Microcredentials: Small steppingstones towards a more inclusive future?

Source: Jack Isherwood | · THE POLICYMAKER · | October 10, 2023

Skills mismatches will grow due to climate change and its economic fallout. Microcredentials can enable rapid and inclusive re-skilling while offering universities an opportunity to re-invent their mission in a “climate changed” world.

It is 2043 in regional Australia. A rapid and uncontrolled downsizing of the fossil fuel sector has occurred, triggered by a sudden collapse in global demand and green swan events which accelerated the global renewable energy transition. The predictions of the Intergenerational Reports of 2021 and 2023, which noted that our key trading partners were committed to Net Zero by 2050 and that actions to limit global temperature increases to 2°C would cut thermal coal exports by 50 per cent by 2063, underestimated the escalation of global climate policy commitments and their associated economic impacts on regional communities.

The result was a rapid increase in unemployment and under-employment across the local fossil fuel industry. The limited economic diversification of the region frustrated opportunities for workers to find new employment in different sectors. There was an urgent need to retrain displaced workers, but existing course offerings across local higher education and vocational training institutions lacked currency due to the region’s shifting economic circumstances. Courses also poorly catered for the complex schedules and life circumstances of displaced workers, and were too expensive for risk adverse members of the community. The ongoing skills mismatches impeded regional economic resilience, holding back the emergence of new industries which could replace lost jobs and rejuvenate economic confidence.

At the same time, climate related disasters also affected other key regional industries, with agriculture and wine production becoming more irregular and unpredictable in light of mounting frosts, droughts and pest infestations which collapsed yields and produce quality. The growing frequency and severity of heatwaves also depressed productivity while making planting and harvesting schedules more erratic. The local tourism sector – formerly underpinned by globally renowned National Parks – was decimated by a broad collapse in regional biodiversity.