Certificate Programs Boost Careers

With higher education costs on the rise, certificate and credentialing programs can offer fast and effective routes toward career advancement.

By George N. Saliba, Contributing Writer On Aug 11, 2025

Many workers are loathe to pay tuition costs for bachelor’s and master’s degrees and invest time in pursuing them especially when they are uncertain about the degrees’ return on investment and/or their own long-term interest in the subject matter. Certificate and credentialing programs may be a partial solution since they not only offer students reduced tuition costs and the ability to test the waters in new areas of expertise, but – depending on the field – certificates can yield both higher salaries and present opportunities for career changes/advancement. 

Certificate and credentialing programs vary widely in their duration, intensity, and costs. A short certificate in food safety suitable for a kitchen worker is a far cry from a three-to-six-college-course certificate in computer science, nursing, business management, or any one of hundreds of certificates offered by accredited higher education institutions at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. 

Stackable Credentials

Certificates can serve as steppingstones. Many students are reportedly interested in so-called “stackable credentials,” meaning the ability to obtain certificates in a relatively short time with the option to later have their courses count toward bachelor’s or master’s degrees. 

“We [all] have families and jobs, and we may want to obtain a degree, but you can take a couple of classes and then something in your life changes [and interrupts your studies],” explains Cynthia G. Baum, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Thomas Edison State University (TESU). “You may not be able to finish the whole [degree], but if you can walk away with a credential and know that at some point you can come back and apply that credential to something bigger and more comprehensive, that’s a real advantage.”

Undergraduate Certificates

Undergraduate students are also enthusiastic about obtaining certificates. National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center statistics reveal that the number of undergraduate students whose highest credential was a certificate increased 11.2% in the 2023-2024 academic year, while the number of students completing bachelor’s degrees declined to the lowest level since academic year 2015-2016. 

“There’s been a growing suspicion that some four-year degrees do not prepare people for the job market, and so that expounds [upon the problem of tuition costs],” Michael J. McDonough, Ph.D., president of Raritan Valley Community College, explains overall. “Students leave with a large amount of debt, and at the same time, they can’t find a job that allows them to pay off that debt.” 

McDonough also says, “[A certificate program] allows you to identify an industry area that you have an interest in, provides you with an industry-valued credential, and often [gives] you immediate employment, and, in New Jersey, a sustainable wage. This is an expensive state to live in. You don’t want to get a credential that gives you a minimum wage job.”

A Wide Range of Certificates

Quality-wage-yielding certificates may include, but are not limited to, advanced manufacturing, aseptic manufacturing, and select allied health careers. On the professional development side, Seton Hall University indicates that healthcare and nursing-related certificates are popular and important due to continued education requirements in these fields; separately, a suite of leadership certificates “are extremely popular for people across job categories, where professionals are looking to enhance their skill sets in their own leadership and also manage groups and teams … and build productive cultures in their organizations,” according to Mary Kate Naatus, Ph.D., assistant provost and dean of continuing education and professional studies, and associate professor of marketing at the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University.

“[Obtaining a certificate] is also a nice way of connecting with people who have the same interests,” adds Joyce Strawser, Ph.D., dean and associate professor of accounting and taxation at the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University. “It can even be a way to build a bit of a network, and perhaps meet somebody who [says], ‘Hey, we’re looking for cybersecurity talent at my firm. Are you interested?’”

Breadth of Certificates

Underscoring the breath of certificates in the higher education sphere is Oya Tukel, Ph.D., dean of the Martin Tuchman School of Management and MT School of Management Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Tukel notes that NJIT “offers over 50 different graduate certificates in subjects ranging from digital marketing and game design to cybersecurity and business analytics, and a few of these are especially in demand right now. 

“At the moment, some of the most popular programs for career advancement are in the tech and data realms. On the business side, Business Analytics and Financial Technology (FinTech) certificates have been very popular, reflecting the demand for data-driven decision making and the digitization of finance in the market.”

Certificate Program Opportunities and Limitations

The role of certificates in career advancement can be mixed and use-case dependent. At the undergraduate level, a Resume Templates report indicates that about 25% of surveyed employers said they will remove bachelor’s degree requirements for some positions by the end of 2025 and accept certificates and experience. Certificate programs, however, do not necessarily replace degrees; many professions require degrees for either entry or advancement, and a long career often requires requisite lifelong learning. 

TESU’s Baum says, “Here’s what I’m concerned about for people who only choose the stackable credentials, or don’t pursue a degree over time: [Students] may be as likely to get an entry-level job, but in order to move up in a lot of organizations, there’s going to be an expectation that people at least have – if not a degree – a kind of diverse educational background, and that can be reflected in a number of different credentials. However, a degree is an easier way to say, ‘I’ve got all this background.’”

She adds, “At some point, we’re going to hit a glass ceiling without the degree.”

Raritan Valley Community College’s McDonough is arguably more direct when it comes to many job openings: “You will hear companies and other entities say, ‘We don’t want the bachelor’s degree to be the entry requirement; we are dropping the requirement.’ The reality is actually a little different; the actual hiring doesn’t often reflect that.”

Conclusion

With both limitations and benefits of certificate programs clear, their popularity is nonetheless growing across the learning landscape. Higher education institutions are leveraging advisory boards, connections to business/industry, as well as third-party consultants to keep abreast of trends and, in turn, offer leading-edge programs. At least some of this activity has been centered on teaching students about artificial intelligence (AI). Speaking more broadly about professionals in the workplace, NJIT’s Tukel concludes, “[They] increasingly want to pick up new skills quickly and throughout their careers, so higher education is shifting to provide more bite-sized, just-in-time learning options. I expect certificate programs to become even more integrated with traditional degrees. For example, it might become common to earn two or three certificates that together equate to a master’s.”

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