The Learner Voice - Skills Visibility Matters

This webinar explores the "wicked problem" of skills visibility, focusing on how validated, skills-first ecosystems empower learners and earners. Panelists from Education Design Lab and SkillsAware/Edalex discuss the XCredit project and SkillsAware platform powered by Edalex technology, highlighting how technology and human-centred design can turn lived experience into verified currency for employability. Through powerful learner stories and employer insights, we examine the shift from degrees as proxies to a future of lifelong skilling and skills mobility.

Key areas of discussion:

✅How tools like XCredit and SkillsAware are transforming lived experience into verified, meaningful data
✅The power of visibility in helping learners better understand their own capabilities
✅Why durable skills are critical in the workforce

Speakers:

• Tara Laughlin, Ed.D. (Education Design Lab) – a leading voice in durable skills and the architect of learner-centered credentialing models.
• Nishita Chheda (Education Design Lab) – expert in skills-based research and learner advocacy.
• Margo Griffith (Edalex / SkillsAware) – Principal Skills Consultant focused on solving the wicked problem of skills recognition through auditable evidence.
• The Learners – hear directly from three professionals about the “Aha!” moment of seeing their unseen skills finally verified and portable.

👉 Watch the full video on https://skillsaware.com/videos/the-learner-voice-webinar-why-skills-visibility-matter/

About SkillsAware

SkillsAware is an AI-powered skills recognition engine developed through a collaboration between SkillsIQ, a skills-focused not-for-profit and Edalex, an award-winning EdTech and SkillsTech company, building on decades of technology and skills expertise. Its SkillsTech platform and associated services captures and maintains an evidence-based indicator of the plethora of skills that individuals accumulate progressively.

SkillsAware enables organisations to identify the skills that exist within their workforce and highlight strengths and gaps so they can plan for the future. SkillsAware assists with skills-based hiring and resourcing and supports and contributes to productivity, performance, opportunity and reward goals. SkillsAware has relevance for individuals, small, medium and large enterprises and industries in the recognition of current capability, prior learning and experience.

Learn more on our website - https://skillsaware.com
Connect on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/skillsaware/
Connect on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SkillsAware
Follow on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/@Skills_Aware

Transcript

Tara Laughlin: So, for those who aren't aware, this is a continent-spanning webinar. We have folks for whom it is Between 2 and 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 5th. That would include myself and my Education Design Lab colleagues, but also our Edalex friends and partners, and it is 7 a.m. Wednesday, May 6th. in where you are at today, yes. So, we're spanning time zones and continents. And there's coffee, and we are all good. That's right, hold it up. Hold it up. It may be 3PM here, but I am also still drinking coffee. Okay. Well, I will go ahead and, kick us off, so thank you to all who have joined us for today's webinar, The Learner Voice, and Why Skills Visibility Matters. You are joined today by, three primary facilitators whose headshots you can see on the screen, and even more importantly, our special guests, which are the learners. Briefly, I am Tara Laughlin, Senior Director of Skills Visibility with Education Design Lab. We're a national nonprofit based in the U.S. And I'm joined by my colleague, Nishida Cheta. She is a mixed methods researcher and designer, also with Education Design Lab, and the lovely Margo Griffith, Principal Skills Consultant with SkillsAware and Edalex. So thank you both ladies for, being here to speak today. We have, two learners and one partner who works very closely with learners to share with you all today about two different approaches to skills visibility that our respective organisations have And testing and piloting over the past several years. So you'll get to hear a little bit about two different use cases and two different approaches to helping make learner skills visible today. Next slide. Alright, thank you.

XCredit and the Skills Ecosystem

Tara Laughlin: So, Use Case 1, as I'll call it, is a project based out of Education Design Lab that is called XCREDIT, and that stands for Experience Credit. And the thank you to Walmart here is just a recognition of the fact that the work that myself and Nishida will be speaking about today was funded by Walmart.org and our amazing program officers, Patty and Sean, so thank you to them. Next slide, please. All right, when you first look at this slide, you may be struck by the fact that this is a lot of logos. And even more impressively than the fact that it's a lot of logos is the fact that behind these logos are a lot of technologies that were integrated, yes, actually integrated, to make the XCredit use case, skills visibility use case possible. So you can see around the outside, Education Design Lab, we were sort of the lead organisation on this project, but we connected tools and technologies from, D2L, a learning management system. The wonderful Edalex, who you'll get to hear a lot more from, Margo about today. Muzzy Lane, our assessment provider, Unicon as our technical technical experts, Credly on badging and credentialing, and smart resume as a digital tool, resume kind of learner wallet technology. And this was all in service of making learners' durable skills visible. So in the center of that circle, if you squint, maybe you can read the fine print. You'll see that those are some of the lab's micro-credentials for, a variety of durable skills, including things like collaboration, critical thinking, and initiative. Next slide, please.

