UMaine Extension Shows What Recognition of Extension Learning Looks Like

This blog was created in partnership with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Special thanks to Rebecca Long, coordinator of Horticulture Training Programs, and Laura Wilson, director of Non-Academic Learning Initiatives and co-chair of UMaine Credit for Prior Learning Task Force,  for their collaboration on this blog. 

Photo by Allison Shelley/Complete College Photo Library.

Cooperative Extension makes millions of direct education contacts with adults and youth every year, but much of the career-relevant learning that occurs through Extension remains underrecognized. When that learning goes unrecognized, learners miss opportunities to apply it toward academic credit and degree progress. In response to this observation, NCHEMS researched and wrote a brief exploring avenues for ensuring Extension’s skills-based, workforce-aligned programming supports learners in meeting their employment and educational goals. A recent development at the University of Maine offers a concrete example of what it takes to build tangible pathways toward credentials that industry values and academic credit. Extension designed skills-based, workforce-relevant programming and the land-grant institution updated its Credit for Prior Learning policies with Extension leaders at the table.

A Program Built for the Horticultural Workforce

When COVID disrupted in-person programs, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension (UMaine Extension) redesigned its in-depth Master Gardener Volunteer training for an online environment. It adapted it to address another pressing need in Maine: workforce development for the horticulture industry.

The Maine Horticulture Apprentice Training was developed to address findings from a horticulture industry survey that highlighted a labor shortage and a strong demand for credentials; 81% of industry respondents said they would value a program that offered a certification, such as a micro-credential. Adapting an existing, research-based program for a new audience allowed UMaine Extension to respond efficiently and strategically.

To ensure the training aligned with industry needs, an advisory committee made up of industry professionals, state partners, industry associations, and higher education institutions helped shape new content and design a meaningful apprenticeship component. The resulting program blends 18 weeks of self-paced online learning — delivered through Brightspace and built for adult learners with support from an instructional designer — with a 200-hour apprenticeship hosted by horticulture businesses and organizations across Maine. These apprenticeships ensure participants gain geographically accessible, industry-relevant experience beyond what Extension staff alone could provide.

Thanks to flexible pricing and asynchronous online delivery, the program serves both young adults looking to start their careers and working adults pivoting to a second career. Additionally, employers are using the program to upskill their existing employees. To date, 43 individuals have earned the Maine Horticulture Apprentice micro-credential, and 54 businesses and organizations have hosted apprentices.

A Policy Update Opened Doors to Academic Credit

In 2024, the University of Maine successfully updated its Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) process to better recognize modern, skills-based education. The revamped guidelines provide better clarity and new flexibility for learners while preserving departmental authority over what qualifies for academic credit. Led by representatives from the Registrar’s office, the UMaine Adult Degree Completion program, the Transfer office, and UMaine Extension, the CPL Task Force included faculty and administration across campus to modernize the university’s approach.

Concurrently, UMaine Extension had been developing digital badges and stacked micro-credentials — such as those used in the Maine Horticultural Apprentice Training described above — to validate specialized skill development. In response to the growing national trend of alternative credentialing, the Task Force officially approved a pathway for UMaine System (and other) micro-credentials to be evaluated for academic credit under the Credential Review category.

The Maine Horticultural Apprentice Training served as the inaugural test case for these newly adopted criteria, yielding highly successful results. Under the new pathway, completing the program’s foundational training is approved for two elective credit hours. Students who go on to complete the full apprenticeship, thereby earning the complete micro-credential, may be awarded a third credit hour in UMaine’s College of Earth, Life and Health.

What Coordination Makes Possible

The UMaine story illustrates successful pathway development that results from coordination across the divide that has historically separated noncredit and credit-bearing education. UMaine’s success was enabled by Extension’s participation in the broader institutional conversation as the CPL policy was updated, and by concurrent work to develop digital badges and micro-credentials to validate specialized skill development, which positioned the Horticulture Apprentice Training for evaluation under the new CPL criteria.

For institutions and Extension programs ready to build similar pathways that expand possibilities for learners, NCHEMS’ recent brief Recognizing Extension Learning: Pathways to Credit and Career Advancement offers additional recommendations and considerations.