The Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), the regional centre of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in Asia, represented by the Director, Dr B Shadrach, participated in the technical session on the future of credentialing at the South Zone Vice Chancellors’ meeting.

The Technical Session was chaired by Dr Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi, Chairperson, National Council for Vocational Education and Training. Speakers included Professor V. Bharathi Harishankar, the Vice Chancellor of Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women in Coimbatore, India, and Mr Bibin Shivas, the Director of Customer Success at Coursera India and Asia Pacific.

Dr Kalsi set the context by delivering a comprehensive presentation on the National Credit Framework (NCrF), the cornerstone of India’s National Education Policy 2020.

Dr Shadrach stressed the need for investment in skilling, reskilling and upskilling due to the rapidly changing requirements in the job market. He highlighted the shift towards micro-credentials as a solution to bridge the gap between university outputs and labour market demands, driven by new, shorter, and more flexible credentials, the growing nexus between education and work, new competitors and models and omnichannel learning approaches.

Dr Shadrach concluded his remarks by discussing CEMCA’s initiatives related to training and professional development programmes for universities in India and Asia, including the MOOC4Development platform and the COL and Coursera partnership that benefits learners in Africa and Asia.