The short-term credentials landscape: what we see and what remains unseen

For the purposes of this report, we consider short-term credentials to be less than one year of full-time study and long-term credentials to require more than one year, as typically defined by federal data systems. Given the rapid growth in short-term programs, and policymakers' fast-growing interest to invest federal higher education dollars into very-short-term credentials, we explore what the research does - and does not - show us about such credentials' utility in the labor market. With concerns about equity, our review of the literature guides us towards caution, as a strong push for short-term certificates may run the risk of reifying socioeconomic stratification.

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