SkillsAware - The Journey So Far 2026

Dan McFadyen, Yasmin King and Dr Mark Keough, Co-Founders of SkillsAware, reflect on the past year of growth and innovation at SkillsAware, exploring how the platform is transforming skills recognition through evidence-based assessment, digital credentials and human-centred design. The discussion highlights SkillsAware’s impact across industries including construction, vocational education and higher education, as well as its growing international engagement in North America and Europe. 

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

Introduction and SkillsAware’s Core Mission

Dan: I am Dan, Co-founder and Director at SkillsAware. And I'm also joined by Yasmin King and Mark Keough, who are both also Co-founders and Directors at SkillsAware. Well, let's dive right in. It’s hard to believe it's been a year since we recorded the last... “The Journey So Far” Video for SkillsAware. So we want to share with you today what has been happening over the past year. But first, let's set the stage. Yasmin, can you fill us in? What is SkillsAware and why is it important?

Yasmin: One of the really big challenges is that we have lots of people with capability in the workforce. The issue is actually that their visibility of their skills is often not seen. And it's also not necessarily interpretable because we don't necessarily measure against standards. And I think what we have really done is said, you know, you can't see what you don't know. So, SkillsAware is about making the issue of skills visible and interpretable, and having the evidence that backs that up. And the interpretation is because we measure against the standard. It's not just, you know, I have skills of X... I have skills of X measured against a standard. And I think that is a very key differentiation of how we've approached it. And also because we believe that it's also something that individuals need to have and hold as opposed to organisations. And that's if we're really going to build an economy where everybody can display what they know and what it's measured against, and it doesn't matter where they're working, whether it be within organisation A or B or whether they're volunteering or whatever they're doing, it's their record and they can show that evidence. And that to me is really the nub of what we've tried to do in the creation of SkillsAware.

Dan: Brilliant. And Mark, yeah Anything to layer on top of that?

Mark: The great thing is that it maps. So the foundation of awareness then maps to Recognition of Prior Learning in vocational education settings... soon into Recognition of Credit in Higher Education settings. And also recognition within organisations to support career growth and so on. So we've got outputs including badge outputs and digital credentials, which mean you can actually use those skills, not just find them.

SkillsAware’s Impact and Engagement 

Dan: Wonderful, wonderful. And so Yas, you referenced the users as well as institutions and organisations and I think that's one of the really exciting aspects of SkillsAware is that applicability and benefits across all of those, those different entities. And over the past year, it's been a wonderful journey with our clients who have been providing us lots of feedback and insights. And I think one of the best quotes just came up recently from Joblink Plus was from Emily Roy, their CEO, on what her objectives are for her employees that are using SkillsAware. And I'll just read it out that she wants her employees to feel seen, to feel validated, that they're receiving a qualification that they can take with them, and that it's not just about the job that those employees do but it's about the person that they are. Wow. That's amazing. So can we unpack that, Mark?

Mark: Yeah, I think it's great because there's such strong engagement with the platform amongst your employees because they're getting benefits and there's even a little bit of gamification effect in that they focus on the prize, like we're going to get a qualification out of this effort. And so, you know, and because if you look into SkillsAware, we've got a system of scoring the value of evidence, and because it's a sort of score, it has that sort of mild gamification effect, I want to get my score higher and I want to more easily get recognition and get the qualification. And then that's socialised, right? How are you going is amongst the employees who are doing it. And that creates that effect of engagement and purpose. So we're seeing all of that play out with our pilot projects, especially this one with Joblink Plus as you mentioned.

Yasmin: Yeah. Fantastic. And I think one of the things that often, you know, has occurred in the past is that employers have thought in actually having that external recognition of, you know, for example, internal training and experience that people have on the job that somehow in having that visible and validated might in some way mean that people will leave them. Right. It's that whole argument, you know, you know, we can't afford to do more training. Well, in fact, you know, you can't afford not to. And for us, I think what we're starting to see is organisations recognising that actually know validating and making it... seen, those skills visibility seen actually means you're going to keep those employees longer. It's a retention strategy because they feel that it's actually being recognised, measured and they're being rewarded, if you like, in terms of having some sort of badge or evidence of it and that makes people go, well, okay. So in terms of opportunities, etc., when that comes about, it's actually going to be measured against my skills as opposed to, you know, I was in the right place at the right time talking to the right person, or it's just going to be measured on the job description that I have, which doesn't see the whole me.

