DCU appointed Ireland\’s first Director of Micro-Credential Strategy and Innovation, Dr. Mairéad Nic Giolla Mhichíl. Dr. Nic Giolla Mhichíl is collaborating at national and European level with respect to the European Micro-Credential Roadmap, where she is a recognised policy expert in this domain. She has completed the first state of the art review of global micro-credential implementation and policy and has worked with UNESCO to develop a global definition of micro-credentials under the lead of Professor Beverley Oliver. Dr. Nic Giolla Mhichíl is co-founder of the Micro-Credential observatory which curates global micro-credential research and developments. In 2020, she co-authored a Global Insights Report on micro-credentials in in 2020 and in collaboration with DCU’s Irish Institute of Digital Business and Skillnet Networks she was lead author on a publication to guide industry in its engagement with Micro-Credentials, A Micro-Credential Roadmap: Currency, Cohesion and Collaboration, as part of this work she published the First National Micro-Credential Survey of Irish Employers and Employees in 2021. Mairéad is DCU\’s Micro-Credential lead in the ECIU University and she is DCU\’s representative on the Micro Creds initiative where DCU will deliver a series of micro-credentials in the coming years focused on addressing future-focused skills in key sectors. Micro Creds is a national sectoral initiative, led by the Irish Universities Association, which received over €12 million in 2020 to develop and deliver micro-credentials under the Irish Government’s Human Capital Initiative (HCI) see www.microcreds.ie. Mairéad is leading out as co-editor in chief on a special issue on micro-credentials in the International Journal of Educational technology in Higher Education (ETHE) which will be published in Spring 2022.
