October 15, 2025, 2:00 - 3:30 PM Eastern Time

A persistent challenge for employers is identifying job candidates with the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities for available jobs. Simultaneously, postsecondary education institutions are under increasing pressure to ensure that their graduates possess the skills valued by employers and have positive job outcomes. One strategy to achieve the goal of better aligning college programs with the skills in demand by employers is to integrate industry certifications into academic degree programs.  Industry certifications can be integrated into academic degrees in various disciplines. By combining two different types of credentials, which have different purposes, into one academic program, students gain both a broad-based education and occupationally-specific skills. And in fact, community colleges are leading this effort.

Workcred, the League for Innovation in the Community College, and the Higher Learning Commission will be joined by partner community colleges to showcase how they each integrated certifications into degree programs to help students more effectively articulate and demonstrate the skills that they possess. As employers transition from hiring based on credentials to hiring based on skills, the integration of certifications into degree programs will become even more crucial as students seek more positive career opportunities.

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/SYYLNZvSTJOMRP__nLcCXQ