It also includes more short courses that emphasize job skills — both hard skills, such as a new computer language or technology, and soft skills, such as learning how to engage in difficult conversations — using real-life problems and case studies.

Since the courses, for the most part, are open to all, don’t require a long-term commitment and cost far less per credit than a typical graduate degree, they are more accessible to a wider range of learners.

“Everyone has a slightly different view of what this is,” said Christopher Dede, a professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. “The goal is to make this a thoughtful evolution rather than doing it piecemeal.”

While there is no written curriculum, a few universities — including UC Irvine, Harvard and the University of Washington — are at the cutting edge of the concept. A book coedited by Professor Dede, “The 60-year Curriculum: New Models for Lifelong Learning in the Digital Economy,” that developed out of two Harvard conferences on the subject, is expected to be published next year.

Many continuing education programs already offer some of the elements. For example, the University of Washington Continuum College, which is the continuing education and professional development division of the University of Washington in Seattle, offers 99 certificate programs — most noncredit — as well as 111 graduate degree programs.

An entire certificate course, which can take up to nine months part time to complete, runs between $3,600 and $4,500, said Rovy Branon , the college’s vice provost. Even with the low fees, some students need financial aid, so “we’ve started our own noncredit scholarship fund,” Dr. Branon said, which is unusual in the continuing education world.

The number of certificate students has increased by 31 percent since 2016, he said.

One thing that almost everyone agrees is needed is more guidance, a theme that stood out in interviews with Harvard’s continuing education students, Professor Dede said. As their careers progress, “they’re looking for a kind of sustained coaching that isn’t necessarily tied to a particular institution, but someone who understands the whole map of potential support services that they might need.” Or as Dr. Branon termed it, a learning concierge.