Tara Laughlin: So at the lab, the future state that we are driving toward, and this project is a key contributor toward, is what we call a validated skills-based ecosystem. So we read a lot, and we hear a lot about the skills-based ecosystem, or the skills-first hiring, skills-first approaches. And we put the word validated in blue here just to say it's not just about being skills-based, it's about being validated skills-based as a means to make learner skills visible. And so what that means is, and you can see in the center of this graphic. We've got our credentials, we have our learning programs, we have our hiring processes, and there's skills data flowing through all of these systems. That needs to be good, trustworthy, reliable skills data. And one of the key ways to make that happen is through what we call skills validation. You may think of that as assessment, and assessment is definitely one way of validating skills, but there's a whole host of other ways to approach that as well. Next slide, please. Alright, so how do we get there? How do we make the skills validated and visible? In the XCredit project, in the top left corner here, what you can see is the design question that we kicked off with almost, yeah, almost 4 years ago now. Which is, how might we validate and credential existing skills to make learners and earners more visible in the talent marketplace? So that existing skills, that is key. We were, looking to… add some automation and, basically infuse with technology kind of the RPL process, the recognition of prior learning process. And so, as a part of doing that, we developed the skills ecosystem with those technology partners. We formed the Skills Validation Network. So on the top right, you can see just a plug for our Skills Validation Network, our community of action. And over the years, we've been working through the lab's design process to better understand and prototype solutions to this question. Next slide, please.

Tara Laughlin: So what you're gonna see today, and actually what you're gonna hear about through the experience of two of our learners, is what did this integrated, learner experience feel like, right? Moving from, let's say, a career navigation platform into an LMS, learning management system, into an assessment technology, into a badging platform, with the Edalex technology running on the back end and connecting all of the dots together into the learner wallet. What was that learner experience actually like? Navigating all of these integrated systems in order to reach that goal of skills visibility. The screenshots here do tell a story, but they're… they're kind small, so, you'll hear more, a little bit later that kind of walks you through that journey. Next slide, please. And this is another look at what the learner did. So the steps across the top just kind of show you what the pathway looked like. entering into our XCredit system, choosing the competency that they wanted to validate based on their prior experience. Using our validation and assessment opportunities to actually validate those skills. Earning credentials for their validated skills. Having a smart resume account automatically created for them Receiving notification of that. Claiming their validated skills and their newly awarded credentials. which were all ported automatically into their Smart Resume, learner wallet. And then being able to drill down into those skills and credentials, with the help of the Edalex Credential 8 platform to view the evidence record, to better understand what it was they had to do to earn that credential. Next slide, please. And at this point, I am going to pass it to Marco.

The Technology Layer: Edalex and SkillsAware

Margo Griffith: Thanks, Tara. Can everyone hear me okay? We are good. Lovely to be with you this morning. I have had 4 sips of coffee, so if I'm not making any sense, I will have more sips of coffee to rectify that problem. we have been working with the amazing Education Design Lab for a long time on this very, very wicked problem. And I want to say that Tara has been using the word ecosystem, a few times, and it truly is that. There is not one There's not one lens of perception on skills visibility and a skills-first approach to that learn-to-earn. journey for learners, right? It's gonna take the village. And we are part of that village from a technology lens. Edalex is an Australian technology company, and we have been hyper-focused on this Issue around how can we make Skills visible from the learner perspective, not from the institution or the organisation perspective, although that happens by By default, but… If we design from a learner perspective, what does that look like to be able to tell your story of what you know and can do? And not just what you know from formal learning, what you know from your lived experience. And so that's the wicked problem we have been working on. As Tara indicated. we're kind of the plumbers that sit underneath. We don't want to be recognised, we do not want you to know we are there. And if the learners know we are there, that's a problem, because what we want to do is make that a seamless process. And so… Education Design Lab, many of the people that I know are… are watching this, this webinar, Edalex. We have all been… wanting to change the narrative around where did you go to school as the proxy and the prompt for hiring, to what skills do you have? And can you articulate those to me in that hiring process? And can you show it In a way, that is trustworthy, and has proof. And both of those words, trust and proof, mean it kind of have some evidence, right? There has to be some, evidence underneath this claim that you're making around skills, and that's kind of what we do as well. So just up here, you know, when you do change that narrative, suddenly it unlocks a whole raft of opportunities. Your confidence, the mobility. your capabilities to follow non-traditional pathways, into formal learning, if that's what you want, fairer hiring practices, and really, when we get to that other point, more efficient reskilling. So, that shift in that narrative, that paradigm shift is what we're all working towards, and it has to happen, because it's an economic imperative, not just in the United States, not just in Australia. But globally, it's kind of a non-negotiable that we make this shift. Next slide, please. Right. So, do you have a story to tell? I know we all do. And our story moves way beyond our transcript, way beyond the signals that our formal learning gives us, and way beyond, really, our resume. So how do we make that a holistic view of you?

