Keep calm and credential on: Linking learning, life and work practices in a complex world

Abstract

This chapter will discuss the ideas and aims of higher education and the needs of the sector to continually innovate to meet workforce changes and labour market demands. The place of micro-credentials and open badges as approaches to locate, measure and validate learning within the academy are discussed. The affordances of technologies to map learning intentions and graduate outcomes of bodies of knowledge, skills-based tasks, and values acquisition at various levels of granularity are raised. The imperative to link learning, life and work practices for continued professional development and growth are highlighted. However, we raise cautionary tales about the use of competency-based approaches within the complexity of developing higher-order professional capabilities that require knowledge synthesis, abstract and novel ways of being, and the crafting of professional dispositions and identities through ongoing reflexive processes. Our key principle suggests that curriculum designs aimed to link ways of knowing, being, doing and valuing with ways of being practical in the world are important for life and professional practices. Finally, we suggest hopeful ways to keep calm and reflect on current approaches to digital badges and micro-credentialing acknowledging the many complexities of preparing professionals for practice.