Micro-credentials and continuing education are, for most private higher education providers, the same market: professionals who need assessed, recognised learning in units smaller than a degree, usually to satisfy a professional body's continuing professional development rules or to move into an adjacent role. The provider's task is to structure those offerings so that they sell, so that the relevant professional body recognises them, and so that their quality is governed properly even though TEQSA does not accredit them.
This article deals with the business and governance of that market rather than the pedagogy. It draws on fifteen years of TEQSA registration and course accreditation work with private providers, a growing number of which now earn a material share of revenue outside their accredited courses.
What counts as a micro-credential in the Australian system?
The National Microcredentials Framework, published by the Department of Education in November 2021, defines a micro-credential as a certification of assessed learning or competency, with a minimum volume of learning of one hour and less than an AQF award qualification, that is additional, alternate, complementary to or a component part of an AQF award. Two words in that definition matter for continuing education: assessed and certification. A webinar with a certificate of attendance is not a micro-credential under the framework, and professional bodies increasingly know the difference.
The framework also sets out the critical information a provider should publish for each offering: learning outcomes, learner effort broken into contact, peer, asynchronous and assessment time, delivery mode, price, assessment method, and any credit or recognition pathway. In my experience that list is the most useful design checklist a continuing education unit can adopt, whether or not it intends to list on a government marketplace. Our overview of micro-credential models in higher education describes the structural options in more detail.
How professional CPD markets actually work
Most regulated professions in Australia require members to complete a set number of CPD hours or points each year, and the bodies that set those rules decide what counts. Some maintain lists of approved providers or activities. Others accept any relevant structured learning and audit a sample of members. A provider entering this market needs to know which model each target profession runs, because it determines whether recognition is a formal application or simply a matter of meeting the body's published criteria.
In my experience the mistake providers make is designing the offering first and seeking recognition afterwards. The professional body's criteria, whether they concern assessment, duration, presenter qualifications or subject matter, should be in the design brief. A micro-credentials continuing education program that maps each offering to a named CPD requirement, and says so on the page, sells considerably better than one that leaves the professional to work out whether it counts.
Structuring a micro-credentials continuing education unit inside a registered provider
There are three common structures, and each has governance consequences. The first is to offer micro-credentials as standalone non-award products through a continuing education unit. The second is to build them from units of an accredited course, so that a professional who completes several can claim credit into a graduate certificate. The third is a hybrid in which a professional body co-badges the offering.
The second structure is where the Australian Qualifications Framework becomes relevant, because a unit that will later be credited toward a level 8 award must have been designed and assessed at that level from the start. The framework's credit provisions are voluntary, but a provider that advertises a pathway has made a representation and Standard 7.1 of the Threshold Standards requires that representations be accurate and not misleading. Promising credit that the academic board has not approved is a compliance problem, not a marketing one.
Quality assurance when TEQSA is not accrediting the course
TEQSA accredits courses leading to AQF awards. A non-award micro-credential is not accredited, and some providers conclude that it is therefore outside the regulator's interest. That conclusion is wrong in my reading of the Standards. Standard 6.3 places all higher education activity under the provider's academic governance, and a registered provider's name on a certificate is a representation about quality that Standard 7.1 governs. TEQSA has not, to my knowledge, issued a guidance note specific to micro-credentials, and guidance notes are not Threshold Standards in any case, but the assessors I have dealt with ask about non-award activity at renewal.
The practical answer is a light but real approval process: a short proposal template, academic board or delegated committee approval, a named academic owner, moderation of assessment, and an annual report on enrolments, completions and feedback. Proportionality matters. A ten-hour offering does not need the review a bachelor degree needs, but it does need someone with academic authority to have said yes and to look at the results. Our article on TEQSA and lifelong learning treats the student support side of the same question.
Where the market is going
The demand side is not in doubt. Professional bodies are tightening what they accept, employers are paying for structured short learning, and the future of workforce development is being described in units rather than degrees. The supply side is crowded, with universities, private providers, professional bodies and vendors all competing. In my experience the private providers that do well are the ones with a specific profession, a genuine relationship with its body, and a governance record that lets them say truthfully that the credential was assessed and approved.
That last point is the one I would leave a board with. Micro-credentials continuing education revenue is attractive because the accreditation cost is absent, but the reputational exposure is not, and at renewal TEQSA will ask how the board governs everything the provider issues. A board that can answer has a business. A board that cannot has a liability with a good margin.
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— a one-page design and approval template built on the National Microcredentials Framework, drawn from our course accreditation work with private providers. Get the checklist
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Frequently asked questions
Does TEQSA accredit micro-credentials?
Not unless they lead to an AQF award. Non-award micro-credentials sit outside course accreditation, but a registered provider's academic governance and representation obligations under Standards 6.3 and 7.1 still apply to anything issued under its name.
What is the minimum size of a micro-credential in Australia?
The National Microcredentials Framework sets a minimum volume of learning of one hour and requires that the learning be assessed and certified, which distinguishes a micro-credential from a certificate of attendance.
How do we get a micro-credential recognised for CPD by a professional body?
Find out whether the body approves providers, approves activities, or simply publishes criteria, then build those criteria into the design before the offering is built. Recognition is far easier to design in than to retrofit.
Can a micro-credential give credit toward an accredited course?
Yes, if the unit was designed and assessed at the relevant AQF level and the academic board has approved the credit arrangement. Advertising a credit pathway that has not been approved is a misleading representation under Standard 7.1.
Dr Brendan Moloney is CEO of Darlo Higher Education, Australia's largest specialist TEQSA consultancy. He holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne, is a Cambridge University Press author on governance in higher education, and has advised private providers on registration and course accreditation for more than fifteen years.