gain confidence.
Share data with community colleges. To understand how learners perform on the certification exam, faculty need access to data. Faculty would benefit from individual-level data or aggregate data from the certification body about whether learners passed the exam, as well as information about the knowledge domain areas where learners were not successful. If faculty had access to this type of data, they would be able to revise their curriculum and improve the alignment between the curriculum and the certification exam blueprint, which would increase student success.
Designate a point of contact for academic partnerships and resources. Frequently, it is difficult for faculty to know who to contact at a certification body. Certification bodies could facilitate communication and engagement with faculty by designating an academic point of contact that is visible on their website. While some certification bodies have designated contacts for academic institutions, it is not universal. Having designated contact would make it easier for faculty to address any issues or questions that arise and to stay up-to-date on any changes or new developments.
Develop a public recognition program. As the focus on learner outcomes and alignment of college programs with industry skills needs continues to grow, college faculty would like more public recognition programs that allows them to showcase that their program is aligned with specific industry certifications. This type of recognition could be used to demonstrate to students the relevance of a specific program to the skills that are in-demand in the labor market. In addition, certifications bodies could highlight their relationships with community colleges.
Offer an academic pricing structure. The cost of certification exams can be a barrier for learners. Therefore, it is critical that certification bodies provide academic pricing structures or bundled discounts that allow increased learner access. In addition, community colleges can consider embedding the cost of the certification exam in the academic program, so that learners who are eligible for financial aid can have the costs covered as part of their tuition. The more students who take the certification exam benefits certification bodies, as many of them will renew the certification throughout their career.
Conclusion
Aligning academic degrees with certifications allows learners to get the broad-based education provided by an academic program with the occupationally-specific skills that are assessed through a certification exam. But to strengthen these partnerships, certification bodies need to think differently about how they relate to and build partnerships with academia. As the emphasis on learner outcomes continues to grow, there are more opportunities for certification bodies to work with community colleges. More collaboration benefits the certification bodies with more people taking the exam and earning the certification, and community colleges benefit by improving the alignment of the curriculum with the skills needed by employers. Furthermore, learners are better able to articulate and demonstrate that they have the skills that employer’s value. When everyone more effectively works together, the workforce as whole will ultimately benefit.
[1] For more information about how credentials differ, see the Workcred graphic, How Do Credentials Differ?, https://workcred.org/Interactive-Graphics/How-Do-Credentials-Differ.aspx.
[2] Katrina Mullin and Stephanie Norris, Success Measures Matter: How States Are Tying Funding to Student Outcomes (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond,January 30, 2025), https://www.richmondfed.org/region_communities/regional_data_analysis/surveys/community_college/community_college_insights/2025/success_measures_matter_funding_student_outcomes.
[3] Holly Zanville, Kelly Porter, and Evelyn Ganzglass, Report on Phase I Study: Embedding Industry and Professional Certifications within Higher Education (Lumina Foundation, January 2017), https://www.luminafoundation.org/files/resources/report-on-phase-i-study-embedding-industry-professional-certifications-within-higher-education-january-2017.pdf.
[4] For more information about this work, see the Workcred website project page: https://workcred.org/Our-Work/Certification-Degree-Pathways.aspx.
