The perceived labour market value of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Europe and the USA

ABSTRACT The advantages of higher education have received significant attention over time. However, recent research seems to challenge this assumption. It highlights that returns to education may be subject to inflation, may vary in relation to skills, and may not be equally distributed, thus posing new questions about the role of formal education. Against this background, the growing popularity of new forms of online education and training such as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have emerged. Investigating the way different learners use MOOCs may contribute to a deeper understanding of the evolution of the labour market outcomes of both traditional and technologically-mediated educational qualifications. Based on 43 semi-structured interviews conducted with MOOC users in the USA and in Europe, this article explores the potential of MOOCs on the labour market. The positional competition approach can help frame the results, inasmuch as MOOCs emerge as ‘soft credentials’. These accessible and flexible educational tools seem to provide applicants in the job queue with additional resources, although their labour market value remains modest and ancillary to formal educational qualifications. From a long-term perspective, however, increasing reliance on this type of training may contribute to further shifting of responsibilities from collective actors to individual workers.