Employers cannot simply supply a problem and wait for talent or free labor to emerge. As Dan Silverburg of Propel K20 told Inside Higher Ed, employers should “fund and co-design the experiences they say they want, not just show up to advisory meetings.” High-quality partnerships require explicit learning goals, manageable scope, clear boundaries around how student work will be used and practitioners who provide appropriate supervision and meaningful feedback.

Employers should be codesigners. Many institutions now have advisory boards featuring business leaders, but those arrangements don’t amount to much when the board meets twice a year for lunch. Instead, employers should directly help define the competencies a program should produce. They should help institutions understand when industry needs are shifting. And they should open their doors through ongoing externships and apprenticeships. When employers invest in curriculum, they find that they stop thinking about the entry-level pipeline as someone else’s problem.

Notably, when asked how they overcame these barriers, themost common response was communication (18%), which serves as a reminderthat bridging institutional employer priorities may not be as difficult or expen-sive as one might think.

Through evidence of skill competency, micro-credentials have the potential to reset educational programs, trigger changes to the academic culture, and strengthen the relationship between educational institutions and industries

companies with external partnerships that provide employee training or professional development increased from 54% in 2022 to 68% in 2023, and among those without existing relationships, 61% of companies would be interested in developing these partnerships.