Dan: Absolutely, really, really powerful. But we're we also see skills that were being used in a number of different scenarios, right? So we've the Joblink Plus is one very specific example around... focused around the organisation itself. What are some of the other discussions and other types of models that we've been seeing over the past year?

Yasmin: I think construction is one where we've got a big focus on, because you have so many people working beneath their skills, capability. And I think that's one of the exciting things that we are really working on is how can we unlock that potential and allow people to have their skills validated and recognised so that they can, you know, specialise in what their expertise is, as opposed to, well, I'll just take a labour job because it's too hard for me to get any other recognition. And I think we really... And while I think there's been a concerted effort to try and have people upskill by doing courses, it ignores the fact there's a big opportunity cost for that, particularly for those who already have those skills. They're just not recognised. And so, you know, time taken to do a course to sit alongside people who might be at a completely different level than you is frustrating. It's it's opportunity cost of the fact when you're doing that courses, you're not working. All of these things, I think, make it a much more complex thing than just, you know, we'll offer a free course and that's going to solve the problem.

Dan: Brilliant. And Mark, you flagged you mentioned already higher education. But yeah. Can you give us the lens from a vocational as well as higher ed.

Mark: And what we're seeing is a lot of interest from both large public and private RTOs where they recognise as a national agenda to improve Recognition of Prior Learning or Recognition of Credit, in the University sector. And then the other thing in the University sector is the recognition of skills rather than just academic outcomes. So SkillAware plays to all of those needs in the marketplace. And so we're seeing good traction in conversations and engagement with TAFE, with large RTOs, with industry-based RTOs, specific industries sometimes where they've got issues getting enough training provided because they don't scale. You know, we're seeing in Higher Ed a desire to find some way of mapping academic outcomes to skill outcomes across the journey of a student's time with them. So all of these things, all of these needs are played directly into with SkillsAware offering.

SkillsAware Platform Overhaul and its Human-in-the-loop Element

Dan: Right. Brilliant. Let's pivot now, and again, the Journey So Far in the past year. Let’s talk a bit about the platform and how that's changed. And well, I’ll kick off on this discussion. But yeah I know you both will jump in as well. So based on all this incredible feedback as we flagged from users and from institution, but also from other organisations that we've been in discussions with, we have released our third major rewrite of the platform, including a total overhaul, a total actual rewrite of the User Interface based on that feedback, thinking about the workflows and how do we smooth out, how do we remove friction from the process? And so that has been a major undertaking for us. But it really gives us the platform to move forward with. So that's been incredible. And just recently we added the Endorsement functionality Mark, do you want to...?

Mark: Yeah, it's essentially what we've got is an Encrypted Endorsement possibility. So you can be in SkillsAware and seeking to gain evidence or add evidence for your skill. But there's a button you can press where you can send an encrypted email to a former supervisor current supervisor or peer and get an endorsement for that particular skill. And that just adds to the evidence base. And it's encrypted, such secure. So it's as valid as we can make it. You'd have to work really hard to sort of make that a false claim, you know. So it's a really big strength in that during the time you can gather more evidence. Right? You're not just relying on the evidence you already have.

Dan: Brilliant, brilliant. And where... do endorsements fit in the overall model of SkillsAware?

Mark: So we look at a couple of different types of evidence. Yeah. So an endorsement sits in the Organisational Framework for us. So it's still in the informal recognition category. But it is a very strong score. You get a very good score in your evidence score, that PCI - the Personal Capability Index which indicates the value of the evidence. And so that's a very important point, an endorsement is a high value item.

Dan: Brilliant, brilliant. And I think that just builds the holistic view that SkillsAware is taking to assemble all this evidence. Yeah. I might throw back to you just in terms of evidence. And how does SkillsAware work with all this evidence. But then people, right? Assessors or individuals within organisations, how do those two fit together?

