Spain – Bridging Formal and Flexible: The Institut Escola del Treball de Lleida Micro-Credential Model for Professional Certificates
Responding to Evolving Learning Needs
The modern labour market demands agile and highly specialised skills. The Escola del Treball de Lleida aims to address this need by piloting a micro-credential model rooted in the official Spanish VET system.
Our focus is the Certificate of Professionalism (CP) Level 3 in Audit. This high-level qualification is ideal for testing modularity, as professionals constantly require fast-tracked upskilling in niche areas (e.g., non-financial reporting, specific compliance).
The project goal is to demonstrate how the existing, robust CP framework can be leveraged to offer highly relevant, modular learning units (micro-credentials), enhancing learner choice while ensuring the portability and international recognizability of specific high-level competencies.
This specific CP case study will pave the way for transparent micro-credential design across the entire institution.
Certificates of Professionalism as a Foundation
The Spanish VET system provides a robust and officially recognised foundation for micro-credentials through the Certificates of Professionalism (CP).
These qualifications, governed by national legislation (L.O. 3/2022 on the Organisation and Integration of VET), certify the professional competence of a worker and are essential for regulated professions. Crucially, CPs are inherently modular, structured around Competence Units (UCs), which are the minimum indivisible unit of professional achievement, defined in the National Catalogue of Professional Qualifications (CNCP).
This structural modularity positions the UCs—such as those comprising the Level 3 Audit CP—as the perfect, pre-validated foundation for micro-credentials. By formally leveraging these UCs, the Escola del Treball de Lleida ensures that its micro-credentials are not arbitrary courses, but officially backed, high-quality units that already possess the legislative transparency required for national recognition and offer a solid basis for international portability efforts.
Application of Micro-qualification Principles
The inherent structure of the Certificate of Professionalism facilitates the immediate application of core micro-credential principles.
Modular Structure and Learning Pathways are supported by the fact that each Competence Unit (UC) already functions as a portable, credit-bearing unit. This allows learners (including those within the Level 3 Audit CP) to stack UCs flexibly, combining high-demand skills from different qualifications to build customised professional profiles.
Furthermore, the UC’s definition ensures Relevance and Learner-Centeredness by guaranteeing a direct link between the micro-credential content and validated, labour-market needs, requiring continuous updates in areas like Audit IT compliance.
Finally, Portability and Transparency are enhanced, as the UC’s official validation within the CNCP provides a clear, documented framework that simplifies international comparison, particularly when supported by transparent, competence-based assessment documentation.
Leveraging the Business Model Canvas
The strategic deployment of micro-credentials within the Level 3 Audit CP framework was robustly planned using the Business Model Canvas, ensuring the model’s viability and market relevance.
The primary Customer Segments include professionals already working in Audit/Finance who need targeted upskilling, VET students seeking career specialisation, and Entrepreneurs/Small Business Owners requiring certified knowledge for compliance.
Our Value Proposition is built on offering Specialisation in Practical Audit skills (a specific Competence Unit) with Learning Flexibility, providing Recognised Certification faster than the full CP.
The Channels combine Vocational Training Centres (FP) collaboration with a robust Online Education Platform (Moodle/Classroom) to ensure accessibility.
Crucially, success relies on Key Partnerships with Professional Organisations (to validate quality and facilitate networking) and Companies/Organisations (to secure corporate training and real case studies), allowing Lleida to move from traditional course delivery to a highly strategic, market-driven educational service.
Challenges and Solutions
The primary challenge lies in balancing the required flexibility for professionals (as evidenced by the need for diverse delivery methods in the BMC) against the inherent rigidity of Spanish regulatory frameworks for CPs.
Operational Challenges often center on time tabling and scheduling, as the CP’s official structure usually implies a fixed sequence of Competence Units (UCs). The solution, inspired by flexible models, involves shifting the delivery of micro-credentials (UCs) to a hybrid model—offering asynchronous online modules and specific in-person sessions outside core working hours via the Moodle LMS—to maximise accessibility for employed segments.
Furthermore, the Recognition Challenge is twofold: securing clear credit transfer within the Spanish VET system and ensuring international portability. This requires meticulous, detailed documentation of the UC’s learning outcomes and assessment criteria, actively using the European tools (like the Certificate Supplement) to facilitate external comparison and validation, turning transparency into the main strategy for recognizability.
Assessment, Digitalisation, and Recognizability
Achieving international trust for high-level micro-credentials requires rigorous Assessment Validity and digital transparency. Given the CP’s competence-based nature, assessment for the Audit UCs must move beyond simple testing, focusing on demonstrating skills through simulated work environments and real case studies. This ensures that the measured performance translates into verifiable professional competence abroad.
The institution’s commitment to Digitalisation is key: utilising the LMS (Moodle/Classroom) not just for delivery but for detailed tracking of learner progression and assessment results. This digital trace facilitates transparency, allowing partner institutions and accreditation bodies to inspect the teaching content and the methods used for evaluation.
Ultimately, this detailed digital documentation of competence-based assessment and verifiable learning outcomes is the mechanism that supports structural recognizability, making it significantly easier for authorities in other systems to acknowledge the high-quality, specialised training delivered by the Escola del Treball de Lleida.
Building a Scalable Future
The successful pilot of the micro-credential model within the Level 3 Audit CP has provided a clear roadmap for institutional transformation.
By formally leveraging the existing Competence Units (UCs) as official, stackable micro-credentials, the Escola del Treball de Lleida has moved beyond simple course delivery to establish a long-term Micro-credential Strategy. This strategy prioritises the creation of a scalable portfolio across high-demand VET families, ensuring continuous engagement with Key Partners (local industry and international VET centres) to keep UC content relevant and globally recognisable. The commitment to digital transparency and the strategic use of the BMC ensure that future offerings can be quickly deployed and validated. Ultimately, this approach positions the institution as a flexible, quality-focused provider ready to support both Spanish professionals and international learners in navigating the complex demands of the evolving labour market.