MicroCreds was originally a €14.3 million project (2020-2026) led by the  Irish Universities Association in partnership with eight universities: DCU, Maynooth University, Trinity College Dublin, UCC, UCD, University of Galway and University of Limerick with TU Dublin joining the project in early 2025. After the project concluded in spring 2026, the HigherEducation Authority assumed management and responsibility of the MicroCreds portal.  

Ireland is the first European country to establish a coherent National Framework for quality assured and accredited micro-credentials. IUA project Partner universities are collaborating to develop, pilot and evaluate the building blocks required for a transformation in lifelong learning through micro-credentials. Micro-credentials have the potential to reimagine and reframe the relationship between learners, Higher Education Institutions, enterprise and civil society partners, generating a step change in lifelong and life-wide learning.  

The HEA’s aim is for MicroCreds to address the barriers to participation in lifelong learning, including time constraints for learners and inflexibility in current programme provision and delivery. The inherent flexibility in micro-credentials means that learners can access learning in discrete small units, at a time and pace which allows greater balance with both life and work commitments.

Higher Education Institutions throughout Ireland are engaging with business representative organisations, enterprise agencies, private sector companies and state bodies with responsibility for skills to change thinking about and engagement structures with HE learning. The primary focus of MicroCreds is to engage learners who seek to upskill, reskill, or change careers. Key skills focus areas have included Zero Carbon, Digital Transformation & Artificial Intelligence and SMEs, with a future focus on BioPharmaChem, Food & Agriculture, Offshore Wind Energy, together with other sectors currently experiencing high-level skills needs.