Yasmin: I think one of the things that we have been extremely committed to ensuring is that at the end of the day, the human is the one who makes the ultimate decision. Right? And we've designed it that way on purpose. It's been fundamental to our whole process. And I think, you know, everybody knows that it's harder and harder to find trainers and assessors in particular industry areas. And part of the reason why Recognition of Prior Learning has always been a wicked problem is being that it's a very, very manual process. And even with toolkits, it's still a very manual process. And so what we've tried to do is say, how can we make the ability of those trainers and assessors to use their time in what their skills are, which is making those judgements on the evidence presented to them and not chasing students saying you need more? No, you need to send me more bits, or going through the cardboard box of the paper and, you know, mapping. Because the other thing about mapping is that, you know, one piece of evidence is not basically linear, right? I mean, that one piece of evidence needs to be mapped against multiple areas. So, you know, you're doing a lot of repetitive analysis. And of course, AI is a perfect instrument to address that. But ultimately we're about freeing up the time of those trainers and assessors who are in short supply to actually use their time to use their skills and judgement to do that and not administrative work. But at the end of the day, it's their decision which is critical. And the information they presented, they may still go, I want more information on that. Or we want more... I... want to have, you know, another look at that or whatever, or I think there's a clear gap but it gives them a really clear picture of what they then need to follow up on.

Dan: That's fantastic. And I think one of our strengths is the ability not only to go deep in particular areas but also to go abroad. Right? So it's not just an RTO solution. It's not just Higher Ed, it's not just organisational... So I think that's been one of the key factors in our ongoing international expansion and the discussions we're having around the world.

Yasmin: Can I say one thing, I think, Dan, that... that really highlights that is people who typically have evaluated themselves on what their current job is and when they start putting evidence of what their whole history is, you know, somebody who might have quite, for example, a narrow role where they're doing, you know, they don't have a lot of interaction with people because it's not necessary. But when they put in their history and it shows, well, actually, you know, they've done quite a lot of things in their their life wide skills, which meant that they actually have got skills in, for example, communication or working in a quite complex team. But previously he's not been seen. And this then often opens opportunities for them within their own organisation because suddenly it’s now being seen. And the organisation goes, You know, I had no clue that you could do these things. So I think that's where there's a real benefit in having that approach of looking at all someone's skills and not just defining you on what your last job role is.

Dan: And I love that expression. “Life wide”, right? That's really what we're trying to capture with SkillsAware

Mark: Well, and we've had this pleasant experience worldwide. Right? So isn't it fantastic that we've been able to achieve contracts in pilots and engagement in both North America and in Europe. And, and that's just... that was unexpected for me that traction would occur. But it seems the skills problem is a global problem. You know, skills visibility is a global problem. And Australia uniquely has the standardised training package system. Other people in the world don't have that. And so what we're being able to do is take our expertise from that approach and plug into other standards in other countries. And, and, you know, the level of engagement and awareness and Wow factor has been really strong in all of those conversations. So we've really enjoyed that. I spend quite a lot of time at weird times of the day in meetings. But I'm very happy to and, and very happy to find that we get engaged. That's not based on borders, you know, it’s based on needs to develop skills recognition worldwide.

Dan: Which is brilliant. And I think what we've found and are finding - we’re continuing to learn ourselves as well as share our knowledge. There is so much in common. But then there are also... those national or regional or, or other nuances or frameworks that we can apply on top. Are we seeing.

Yasmin: I was just going to say and the human-in-the-loop means that, you know, because there are different regulatory frameworks, etc. that exist, it enables you to basically customise this so, the fact that internationally somebody might say, oh yeah, but our systems different, that doesn't matter because the skills are skill, right? And if you measure the skill against what your standards are. But we're not saying and then we'll tell you that's okay. It's going to be your people in your environment that is going to make the ultimate decision. So it doesn't matter where you are in the world.

Global Challenges and Opportunities 

Dan: That's great. Yes, I think one of the exciting aspects that I really appreciate is the ability that we have to go very wide. So if an organisation or users want to, to leverage our library of more than 73,000 skills and competencies, they certainly can. And to your comment around “life wide”. Well, that's it's a very wide set. But then we also have some clients who are very focused on a particular niche, and that might be for registration or some other qualification, some other aspect. And so they do want it to be, be tailored there. But I think that ability for people to, to discover even for themselves that broad risk, sorry, that broad set of skills and capabilities. And I think that's been brought out in some of the usage that we've seen where people add more and more evidence as they see their Skills IQ increasing in the confidence indicator inside of SkillsAware. It's really exciting to see how they're pushing the platform, but also saying, well, I want recognition for... what I do through work, but also here's my passion or here's how I volunteer or this is something that I used to do, and maybe I want to get back into it. Or they have their learning about how some of their skills are transferable into different, different sectors. And I think working with some of the different groups, such as veterans transitioning into civilian life or immigrants or migrants who are looking to improve their life. And there was also a report issued just a couple of weeks ago around that... There are more than 340,000 immigrant women in Australia alone who are operating below their skills, below their qualifications, because they're just not able to get those skills recognised here in Australia. Then if we take that to the global stage, we look in America, those STARs, those Skilled Through Alternate Routes, more than 70 million of individuals who do not have an undergraduate degree. And yet they have this, these lifeline skills. So much going on. So much potential. So let's talk about potential and where we want to take the platform in the future.