Margo Griffith: ALX has been working on the wicked problem of skills visibility for a while, but just recently, we formed a new entity called SkillsAware. And we were able to do that because AI got to the point where we could really use it effectively to do all that hard work, the hard mapping. All of the work that was way too difficult in the past, to bring that evidence that you have And map that against something that is standardised, quality assured, and, and… And understood as a common language between I guess, education, yourself. and employers, and that is a framework, or a taxonomy, or some sort of common language skills library, that we all understand that when we say, I've got this. We know what that is, right? Next slide, Duy. So just quickly moving through this, this is what Skillsware looks like. It essentially, is an AI-powered, evidence tool. So that you can have this conversation with the AI, you can upload your evidence, and it is mapping against a referenced database of skills. In Australia, we're doing that against, at the moment, the Australian training packages, but we can do that say if we're working in the US, we would use a different framework. If we're using for a specific industry, we would use those industry standards. So it's very flexible in the way that we can move through and reference these skills. Next slide, Duy. This is just a little view around how you would interact with, with that, AI engine, and then it keeps on coming up with a list of suggested skills, and then you can choose which ones you want to interrogate and And look at further. Next one, Duy. yeah, we don't want to spend too much time on this, because I was just setting the scene for when Emily talks. She's one of our, initial piloters of SkillsAware, so Fascinated to hear. How she feels, how her learners, her staff feel, around using some of this new technology around skills recognition, skills visibility, and skills validation. Next one. Next slide, Duy. We won't go into that, because really, it's not about the technology. This webinar is about. what it looks like for the people that are utilising it, right? We know that underneath, this is what's happening. You know, learners are taking a survey, they're guided through an AI conversation, we're gathering all their evidence. And we're mapping it to give some sort of output. Now, that output can be a report, it can be a digital credential, it could be a data feed into a HR system, it could be lots of things, and we have kept it deliberately. Very flexible, in that regard. Next slide, Duy. I think that's actually the end of that, that one. So having said all of that, I am really keen to hear, actually, from the stars of the show, so I am going to pass this over to Nishida, and the wonderful Tamara S. and Monique E..

Learner Voice: Monique E. and Tamara S.'s Experience

Nishita Chheda: Thanks, Margot. It's so helpful to see, like, the hidden gears behind the system that we don't usually see as learners or even facilitators. So thank you for the little glimpse into that, and You know, I still very strongly believe that a system is only as good as the value it provides to the people who are using it, so I'm super, super excited. to just pivot from the how to the who, and, you know, in our work on XCredit, I've had the chance to speak, to multiple users and, to help bring some of those real-life human experiences, in this space. I'm so honored to be joined by two incredible… and I know we've been saying learners, but, you know, it's really learners, earners, because You know, these people have, you know, almost of our users have… are both learners, and, like, I'm constant learners, but we're also earners, so I just want to make that little call out, but… I'll do a quick intro, but I love, Monique E. and Tamara S. to introduce, like, I'll… I want you to have this space to introduce yourself. But yeah, Monique E., do you… we have Monique E. here from Higher Heroes USA, she's a military spouse, and… Hire Heroes USA is one of our partners, and Tamara S. is, one of our users, from Generation. She's a Generation Hope Scholar, and I'd love for both of you to introduce yourselves, but Monique E., do you want to go first?

Monique E.: Sure. So, first off, I'd like to say thank you so much for having me today. I certainly love these types of think tank discussions, that move the needle forward. This is certainly a great platform, especially when you consider kind of the rise of AI and just expansive learning at our fingertips. And so, as Nishida mentioned, I'm a military spouse. I am actually also a PhD. I have a PhD in business management, and professionally, my background has not really spanned the gamut for a military spouse, which is kind of contra, stereotype. I have, for several years, specifically done risk management, most recently kind of delved into the nonprofit space. after nonprofit is when I connected with Hire Heroes and, you know, took a couple of different competency, modules and came across, X Credit. And so, that's a little bit about me. From San Diego, but currently in the National Capital Region, and, you know, just super happy to kind kind of see where this discussion takes us today.

Nishita Chheda: Thank you, Monique E.. And Tamara, do you want to introduce yourself?

Tamara S.: Hi, I'm Tamara S., thank you for having me here. I'm from New York, and live in Maryland in the United States. I currently attend Coppington State University and am studying early childhood human development. and have an associate in early childhood education, and right now, I'm a pre-K teacher and a mom of a preschooler. And so… those experiences led me through Generation Hope to be here today, so I'm happy to be here. Thanks.

Nishita Chheda: Thank you both. And yeah, just to provide some more context around XCredit and what that experience looks like for someone who enters is, xCredit is a skills validation platform, and when Tamara S. and Monique E. essentially join the platform, they see a host of durable skills that the lab provides, and then they're able to… see, essentially, that they have all of these skills, and they just need to go and take some assessments and validate them, and then they end up earning a credential for that. That's just some context for people on this call who may not fully know what XCredit was, but I'm going to jump into two questions, and we'll do, like, a panel style with you, Monique E. and Tamara, and… so, our first question for both of you is, so. We've been… on this call, we've been talking about skills visibility as a concept, but as… you know, people who experienced a skills validation process, how did it actually feel to see… you have these multiple life experiences. And so many of these stay invisible, right? Like, even skills that you've gained from, like, being a military spouse, from being a parent, from being a teacher, from, you know, being a PhD holder, like, there are so many skills that we have. We've gained them through, like, a host of life experiences. And so many of these are invisible. And yeah, just, like, having a platform where you were able to validate them, how does it feel to Have, like, a valid, verified currency, essentially, in your hands.

