From Credentials to Capabilities: Marketing Strategy and Value-Proposition Redesign in the Skills-Based MOOC Economy

As global labor markets shift from degree-based to skills-based signaling, skills-driven massive online course (MOOC) platforms face a second, less examined pressure: employers increasingly expect credentials to signal global competency alongside technical proficiency. This paper undertakes a conceptual and strategic analytical review to examine how skills-driven platforms might credibly design and market a dual-signal value proposition — skill mastery combined with demonstrated global competency — treating this repositioning as a problem of business-model innovation and strategic marketing rather than promotional messaging. Drawing on entrepreneurship, marketing-strategy, labor-signaling, and global-competency literatures, alongside Southeast Asian and Philippine higher-education marketing evidence, the paper finds that neither skills-based nor competency-based signaling alone has proven sufficient to displace traditional degree credentials, positioning a credible combined signal as an unexplored strategic opportunity. The analysis further shows that the credibility of any such signal rests on verification infrastructure rather than message reach, that trust-centered and evidence-resonant marketing consistently outperforms prestige-oriented positioning, and that Southeast Asian platforms face a market-building task — establishing baseline credibility for competency-oriented digital credentials — that precedes competitive differentiation. The paper contributes a theoretical integration currently absent from the literature, extending business-model-innovation and marketing-positioning scholarship into an unexamined dual-signal space, while offering platform strategists a disciplined, verification-first framework for pursuing this repositioning without reproducing the credibility gaps already documented in single-signal credentialing.