Panel Discussion
Digital Credentials: A Step Towards Skills Recognition or Yet Another Hype?
Date Thursday, Nov 28 Time – RoomCheck
Digital credential standards and services are promising to empower lifelong learners in their attempts at personal and career development. These standards also show potential to bridge the gap between education providers’ skill supply and the labour market’s skill demand. Additionally, they could significantly reduce the cost, time and effort associated with credential issuing and recognition. But is this the reality, or is this promise merely a marketing hook?
Workers of all ages need to upskill or reskill with increasing speed and frequency. This applies to maintaining existing positions or transitioning between jobs. As a result, there is a need for efficient lifelong skill management and career planning. This requires the availability of searchable and accessible further learning. At the same time, people need to demonstrate their skills and qualifications in an informative and verifiable way. This is important for third parties such as employers or admission officers at educational institutions. But what is the added value of digital credentials in this context, and how are they delivering on expectations?
Our expert panel who are deeply familiar with the W3C Verifiable Credentials, the European Learning Model and the Open Badges standards, will delve deep into these fundamental questions. Join the dialogue, where we will scrutinise and discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the expanding use of digital credentials, from the angles of accessibility, usability, proliferation, interoperability and trust issues.
Ildiko Mazar
Sector Consulting Manager, NTT Data, Spain
Ildiko has over 25 years of professional experience in the field of open education and e-learning, and she is particularly passionate about informed and transparent knowledge, skill and competence recognition. In the past 5 years Ildiko has been focusing mostly on supporting the development and uptake of innovative solutions in the fields of competence development and digital (micro-)credentialing, more specifically the European Learning Model and European Digital Credentials for Learning. She is member of the CTDL Advisory Board, and one of the 3 Co-Chairs of the W3C Credentials Community Group's VC-EDU task force.
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Anthony Camilleri
Senior Partner, Knowledge Innovation Centre, Slovenia
Anthony F. Camilleri is a senior partner and founder of the Knowledge Innovation Centre, specialised on digital technologies in education and credentialing. He has worked on unbundling and micro-credentialling for nearly ten years, working with universities and policy-makers on how to produce, certify and recognise small units of learning - with a focus on ensuring portability between institutions and employers. He has been consulting with the European Commission around the creation and implementation of European Digital Credentials for Learning, the European Learning Model model, and the Diplomas Use Case of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure. He has worked on blockchain credentialling projects in Europe, Indonesia and the United States.
Throughout his career, Mr. Camilleri has focused on using these tools to enhance access to education and employment, enabling lifelong learners to get a greater choice in study opportunities, and more flexible pathways in combining these opportunities to match their life and career goals. Anthony is a coffee-addict, sci-fi buff and believer in the power of education to realise human potential.
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Paul den Hertog
Consultant, SURF
Paul is a sailor, designer and senior consultant for lifelong learning and flexible education at SURF, with over 20 years of experience in Higher Education innovation. As a designer, he works on creative interventions that support HEIs in their digital transformation. As a consultant and project manager he is working actively on the combination of Micro-credentials and the European Digital Identity Wallet, which will allow all Europeans to access and share their educational credentials in a privacy-friendly manner.
Helen Gray
International project development Manager, IÐAN education centre, Iceland
Helen Gray is the International Development Manager at IÐAN Education Centre in Iceland. She holds a BS in Administration Dietetics from Umeå University, Sweden, an MA in Pedagogy from the University of Iceland, and a teaching qualification. With over 20 years in the vocational education and training (VET) sector, Helen has led research and development at IÐAN for 15 years, contributing to both national and international initiatives in initial VET (IVET), continuing VET (CVET) and continuous professional development (CPD). Currently, she is focused on advancing digital transformation in education.