Monique E.: I can go first. Can you all hear me?

Nishita Chheda: Yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead.

Monique E.: Okay, perfect. So, I, you know, I will say that, from a practical sense, a resume can only hold so much. Traditionally, the expectation is that it's two pages, no more than two pages, kind of straight to the point. you know, highlighting your core and foundational skills. And so, from that perspective, it's extremely helpful to have a platform where there's a URL Where, you know, someone can click and kind of discover and validate what your skills are, in addition to or in supplemental of what your resume says. In addition, oftentimes when you're taking, you know, different courses or different modules that allow you to enhance your skills, you may be delving into a scale that's not necessarily a job title. Or necessarily something, you know, that… specifically the employer is looking for, but in the good-to-have qualities or preferred qualities, the credentials can touch on that. And so. Again, while you have your standard resume that can only highlight, you know, what your professional summary is, what your core skills are, what you've done in the past, maybe some volunteerism on there, that And within 2 pages, having a link that an employer can click on… on your resume to see that, yes, they've done this, but then also they've upskilled in this way. They're showing initiative to not only stay complacent professionally or personally, you know, from a formal education standpoint, it's just… it's been extremely helpful in that regard.

Nishita Chheda: Thank you for sharing, Monique E.. Yeah, I think we've heard from so many people about, like. You know, how can we… kind of see people as a whole versus, like, a two-page resume concept? And you, you touched upon that so, so beautifully, so thank you. Tamara, how did, how did that experience feel for you?

Tamara S.: I think for me, having the skills, validation. was very, affirming for me, especially because, when I was going through my very first, job interviews, you know, I… I didn't have the traditional, schooling background. I had my daughter when I was 19, and I was… I was still in school. So I took a gap, I didnfinish, and, you know, I took that year to take care of her. those types of gaps in a resume, to a lot of employers can be telling, which is not the right kind of telling. It's more so negative toward you, and My argument is that, you know, that year taught me the most valuable skills that are super transferable to any workplace that I could… be part of, whether it is handling, my relationships with my colleagues, parents in my class, my students, especially in my profession, parenting is incredibly, incredibly a powerful tool that allows me to connect with all of these different people. So, having something that allows me to validate those types of skills in a way that is transferable and applicable to my profession is very useful and, you know, makes it, very validating and visible for me, so…

Nishita Chheda: Yeah, thank you for sharing, and yeah, it's… I… I think it's so important how, like, validation can also… like, you know, we… so many of us have non-linear backgrounds, like, we've taken gap years, we've taken, like. A year off for parenting, and, like, having those gaps, be viewed in a certain way, but having the opportunity to fill them up in a different way is, yeah, is great, and thank you, thank you for touching on that. So my question, second question for both of you is, once… you know, the skills that you had validated were validated, what were… was there an aha moment for you, like, through that process of validation? I know Tamara S. and I have spoken about this a little bit, but even just going through a validation process can be… you know, can be very interesting. It can give you insight in some… in interesting ways, so I'd love to hear From both of you, if it changed the way you see yourself, your own path, about what you do or you can do.

Monique E.: I can't go. You know, I will say one thing that was very eye-opening for me, were the offering of courses. Generally, you think from a professional standpoint, you have to take a course in cybersecurity, or CompTIA, or project management, or AI, which… Lately, I've been doing a lot of those as well, but in the ex-credit library, it was soft skills, like critical thinking and analysis, collaboration, a lot of areas that I feel for, Anybody can sometimes become blind spots because, you know, you… throughout the day, feel as though these are skills that are inherent of your personal nature, and so you feel you don't have to refine them or brush up on them. I think when people think about credentialing, they automatically think about upskilling in the sense of some type of Professional wrong. And so, for me. you know, when I think that, you know, my critical thinking is to par because of my formal education, or what have you, and that you take one of these courses, and you see that there's a gap, you know, in this particular area, and it shows you the percentage, and it kind of weights it against the other areas that you have mastered, it was extremely helpful to see that, you know, while I may… while I may be very well at, like, project management, like, to kind of touch on what Tamara S. said, taking that gap period and caring for home, and even as a military spouse, like. We do. planning, budgeting, scheduling, I can go on. And employers don't oftentimes see, like, domestic engineering as viable skills, but they very much are. And they're very much transferable in the work… in the workplace. And so, again, to my point without going on a tangent, what XCredit provides In terms of, enhancing or refining your soft skills, is… is incredible.

Nishita Chheda: Thank you for sharing. I… I was like, plus one, plus one, plus one to everything you said. Tamara, do you want to share a little bit about, yeah, those aha moments for you?

