Author: Margo Griffith, Principal Skills Consultant, Edalex
How would learner ownership of data and progress from day one change educational journeys?
We appear to be missing a vital component when we plan and implement learning experiences. Strategies are developed around teaching and learning, but rarely around recognition. In formal learning environments, learning only gets recognised upon completion of a qualification such as the HSC, a vocational certificate or a degree.Anything less than completion and the learners are deemed a drop out or stop out- a statistic of the system.
Imagine a world where we can be recognised for our learning as we go. That our learning achievements are digitally captured and made visible to all stakeholders in our trusted learning community, and then presented in a way that the learner both owns the data and can choose how to share it. Technically this can happen today. Culturally and structurally we have many barriers.
Fundamentally, a recognise- as-you- go model offers learners the privilege of choice. When a learner and their learning team, has visibility over their skills they can make informed choices around their learning and/or employment pathways.Research has established that learners who develop and nurture a growth mindset across their learning journey are more likely to be strong, independent and resilient learners(1 and 2). All traits required as we tackle a dynamic and disruptive future. Recognition at the point of learning plays a large part in fostering the intrinsic motivation to learn.We could also go a step further and credential-as-we-go. Recognition involves capturing feedback, but credentialing awards a form of currency to the learner. Ideally both recognition and credentialing as you go should be in standards based digital format to ensure security accessibility and portability. The importance of having a strategy that encompasses both an action plan and a digital architecture to support scale and sustainability cannot be overstressed.
So why do we hold learning achievement hostage until the completion of a qualification? Clearly funding plays a large part across our formal education system, as do the artefacts that act as signals to unlock opportunity i.e. the HSC and ATAR unlocks the path forward to University and a degree (for the most part) unlocks better employment opportunities. In Australia, the percentage of young people finishing Year 12 or equivalent has remained steady at roughly 76%. This drops significantly in places like the Northern Territory to 40%, where the population is primarily remote and Indigenous Australians. Our job market is heavily qualifications driven. According to the Australian Jobs report in 2023, almost 90% of jobs currently being advertised require post-school qualifications, almost 40% of jobs currently being advertised require a Bachelor degree or higher and around half of jobs currently being advertised require a VET qualification. So what happens to your long term job prospects when you can’t start or complete a qualification? More importantly what happens when you are remote or in a marginalised population to your long term job prospects.
Most of the policy work is aimed at increasing participation in the existing learn to earn system, but what if we flip this away from a qualifications only signal and move to a broader signal around skills? Could we get more meaningful employment for all if we have a way of recognising skills as they are learned and applied? Could this recognition become currency if we have the whole ecosystem, including employers, committed to a more equitable future?
The Australian Universities Accord final report makes some soft recommendations that speak to the credential as you go notion, but frame this in the accepted view of sub baccalaureate qualifications not actually a more flexible and responsive skills system (p26 of the final report).
This is not a technical challenge. As mentioned before the technical building blocks are in place today. The challenge lies in the intricate lattice of dependencies that have been built over decades of systemic reinforcement. It is an economic imperative for Australia to start to pick away at those dependencies and create better, more visible, achievable pathways for all learners.
References:
Blackwell L.S., Trzesniewski K.H., Dweck C.S. Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child Dev. 2007;78:246–263. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.00995.x. [PubMed] [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
Dweck C. Who will the 21st-century learners be? Knowl. Quest. 2009;38:8–10. [Google Scholar]
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/non-school-qualifications#more-info
https://www.indigenoushpf.gov.au/measures/2-05-education-outcomes-young-people
Australian Jobs Report 2023 https://www.yourcareer.gov.au/resources/australian-jobs-report/education-employment
Universities Accort Final Report https://www.education.gov.au/australian-universities-accord/resources/final-report
