Chieta proposes digital badges to replace artisan certificates

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 our Smart Skills Centres and Coded Welders.

CHIETA is an innovation leader in education and training and 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.

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.

In the submission, the staff said the world is evolving, particularly in learning and recognition. In the South African context, while we have had 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 “, e.g., artisans’ digital and entrepreneurial ability, SMMES, etc., without properly recognising them.

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 has committed to the strategic objectives of digitising and Innovating. Against this background, the organisation’s Ideation Committee has been urged to consider Badging as an Additional Method for recognising Learner Achievement.

Advantages of Badging

• Supports current trends in recruitment. Potential job seekers increasingly use 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, e.g. MICT, SITA, QCTO, Algoatwork, Microsoft, CETs, etc.

CHIETA, which achieved a clean audit and met 100 per cent of its objectives in the current financial year, is identifying suitable programmes with short-term benefits and defining their criteria and standards.

The proposal to Badge aligns with the Chieta Mission/Vision and strategic objectives as it provides a breakthrough innovative approach to recognising and validating skills and achievement, creating high impact.