Tamara S.: I think, through this process, I realised, a lot about the way I view my skills, and how… These skills might… might also look different to different people, and depending on the context, if I'm validating a particular skill, like, whether it's resilience or empathy or all of these other types of skills that are applicable on a resume. I… I realised that I… I don't… I didn't think about, how you can be empathetic in so many different ways, and how that might be perceived by different people. And, It really highlighted the… variety of relationships that I build in my workplace, and how I communicate with people, and how that is going to be different across the board, and trying out these different scenarios, over and over, and figuring out, you know, how am I communicating with people was very interesting for me, and taught me a lot about, like, what… what these skills even mean, and what… how I perceived it might be this one linear, very narrow way to view a particular skill, so it was very, informative, as well as useful for me.

Nishita Chheda: Thank you. Yeah, I think I do want to touch upon this, like, insight we've been gaining for a while now about… around skills validation, that yes, like, the credential may help directly throughout one's career, but there is so much value in validating your skills and the personal recognition and confidence and, like, change of vocabulary and insight it can bring to you. And yeah, both Monique E. Tamara, you both touched on that, so… Thank you, it's really validating to hear that again and again as well, as we keep kind of understanding, and working in this world of skills visibility as well. Margot, do I have 5 more minutes, or should… I want to make sure we have time for Emily as well.

Margo Griffith: I think we've got time. If you've got one more question, absolutely, yeah.

Nishita Chheda: Yeah, I wanna ask, like, a non-X credit, but, like, an open-ended, what would a perfect, like, ideal world look like, where everyone's skills are visible? And Tamara S. and Monique E., if you guys have, like, any, you know, just, like. a magic wand idea of, like, that would be great to make skills more visible in this… in this world that we're living in. We would love to kind of end there.

Monique E.: When I was looking at one of the slides that kind of showed the bubbles around the page, it made me think of… I know right now Google has a platform, I forgot what it's called, but it's, workspace design… I forgot what it's called, but it… you plug in keywords, and it… shoots out bubbles of different, like, areas in which are your strengths, areas that are your weakness. You can make a VIN diagram and, you know, kind of understand, like, you know, where you can upskill and, you know. those jobs that fit, or, you know, volunteer opportunities that fit, in accordance with, kind of, the map. And I… and I forgot what that particular illustration is called, so I apologise in advance. In a perfect world, it would be nice to be able to have your own page, so kind of like the LinkedIn page, but with kind of your profile picture in the middle, with the bubbles of all the skills that you've credentialed and validated. And gotten some badge for. So, it's kind of like a one-pager, where any individual, you know, if you're networking after work, or if you're for a job interview, or, you know, if you're running a company, you know, the person can see it kind of in an illustrative Image of exactly, you know, what your strengths are, you know, how you've upskilled, how you've reskilled, because I'm a very visual person, and I know, I mean, reading something, like, reading a resume in tint font is great, but, like, if I could just pinpoint immediately this, this, this, this, this, this for this individual, like. For me, that would be ideal.

Nishita Chheda: That's amazing, I love that idea. It's so much like a skills passport, which is, like, something that the industry talks about as well, but I love that. Tamara, any closing magic wand ideas from you?

Tamara S.: Somewhat like, Monique E.'s response, I kind of imagine clips of… where I might demonstrate, these types of skills in real time. Of course, that could be an invasion of privacy in some ways, but at the same time, it, it's… I don't know, I like to be imaginative, but also I would want to include, where I see myself, and what my goals are, and what… where I want to be at, because I also recognise that My… my skills are still developing, even… even still, and so, I want… I would want to be able to highlight, you know, how I want to continue to grow on this path, and how I would be an asset in that regard, even though I might not be entirely where I want to be yet.

Nishita Chheda: Yeah, I love that. And yeah, so much of, like, a double-click, too. All of our skills are still developing, still growing, we're still learning, we're still earning, and, you know, there's so much work that we need to do in this space of making those skills that we're constantly developing more visible, so I love that. And yeah, I just wanted to thank both of you for, just these amazing insights and ideas that y'all have shared in this space together today. Thank you. And Alpada de Margo…

Employer Perspetive: JobLink Plus

Margo Griffith: Well, that was a non-rehearsed, excuse me, non-rehearsed, but amazing segue. Tamara S. and Monique E., thank you for that, because I think what I was hearing is that our skills are not a static snapshot in time, right? They're developing all the time, and we need a way to be able to share how we're evolving, and what that looks like, and some really useful tips, if I put the technology hat on to go, hmm, if we're developing digital wallets and passports, what should that look like from a learner perspective? So, thank you for that, that's… that's amazing. I will turn over now to Emily, who has been with us from 7am in the morning, and thank you, Emily, again, for being here. Emily has been a wonderful partner of us at SkillsAware, the new venture I'm talking about. And I'm very keen to hear from her why on earth she would jump in like that with us, and what prompted her to do that. So I am going to turn over to you, Emily, just to introduce yourself, and then I'm going to pepper you with some questions.

