Le Cordon Bleu welcomes the future of learning with micro-credentials

Le Cordon Bleu Australia has won competitive grant funding from education tech company OpenLearning to create innovative online micro-credentials called ‘OpenCreds’ – a new form of bite-sized learning that can be undertaken by anyone, anytime.

“We are delighted to be partnering with OpenLearning to drive this exciting initiative. This is a wonderful opportunity for Le Cordon Bleu to play a leading role in shaping the future of online education,” says Le Cordon Bleu Australia Executive Dean, Professor Alan Bowen-James.

Le Cordon Bleu’s range of OpenCreds will introduce people from all walks of life to career prospects in cuisine, hospitality, business and other fields, through short, ‘stackable’ courses. These courses can serve as pathways into formal qualifications for those who wish to pursue further study, or count towards professional development, providing upskilling in any area of hospitality.

The partnership with OpenLearning comes at the perfect time for Le Cordon Bleu, which only recently launched a suite of thirteen new accredited online Undergraduate and Graduate Higher Education Certificates spanning a range of disciplines, from gastronomy to tourism, event, hotel and restaurant management, and business.  

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What arose from a necessary response to COVID by going online has become an entirely new way for us to engage with students and the public in general. Our model traditionally has been face-to-face instruction, based on a tried-and-true methodology. The silver-lining of COVID, for us, is that it compelled Le Cordon Bleu Australia to be innovative and think differently about what we do. It has taken us way out of our comfort zone and challenged us to reinvent ourselves.

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Le Cordon Bleu’s grant comes from OpenLearning’s OpenCreds Investment Fund, created to assist innovative education providers in developing high quality online micro-credentials that will make learning more accessible and achievable than conventional qualifications.This is the first time Le Cordon Bleu Australia has ventured into competitive online learning funding; an effort which Professor Bowen-James says has been "successful beyond our wildest hopes". 

“What makes the OpenCreds framework different is it helps students make informed choices about the study and career journeys they’re embarking on, and provides them with more pathway opportunities than would have been open to them previously,” says OpenLearning Australia Managing Director, Cherie Diaz. “Our ambition is for OpenCreds to become the industry standard for delivering micro-credentials within the Australian education sector.”

CRICOS 02380M / RTO 4959