Mark: Well, I think one of the things that's we haven't explored deeply yet is the whole impact of skills on risk management and overall organisational capability. So we've focussed a lot on mapping to qualifications for qualification outcomes or certification outcomes. What I see in the future is we're going to be able to work with organisations around their risk and capability. I'm seeing a future where a range of systems, not just SkillsAware, make the LMS a bit redundant, you know, and the notion that you push people through boring e-learning courses just so you can keep your risk in throw work. Right? What a better way of doing it than having a skills evidence recognition system. So the evidence is not just that you set and clicked a few buttons on an all winning boss, right? The evidence is what you do and your job, right? Much stronger, much more opportunity. So I'm seeing that is a future focus. And that will become industry specific because different industries have different regulatory requirements. So I'm looking forward to to some future projects in that area. They're just early engagements with clients about that capability. But I reckon that's a future thing.

Yasmin: Yeah. Yeah I also think that we, you know, I think, certainly in Australia, we spend a lot of money on training, right? A significant amount and it's increasing and yet productivity is poor, right? So clearly it is not a you know, spend more money increases the capability of people. So something's going wrong. And actually, recent report talks about how much is wasted training, right? To Mark's point, you know, doing it for compliance reasons. But if it's not actually changing behaviours and impacting then, you know it's not money that's being targeted... spent. And so where I think we will see a real opportunity moving forward is also in the area of... how can you make sure that compliance training is about actually being targeted and upskilling, as opposed to just, well, I've got to repeat it. I know from my past life in a role as small business commissioner in New South Wales, I had one guy come and see me. He had 21 white cards. Right? Because every country, every company that he went to work for would say, oh, you've got a white card, but I don't know that provider. I want it from this provider because they weren't looking at what he'd actually done to get those white cards. They were just looking at it's a white card and it was delivered by X and they didn't know X, whereas if that had been instead, yes, you've got a white card, but these are the evidence of the skills that I learned while I did that. That then becomes a different conversation. And that's where I think there's a real opportunity to stop the repetitive compliance training and actually make it targeted. And ultimately productivity throughout the entire journey, but then also unleashing that human potential so that they're not wasting time. They're not getting knocked back for opportunities where they could be delivering. I mean, I think people underestimate how much... application tracking systems, you know, they really operate on quite specific words and targets, and quite frankly, biases, which means there's a lot of people who, if they don't understand that, basically miss out on ever getting it starts. And it's going to become even more critical in a world where there's less and less entry level jobs. Because, you know, we already seeing people require for an entry level job 3 to 5 years experience, right? Now, how as a young person, do you get that right, if you haven't even had your first shot? And so being able to really validate the life wide skills that you've had, which might have been working in... ...as a barista somewhere or working, you know, and in your family's retail business or whatever it is. But actually being able to codify that against standards might mean that you will have something to deflect that. Well, you know, you've got no experience, so I won't even look at you.

Dan: Perfect. And yes, you mentioned particular industries in the past, such as construction. Are there certain ones that we're focusing on now and then? Do we see that expanding? And then probably a question to both of you around international opportunities. Do we think... the same challenges are faced in construction here in Australia as well as globally. Those vary or are we seeing the same thing? And then where do we take things internationally?