Emily Roy: Yeah, thank you. Hi, everybody. Thanks. Despite the early hour, I promise it's… it's more than… more than fine. So I am, the CEO of an organisation called Joblin Plus. We are a not-for-profit. We've existed For around 40 years, and, in one way or another, and our primary thing that we do is deliver services on behalf of the Australian government. So we have a range of contracts, both federal and state. But, we… it's… the people that work for us, we've got about 380, folks working for us, and our main thing, the front line, if you like, is, employment services support. So the communities that we serve, the people that we serve, are, on an income support payment from the government. And they are participating, with a service provider like us, to engage, build their skills, and progress towards employment. And the frontline role is to… to coach that person, to help them progress towards employment, identify their employment goals, and things like that. So that little snapshot of our staff there. The people that we work with, so we have around 15,000 clients spread across regional New South Wales. So, I often say, so from our most easterly, community that we work with to the… so, other way around, easterly to Wesley, there's 1,100 kilometres, or 680 miles, or 13 hours drive from, east to west. And, from the north to the south, it's about 9 hours as well, and we cover, 82 communities across that… that expanse, so… It's… it's great work. We love it, as I say. Part of… did… Margot, you asked me to talk about why… why I sort of said, let's do this… this thing. Do you want me to jump into that, or…

Margo Griffith: Jump right into it. I guess before we… we jump into why you did it, what was the challenge that… that sort of led to that? Like, what… what… what prompted.

Emily Roy: Yeah. A couple of things without getting too much into the specifics of the Australian context, I suppose, but our industry, our sector has been privatised for a little while, and it's subject to quite a bit of scrutiny at different times, but when the unemployment rate goes up, there's more scrutiny. But one of the things that our, Government has been talking about is this idea of the professionalisation of the industry. Which ultimately means that they, introduce a qualification, and everyone has to get the qualification. So, historically, that's happened quite a bit in Australia, in children's services, in aged care, financial services, lots of things. It seems to be the go-to lever for our government when they want to professionalise an industry. They say, right, this is the minimum benchmark, this is the qualification. And one of the great strengths, and why I think the government goes to that in Australia, is because we have, really, I think, a pretty world-class qualifications framework, a national qualifications framework. It's not perfect, but it's pretty great, and the idea is that you can get a qualification in where I am, and then go to any other part of Australia, and it's recognised, right? So that's why the, a qualification is kind of a go-to lever for… for the government, or for a regulator, that sort of thing. So we had this… this… sense and, a lot of indications from… from our… from our government and our contract providers, that we were going to have to… to, attain these qualifications. So, I sort of… we've got that happening in the bigger context, and then we have, I think, the… the understanding that many Australians and Australian workers really value education. Australian workers, you know, when they do surveys about what sort of things people ask employers when they're going for a job interview, you know, the classic, so is there anything you'd like to ask us? Most Australians say, what are the career opportunities here? What learning and development is available to me? Australians value education as a whole, and so I was conscious of Of that, demand, if you like, from our, from our government. combined with a workforce that, generally speaking, want to learn, want to not only have more skills and not necessarily have a qualification, but genuinely want to learn how to do their job better. And I think we have a pretty good learning culture at JobLink, and, so I wanted to make the most of that.

Margo Griffith: I guess, Emily, one of the things, in… and thank you for laying that out so clearly, many of your workers would have already been doing this job, right? And so, you know, to a certain extent, the government saying we've got to have a stamp of a qualification on top of that is kind of like, well, hey, hang on. been doing this for 20 years, why do I need to start again and go through that qualification, right? I can… if I was that worker thinking, I'm sorry, I've got all these skills already, does that play into some of your thinking?

Emily Roy: Yeah, absolutely. As a sector, we have quite a bit of churn in the first 6 months, but otherwise, it's the kind of job that people do for a long time. At JobLink, we've got people who've been doing that job for generally 25 years. And, we're a… our organisation has a lot of people who've been here a long time, and it's… Yeah, I think… so 80% of our workforce is female as well. It is a… it is a caring kind of, role, and it's a very people-oriented role. And, you know, I think when it comes to often gendered roles as well, then you have this layer of… people who don't always have the opportunity to gain formal qualifications, or as Tiara so beautifully spoke to, there are gaps in our time at work, even, as women, for lots of different reasons, usually because we're caring for other people. And so, I think this, idea that there would be an imposition or a need to gain Something that didn't recognise that and didn't say, okay, we needed to do this, but also we acknowledge that you have a breadth of experience that goes beyond what you've done at the desk and what you've done in the workplace. So that was really important, and I think, while we have, the, you know, JobLink has around 65% of our workforce have some sort of vocational qualification, we haven't always been great at marrying up I think what we know is to be the durable skills with the recognised qualification skills. So that was one of the huge appeals of what, SkillsAware was doing, is to be able to… I really was keen as a CEO for it to feel like a very affirming process for the teams, that it would center them as a learner, that our teams would hear that this is… something that really is about your whole self that you can bring to the experience. It isn't only about the work that you've done here, it's also about who you are as a person. So that was really important, and I really wanted the big takeaway to be, that this is… this process, this journey, if you like, to have your skills recognised will go with you. Whether you choose to stay with us or move on to another role. It is… it's, who you are, and who you are as a learner, and as a lifelong learner.

