Interesting Reads This Week

Was this forwarded to you by a friend? Sign up, and get your own copy of the news that matters sent to your inbox every week. Sign up for the On EdTech newsletter. Interested in additional analysis? Try with our 30-day free trial and Upgrade to the On EdTech+ newsletter.

I'm glad to be home for a bit after a couple of weeks of travel. There's certainly a lot happening in EdTech right now, but what did I read?

A professional and continuing snapshot in time

UPCEA just released their State of Continuing Education 2025 report focusing on Professional and Continuing Education (PCE) units, and the results are a bit of a mixed bag. There’s progress in some areas but also ongoing frustrations, and a few surprises.

The biggest surprise? A drop in reported enrollments in PCE units, with an average reported enrollment of 15,925 students for the 2023–2024 academic year. That’s down from last year, and apart from the sharp dip in 2021–2022, it shows a steady downward trend.

It would be helpful to see a longer time series and a deeper analysis of why this decline might be happening. Are more offerings being absorbed by academic departments or online learning units outside of PCE? Is demand decreasing, or is there simply more competition?

PCE units did report stronger engagement with corporate and training partnerships, which is a positive sign. However, offerings of microcredentials, graduate and undergraduate certificates, and stackable credentials are sharply down compared to last year. The only category of credential that saw an increase were industry-recognized credentials.

This trend is likely partly due to the way we categorize credentials. Microcredentials, certificates, industry credentials, and stackable credentials aren’t really distinct categories, they often overlap. It’s possible that the broader shift toward workforce preparation, which we’re seeing both across the sector and in this survey, is driving a move toward industry credentials at the expense of other types of offerings.

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.