Leveraging Micro-Credentials to Strengthen Equitable Career Pathways in Rural Communities

Presented by Rosa Redonnett, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Success and Credential Attainment, University of Maine System; Dr. Jennifer Carroll, Professional Learning Lead, Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative; and Antonio Mabiala, Adult Learner and Micro-Credentials Earner
Moderated by Brian Tinsley, Ph.D., Senior Research and Communications Associate, Adult Learning, Digital Promise

Sponsored by Digital Promise, Adult Learning

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Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation. Get a CE Certificate for this edLeader Panel Learn more

Can micro-credentials be used to create new pathways to social mobility for rural learners who are impacted by poverty, particularly for Black, Latino, and Indigenous people? Digital Promise joins learners and leaders from the University of Maine System’s All Learning Counts Initiative and the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative to highlight preliminary findings from our ongoing research on the use of micro-credentials in rural postsecondary institutions. The conversation focuses on career pathways in K-12 education and information technology. Viewers hear directly from rural postsecondary leaders and learners to understand how they are:

• Using micro-credentials for affordable, flexible, and meaningful skill development that leads to better opportunities and higher wages
• Increasing efforts to prioritize social mobility for poverty-impacted communities
• Developing educator-industry partnerships to promote sustainable career pathways

This recorded edLeader Panel is intended for K-12 educators and school and district leaders, adult education and career service providers, higher education institutions, employers, and community leaders interested in leveraging micro-credentials to create real-time pathways toward social mobility for people in rural communities. 

About the Presenters

Rosa Redonnett is the associate vice chancellor for student success and credential attainment for the University of Maine System. In collaboration with the vice chancellor for academic affairs, the associate vice chancellor provides system-wide leadership to enhance and promote student success through collaborative efforts within the University of Maine System, with other higher education institutions, and within the PreK-20 education community. This position provides system-wide leadership and support on furthering campus efforts specific to adult credential and degree attainment and the development and implementation of a system-wide approach to micro-credentials. Rosa is a member of the core team of MaineSpark, Maine’s statewide attainment initiative, specifically the Adult Promise (adult degree and credential completion) component of that work and serves as the UMS representative to the State Workforce Board.

A former teacher and district administrator, Dr. Jennifer Carroll currently is the personalized professional learning lead for the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC), which is a non-regulatory service agency in rural southeastern Kentucky. Dr. Carroll provides curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional learning support to 25 rural school districts in the service region.  She is the lead on KVEC’s work around micro-credentials which includes the development of over 20 micro-credentials as well as supporting districts in including micro-credentials as a component of clinical, competency-based professional learning.

Antonio Mabiala is a University of Maine System Micro-Credentials earner. He works in access control with a focus on IP video surveillance, enterprise networking, unified communications, virtualization, and storage. He also manages IT services and audio/visual. Antonio has lived in Lewiston, ME for the last three years.

About the Moderator

Brian Tinsley is a senior research and communications associate on the Adult Learning team at Digital Promise. He is also a developmental psychologist committed to the pursuit of educational equity across the life course. He has a particular interest in the impact of social and educational contexts on the socioeconomic plight of marginalized populations. Brian currently co-leads research on the implementation and use of micro-credentialing programs in rural communities, as well as the development of Learning and Employment Records (LERs). Brian earned his Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies in human development from the University of Pennsylvania.

Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

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Digital Promise is a nonprofit organization that works at the intersection of researchers, entrepreneurs, and educators. Our vision is that all people, at every stage of their lives, have access to learning experiences that help them acquire the knowledge and skills they need to thrive and continuously learn in an ever-changing world.