Giving Compass' Take:

• Four year colleges are starting to embed more certifications into their degree programs, but higher education administrators must first focus on setting up standards for these credits.

• How can donors that work with education and workforce development organizations to offer support to colleges during the "embedding" process?

• Read more about upskilling certification programs in colleges.

Momentum is building beyond community colleges for offering industry credentials through the curriculum, but a lack of standardization and uptake present challenges.

Up until now, most of the "embedding" has occurred at community and technical colleges. That's starting to change, as four-year colleges come under increasing pressure to show they're preparing students for the workforce.

This year, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) will take part in a series of meetings aimed at strengthening ties between four-year colleges and credentialing bodies and developing a plan to test embedding at the baccalaureate level.

Yet even the most ardent advocates of embedding acknowledge that expanding it to four-year colleges, and scaling it across institutions, won't be easy. Faculty at four-year colleges are less accustomed to collaborating with industry than are their community college peers, and they tend to view their mission as broader than workforce prep. Some professors will see changes to the curricula as teaching for an industry-sponsored test.

The biggest hurdle, however, is a lack of evidence that embedding works. Many programs that offer certifications don't even know if their students passed the exam, let alone whether they were more likely to get a job or earn more than their peers who don't have certifications.

Read the full article about embedding certifications in degree programs by Kelly Field at Education Dive