Announcement: Professor Isabel Huet talk with the title “The impact of Micro-credentials in Professional Learning and Development

A lecture delivered by Professor Isabel Huet (Portuguese Open University) 

Micro-credentials (MC) are increasingly positioned as a policy lever to strengthen professional learning across Europe, enabling agile and targeted responses to rapid labour-market change driven by digitalisation, the green transition, demographic shifts and new employment models. As short, modular and outcomes-oriented learning experiences, micro-credentials can support continuing professional development by enabling timely reskilling and upskilling, enhancing employability, supporting career mobility and strengthening workforce adaptability. This paper presents research evidence on how MC contribute to the development of professional knowledge and skills across diverse professional groups, including school and higher education teachers.

Isabel Huet is a Full Professor in Education at the Portuguese Open university and an Honorary Doctoral Supervisor at the University of Liverpool. Her research expertise covers multiple areas of higher education, with a focus on the professional development of academics, pedagogy, distance education and doctoral supervision. Over the years, she has explored the complexities of academic practice, particularly how academics engage in professional learning within institutional settings and how they foster authentic learning and research experiences for students in both face-to-face and distance education. More recently, her research has focused on professional learning and micro-credentials. Methodologically, she combines a phenomenological orientation with a pragmatic approach. She has coordinated several EU-funded projects and, in 2019, was awarded a British Academy research fellowship for a study on the professional development of postgraduate supervisors in the Brazilian Amazon region. She is a member of two research centres in Portugal: the Research Centre on Didactics and Technology in the Education of Trainers (CIDTFF) and the Laboratory of Distance Education and eLearning (LE@D). ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6215-0448