C3 Initiative
The current microcredential landscape needs support in building trust around microcredential value and credibility. The C3 Initiative addresses that need by connecting the three forces critical to learners’ STEM career success: Credential, Connection, and Career.
Credential
The high-quality, skills-based recognition of learning that signals rigor and reliability.
Connection
Career
Transforming skills into recognized credentials and credentials into meaningful careers.
The C3 Initiative builds the infrastructure needed for a more effective microcredential ecosystem by joining learners, employers, and higher education.
Strengthen Pathways
Help learners navigate educational and career opportunities through transparent microcredential-to-career channels and successful student examples.
Align Education and Workforce
Ensure credentials accurately reflect the skills and competencies most valued by industry.
Advance Research and Practice
Develop new theories, frameworks, and tools to guide learners’ identification of microcredentials, employers’ recognition of microcredentials, and higher education’s effective implementation of microcredentials.
Build Shared Infrastructure
Create common platforms, resources, and repositories that simplify access for learners, education, and employers.
Connected Projects
Funded by a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the ALIGN Project aims to strengthen connections between higher education, industry, and learners to better understand how microcredentials can serve as flexible, credible pathways into the STEM workforce.