We talked to Attila Balogh, PhD student and assistant lecturer at Óbuda University in Budapest, Hungary, who has been working with representatives of several universities for almost two years on the localisation of so-called micro-certificates. It is a new method aimed at lifelong learning and employability.
It all started with COVID-19. During the pandemic, we all switched to online technology and communication, we went social, it was a kind of global proof that it could work, and maybe not badly. We generally have computers at home and the internet makes online learning materials available in a standardised format, virtually 0-24 (15-20 years ago we used to sit on the bus with the materials on our lap and go to the library for the literature).
They used to say that if we want to learn, now we can learn.
However, much of the online material is static, one-way communication, with a pre-recorded presentation, an assignment at the end of the course that you solve (fill in a form), upload and the system returns the result of the test. No interaction is possible – unless someone is actually sitting on the other side of the online connection, either synchronously or asynchronously.
„Life long learning” or the role of micro-credentials in education
In Europe too, more and more workers feel the need to update and expand their knowledge, skills and competences to meet the dynamically changing needs of society and the labour market, and to be better prepared for current and future challenges. Ensuring that people have access to continuous, high-quality and relevant training and retraining is also a key element of a culture of lifelong learning.
| Attila Balogh, CEO, owner, investor He has 25 years of IT and telecommunications experience, 20 years of senior management experience (IBM, T-Systems Hungary). He is a lifelong learner, besides his US-Hungarian Executive MBA, he has online certifications from several prestigious universities (University of Hong Kong, HarvardX), he is the first Hungarian student to successfully complete the MITx MicroMasters ® Program for Supply Chain Management, he is an Affiliate Member of the MIT Alumni Association. He is a Global Ambassador for the University of Rhode Island in Hungary and one of 14 members of the University’s Alumni Engagement Council. He is a first-year student of the first year of the Doctoral School of Innovation Management at the University of Óbuda, and a teaching assistant. Founding member, strategic secretary and accredited mentor of Mind Mate Inspiration Association. |
The EU has set ambitious targets: at least 60% of the total adult population should be in education and training each year by 2030, with an employment rate of at least 78% for the population aged 20-64. In June 2022, the EU adopted a Recommendation on a European approach to micro-certificates as one element of this objective.
The flexibility of micro-certificates lies in the fact that they can be used to build up further learning in an increasing number of fields by successfully completing the necessary courses. If you do not require a certificate or a credible proof of the course, you can even do this completely free of charge.
You can decide which subjects you want to immerse yourself in, which can then be done at your own pace, even in the evenings, from home. A huge advantage is that it is very much segmented and it can cover a lot of topics. The methodology is very interesting, you can find the right one for you at every stage of learning: if you want to learn just a little bit, or if you want to go deep into a subject.
And it’s all free on most international platforms with the above constraints.
American guidance
„In the USA, universities – even public universities – are largely market-funded. I can think of an example where the local government provides only 10 percent of the annual budget for a public university, with the rest having to be raised from donors,” said Attila Balogh. „And how can all this be raised? For one thing, there is a very strong alumni program out there, which aims to keep students close to the university by making them feel important to the university. On the other hand, universities in the US are often commissioned to do research by the market, companies and governments. They would like to investigate the subject with an academic approach, with a research team, i.e. with real professional research methodology, they commission the research, from which the client will have a professionally put together, research-backed material, which can be used as a teaching material. The relationship between the university and the market is also deepened, the company gains insight of the university and its students, which is ideal from a labour management point of view.”
In the US, many universities do not distinguish between online and in-person degrees.
The situation here is a bit different
In Hungary, state support depends, among other things, on the number of students, so Hungarian universities are also aiming to have as many students as possible. The long-term goal is for institutions to try to move towards an economic type of operation in student and education management. „If you take the simple model that you have to create the curriculum anyway, there is a good chance that you can turn it into a high-quality online curriculum. From there, it’s not a big leap to get it in a form that is accessible to students 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” he says. „The kind of quality that a diploma represents can actually be established by the name of the backing institutions resonating with the market – we want to do the same with micro-certificates, and now the national regulations allow for this, and some Hungarian micro-certificates have already appeared at university level,” he adds.
Start in 2025
„Our aim is to ensure that, following successful completion of the exam, the certificates awarded by international universities will also be of value on the labour market and provide students with additional lifelong opportunities by counting credits also accepted by domestic universities. Interoperability, credibility and security are important, and require a platform accessible from anywhere in the world for online verification of certificates validated by universities. Not only the education system but also market players need to be prepared for this. We plan to launch our program with the first available certificates, which can be considered global, as early as next year, 2025,” said Attila Balogh.
The naturalisation process
„We have to get accreditation: for a given specialisation, micro-certificate – that is, for a given simple or, complex course – there is a curriculum, and an accreditation requirement that the same curriculum cannot be used for another one. We are working on how to make this work well in Hungary, looking at how we can tailor programs. Obviously, we will have to go through the standard US program in Hungary. We are currently in talks with several big universities (MIT, The University of Rhode Island) about the process. On the international scene, for example, the MITx MicroMasters® Program for Supply Chain Management, which is 100 percent online, provides accepted credits for various degree programs at over 40 universities around the world, and guarantees admission scores for applications.
The course materials are currently available in English only, but we would like to provide Hungarian language versions. Of course, this requires extraordinary resources from both teachers and universities in Hungary, as the course materials not only have to be translated, but also have to be used for admissions, tests and certification exams, to be available and completed online, and for this, only accredited teachers are approved by foreign partners”, said Attila Balogh.