Margo Griffith: Awesome. Thank you for that. So, how's it going? I know Super early days, And I'm asking this question with the world watching. going? Like, how… how… How's the…

Emily Roy: From my perspective, it's going brilliantly. And I'm hoping that, that the teams are feeling that as well. Certainly, I haven't had anyone, tell me otherwise, which is always a good sign, right? I think there was a genuine, like, you know, we put out the expression of interest, and my, inbox just started pinging, which was lovely. The feel was that there wasn't a lot of hesitation. I was really conscious of launching it in a way that, made the opportunity feel very accessible. My background is training and education, so to be fair. Mel knows this, it's my comfort zone to talk about lifelong learning and adult education and accessibility and things like that, so I think that helped. I did a video for the team to help explain the project and outline everything that would go… that would happen, and there was, yeah, a lot of enthusiasm, lots of people sort of emailing, thank you for the opportunity, and then we did the sort of first. information session, an induction session, and I joined that as well, just to, again, affirm from a leadership perspective, to say this is something that we are invested in, we're really keen to make it work, and I think, Yeah, I… I think our teams as well. Have heard from me quite a bit about, our our, keenness as an organisation to invest in development over the next 12 months in particular, to reinvest in staff. And, so it's… it's going great. We really needed something… it was so important to me that, it had to work for a range of people. It couldn't… only work for people who lived in this town, and that's something that we, we apply that lens to a lot of decisions that we make at JobLink Plus. It needs to work for the folks who work in the town of 500 people, as well as the folks who work in the town of 500,000 people. So… or the city. Something that was accessible in that way was really important, and as much as I value classroom-based education, that as a solution isn't always going to be the best one for our teams. So, that was really imperative, and I think The accessibility of the program and of the platform is serving really well in that regard.

Margo Griffith: Awesome. And I'm conscious I want to leave some time for Q&A at the end, but I have one request is that I glossed over what SkillsAware does really early on, and I'm just wondering if you can just work… just want… just walk people through what your employees are doing with SkillsAware, and what you're hoping the outcome will be.

Emily Roy: Yeah, sure. So, we, there's a particular qualification, a certificate for in employment services that is currently under review, and so what our teams are doing is, and we, sorry, we've delivered that internally. And we had a kind of set of skills and topics and themes that we mapped and said, this is what we'd like you to choose from. But basically, we've got a group of 20 learners who said, yep, I want to have my skills recognised. And we went for people who had worked in the job for 2 years or more. So we specifically chose people who, and, you know, I said it's okay if you've got a qualification already, but not this one. And we specifically wanted to offer it to people who, had some skills, and what I sort of say, skills that you get through peopling. Not necessarily by reading… reading a book, or as much as those skills are great, but there are a bunch of skills that we… that we gain in life, and I love that, what Monique E. shared about the domestic engineering, right? They're home and family-based skills, or just skills you get because you work with people all day long. And those are really actually incredible skills, and to have those recognised was really important. So, the team… yeah, have basically got, 5 weeks or so, I think, to, think about all the different evidence that they can collect and put in the system. They've got weekly check-ins with the team at SkillsAware, which has been great. But it all started because I heard, Yasmin talking about this project, and she spoke so passionately about her, and her team's Commitment to seeing, skills for life recognised and validated, and doing that in ways that were accessible and innovative. And, yeah, it just went from there, basically, and the SkillsAware team was so great and very patient with me, and, we're curious about what we did, and we're just, and remain endlessly helpful, and they're just trying to make it work for the, for the learners, and having that, the student and the outcome in mind, where basically the learner will be able to go. I feel… yeah, I feel seen, I feel validated, I've got, a qualification that I can take with me. Yeah, and it hasn't only been about the job that I do, but it's about the person that I am.

Margo Griffith: I'm gonna leave on that quote, because I think it's… It's a soundbite. That's… yeah, fantastic. Emily, thank you for sharing that, and thank you to Monique E. and Tamara, too, for sharing your experiences as well. I do note that there is a question in the Q&A that I think is probably right up Tara's alley, so I… can you see that one, Tara? Do you want to read it out and then give your answer?

