TO fast-track and recognise that all types of learning are necessary to boost one’s skill set, the Chemical Industries Education & Training Authority (Chieta) has proposed badging as a new way of recognising and verifying learner achievements, skills, and competencies using digital images.
The idea emerged during a boot camp by Chieta staff in Midrand last week when a proposal was made to investigate how learner achievement for specific programmes was recognised.
This proposal responds to the growing need for a more modern and effective approach to skills recognition in the evolving world of education and training.
During the camp Chieta staff motivated for badging to replace physical certificates for specific competencies such as bricklaying, sewing, coding, add-on skills for artisans, entrepreneurship, future green skills, hydrogen skills programmes, learners exiting Chieta’s smart skills centres and coded welders.
Chieta is an innovation leader in education and training and says it believes badging is a visual representation of accomplishments, unlike paper-based certificates. Badging can be seen as a bridge between learning achievement and job opportunities, the authority says.
Chieta badges will link to a landing page that provides further insights into the skills and competencies achieved.
AWS, Microsoft, SAP, IBM and Google are some companies that have embraced badging.
The proposal, submitted to the Chieta ideation committee for consideration, could have significant implications for skills development in the country. Badging’s benefits, such as its alignment with current recruitment trends and its potential to influence SAQA/QCTO certification, make it a compelling initiative, according to Chieta.
In the submission, the staff said the world is evolving, particularly in terms of learning and recognition. In the South African context, while there have been reviews of the NQF, SAQA Act, Qualifications Framework, Educational Acts, and Quality Assurance bodies, little has been done to review traditional forms of certification.
Currently, Chieta funds learners with “add-on skills“, for example, the digital and entrepreneurial ability of artisans, SMMES, and the like, without proper recognition.
Furthermore, the new occupational qualification framework limits recognition to short-term skills programmes – previous unit standard-based qualifications allowed for combining unit standards and SETA recognition via SORs.
While the traditional paper-based certificate may have a place in the educational process, it has shortcomings, such as the risk of fraud. It may not support some basic guidelines of the NQF principles, viz., Integration, Credibility, Flexibility, and Improvement, Chieta says.
Advantages of badging
- Supports current trends in recruitment. Potential job seekers are increasingly using various platforms to capture their capabilities, such as social media, digital resumes, email signatures, LinkedIn, etc. It is an excellent tool for communicating capabilities.
- It aligns with the digital nature of the workforce and shifts in recruitment practices, thus enhancing job- opportunities
- It provides versatility and visibility to a broader audience for job seekers to showcase themselves.
- Recognition of short courses and skills programmes, including non-credit-bearing
- Influence SAQA/QCTO certification
Chieta is investigating designing such a platform within organisational capability. This would also involve collaborating with other partners, for example, MICT, SITA, QCTO, Algoatwork, Microsoft, CETs, and the like.
