How digital credentials are transforming skills recognition in the humanitarian sector

All over the world, roles and workplaces are evolving at an accelerating pace, requiring workers to engage in lifelong learning rather than early career education, in order to adapt and keep up with change. Nowhere is this more true than in the humanitarian sector, where new threats such as climate change and prolonged conflict, the challenges and opportunities posed by new technologies, and changing power and funding dynamics, are requiring an already fast-moving sector to adapt even faster than before.
 
HPass is a collaborative digital badging initiative that is transforming the way skills and experience are recognised in the humanitarian sector, in order to respond to these challenges. Used by over 30 organisations, from large international organisations such as the Red Cross and Norwegian Refugee Council, to smaller national ones, it enables humanitarians worldwide to gather evidence of their skills and achievements on a dedicated badge passport known as myHPass.
 
Humanitarians maintain one myHPass profile throughout their careers, as they move between organisations and locations. Badges issued through myHPass offer a transparent method of recognising all kinds of experience, which is particularly relevant in the humanitarian sector, where much valuable knowledge stems from the practical experience of those living in areas where crises take place, as opposed to formal courses and assessments which can be time-consuming and expensive. They also offer an efficient method of verifying an individual’s skills, which is critical in a sector where rapid recruitment and deployment are key to effective emergency response.
 
Learning Outcomes

• How digital credentials can be used to promote skills development and recognition across a sector community as opposed to a specific organisation.
• The key success factors for organisations looking to adopt digital credentials.
• How digital credentials promote inclusion of people who may not have time or financial means to access expensive courses and assessments
• How to maintain quality across a sector badging initiative, whilst enabling the system to reflect diversity of skills and experience

Speaker

Esther Grieder

Humanitarian Leadership Academy, UK

Esther Grieder has worked in the international development and humanitarian sectors for fifteen years, with a focus on education and employment, youth and learning. In recent years she has led the HPass initiative from concept through to implementation as a digital badging currency platform used by 30+ organisations and over 20,000 individuals in the humanitarian sector.