Q&A: Assessment Methodology

Tara Laughlin: I would be happy to. All right, the question says, can you walk us through the assessment piece in skills validation, both through the experiences of the learners, but also the assessment methodology in validating durable skills? I can talk about this topic for hours, but I won't, so I'm gonna do my best to keep it concise for you. So I am… I'll share my screen, and I'm actually gonna zoom into… That, learner journey… graphic that was a little difficult, probably, to see when I was presenting. earlier. Okay. So, again, this is part of the X-Credit initiative, Education Design Lab, and we brought together all of the different technologies that I mentioned earlier to facilitate this experience. And so I'll just walk through a series of images that kind of give you a sense of what the learner journey Through the… the plat… the platforms, plural, looked like. So through partnerships, two represented here today, you saw Generation Hope and Higher Heroes USA, among others. learners gain… learners, earners gain access to X credit. So they begin on a screen like this, where they're prompted to create an account and start validating their skills. From there, this is a blurry, but, Blurry image of what the second stage of that process looks like. And when they get into the platform, they are shown a dashboard that looks like this. And what you can see, are a series of tiles. They are blurry, I apologise for that, I'm zoomed way in here, but… Each of these nine tiles represents a different durable skill. That we define and measure at Education Design Lab. So there are things like intercultural fluency, collaboration, initiative. And depending on the partner organisation that a learner comes through, they may see all 9 of these competencies on their dashboard, or they may see a subset. Of these 9, perhaps 2 or 3 or 5, depending on what the partner organisation wanted. And so, the learner then gets to choose, based on their lived experience and their sense of where their competencies are, which of these they want to pursue. So they'll click on the tile of their choice. This, this on the right-hand side is a tracker, and so as learners are validating their skills. These trackers, light up to show their progress, of how many skills they validated and how close they are to earning a micro-credential in any of these areas. Once they choose their competency, that, competency page loads. So here we're in the resilience competency. And there are a series of short assessments embedded on that page. So the resilience competency in the lab's framework has four sub-competencies, and therefore four short assessments. The first of those four assessments is called Exhibit Flexibility. So there's a little bit of introductory content on this page about what the skill is and all of the criteria that are going to be evaluated in the assessment. So the learner still has a chance to, you know. Double-check that with their expectations and, you know, decide whether they want to proceed. So they click on a button to launch the assessment, which then does take them into another platform. And this is the Muzzy Lane platform. You can see this is set up with an image panel on the right, a text chat panel on the left. And they're given a workplace-based scenario. In this case, it looks like we're in a restaurant environment, and a role to play, and a problem to solve. And they have to navigate their way through that scenario, interacting with a cast of characters to reach a conclusion. When they're done, their results automatically pop up on the screen, so this, again, apologies is very blurry, but you can see that they demonstrated mastery of these different criteria within the assessment. That data transfers back into the LMS platform. Again, this, for us, is D2L's Brightspace. Where a notification shows that that data came back in, the skill was validated, and an award was earned. The award triggers the creation of their smart resume, so they receive an email notification, which looks like this. And if they want to access their Smart Resume, they can come and activate their account. And it builds them out. Again, think of this kind of as, like, a learner wallet. a profile that looks like this. It is bringing in all of their digital credentials with all of the metadata that lives inside that. So not just JPEG or PNG images, but real rich, credentials. And then if they click on one of those credentials, this is the evidence layer, or the evidence record that is provided through the plumbing for us by Edalex, and it gives more information about what the skill is and how that credential was earned. And so that is a really fast look at the learner experience overall, and I know your question was about, the assessment design as well, and some of the, I think, validity and reliability components, which is a bit of a longer conversation, but I'm always happy to have a follow-up, with more detail about that if you'd like.

Concluding Remarks and Upcoming Report

Margo Griffith: That's awesome. Thank you, Tara, for that. We've got just a couple of minutes left. I'm wondering if there's any… any questions for anyone, either from our participants, if you pop it in chat, or pop it in Q&A, or from any of us here on screen to anyone else.

Tara Laughlin: I know Nishida wanted to tee up the publication as well, so maybe we'll. folks are. typing.

Nishita Chheda: Yeah, it's also such a good segue, because Tara just showed a glimpse into what the learner journey looks like, but… I wanted to share that the Education Design Lab is coming up with a report called Validating Skills at Scale, a Human and Tech Ecosystem View, and we're releasing it in late May, and it essentially examines this idea that for skills visibility to take place, we must look at the human and tech component together, and not in isolation. And, It's about how the ecosystem must come together while we center the learner, but how it must come together at both those levels to create kind of this possibility that we're all talking about, and it lays out some recommendations from both the learner and the human side, as well as the, you know, tech side. What is the data requirements? What are what needs to be in place for this system to work. And so, yeah, we're very excited, and we hope that everyone gets a chance to read it, and it uses the example of X credit. But it really is an insight into, you know, what an ideal skills validation system and ecosystem could look like.

Margo Griffith: I, for one, am so excited to read that. That report. So please do, let everybody know when that's available for download. I think you touched on, and that report will definitely highlight. It's all very well to start thinking about skills literacy and skills recognition, skill validation, and to ultimately think about skills-based hiring and skills-based education, but all of that. requires a deliberate strategy around your data architecture, because if you can't move the data, you actually can't move the people either. And so, in this world, it's kind of a non-negotiable as well, that it is… it's a… it's a twin-track strategy. You've got your… Y-you- yeah, you have your mission and your pillars, but if you don't have a deliberate data architecture strategy underneath. It's not gonna scale. It's not gonna go anywhere, anytime fast, so… Anyway, I will leave that. Anybody else, if I throw out this… I've been doing a lot of talking here. We're all good. We are at the hour. In fact, we are over the hour. So if not, I want to thank you all so, so much, for being a part of this, particularly Our stars, Tamara, Monique E., Emily, thank you so much, and yeah, I just want to say heartfelt thanks to Education Design Lab, who have been Yeah. partners forever, and yeah, long may we… we tackle this wicked problem of skills recognition, is what I say.

Tara Laughlin: You're here.

Nishita Chheda: That could do.

Margo Griffith: Have a wonderful afternoon slash evening slash morning slash day.

Monique E.: Bye, everyone. Thank you, everyone.

Tara Laughlin: Bye!