Yasmin: Well if I just use the example of the discussions that we're having in the UK, I know construction is absolutely facing the same in Europe as it is here. And I think, you know, I think that is one of the incredible advantages that, that we have is that a skill is a skill, right? I mean, there might be slight nuances of difference internationally, but a lot of the same challenges that we see here are being seen everywhere. How do you unlock the capability of young people in an environment where there are less and less entry jobs? It’s happening everywhere. How do you ensure that older people basically have the opportunity to work when... a lot of, again, application tracking systems tend to basically, you know, sort of make judgements as to whether if somebody over the age of 50, they're not even going to get a look in. Well, in an ageing population. And with the demographic challenges that are happening, particularly in the Western world, we won't be able to afford to do that. And, you know, the 50-year-old of today is not the 50-year-old of, you know, 20 years ago, I mean, the length of time that people are being active and living is getting longer and longer, and yet we're still making decisions about that as though, you know, we're in the 1950s, right? So I think so many of these challenges exist internationally. And the only way you're going to address that is by getting rid of some of those biases of how people employ to actually look at facts, right? Look at evidence. And that's where I think we're going to have a really big impact. And that's a challenge that's being seen everywhere in the Western world, not just in Australia.

Mark: Yeah - very clearly, And, you know, the work I'm doing in Canada, same, same, same. Canada has a framework - Red Seal framework for recognition of registered occupations. So all the trades and so on, Similar, just similar, different but similar. And so it's because SkillsAware plays directly into that. You know we just change the labels and change the framework and do the same process. So that's going well in their construction, energy... transfer from industries that are in decline to new industries... big everywhere. It's a big challenge and all over the world.

Mark: But you know Dan, if I said to you, what's the biggest challenge we have? What would you say it be? What's the toughest thing about, you know, this kind of engagement process.

Dan: That's a great question. I think one of the wonderful things we've seen is what it is not. It's getting engagement from people just as every... because everyone recognises this challenge in this problem. I think what we're seeing is probably the challenge of, individuals thinking about how they can take this information and work it into their processes and, and see that flow, because it's information they've never had at their disposal before. And yeah, as you flagged application tracking systems and how so much of this information gets lost. Right? You lose that fidelity. So now we're presenting organisations, individuals, institutions with true high fidelity information. So it's then that challenge of “wow, okay,...” “What do we do with this information?” And I think that's where with our experience, with our clients so far, we can take that to others and say, “Well, here's the low hanging fruit. Start here.” “But then let’s look at that bigger picture. to take full advantage of all this data.”

Mark: And to that point, I think there's a skills literacy problem. You know, people just don't really... there’s been poor definition of what a skill actually is... Everyone seems to know what it is, except if you ask them, right? Tell me what a skill is, right? And people get flummoxed at that point. You know what a skill is. We know what a skill is. So I think that plays into that. If you've got good definitions of skills and good skills literacy, then the fidelity becomes a useful tool, you know, in the hands of those people. So I feel like that's one of the biggest challenges. And of course, we've joined, you know, a number of organisations like Jobs and Skills Australia and they work on the National Skills taxonomy. And there's similar work going on all around the world. We joined that as an educator. So, you know, we've put a lot of time and effort into the webinar series. And, you know, Yasmin, you're facilitating an industry-based one coming up, you know, which is great. I did one on standards. You know, standards for we've got several six episodes of that available as education. And you know I think the idea that we’re participating in a new knowledge base is really exciting.

Yasmin: Yeah. Because I think even some of the... and I think it gets down to the point that I know Mark is passionate about and which is data standards. And if you look at... it is not enough to just have a definition. It also needs to be able to be measured at scale. Right? That's a really, really critical point. And I think if you look at, for example, in the US where they use things like Light Cast (a.k.a Burning Glass), they're all based on job descriptions, right? And you know, we would say, job descriptions are actually a very narrow piece of evidence to evaluate against. And I think that's where sort of where we're sort of going, you know, going back to first principles of, you know, what's the skill, what's measurable, right? And that measurable piece is absolutely critical because otherwise, you know, you're just basically trying to retrofit something. You're not actually doing it from first principles. And I think that's been one of the hardest things I think, for people to grasp is that you need to have data standards, needs to be measurable. You also need to use open standards as well, because if you're talking about solving a problem internationally, you know you've got to have it so that it is readable in different jurisdictions. So I think they're some of the issues. I mean, I would add the one thing that I think apart from skills literacy is finding people who are innovators, who are... who have the leadership capacity to go, “Yep, the system's not working. We need to do something different.” And having, you know, the champion doing that. And we've been fortunate enough to find some of those. I just wish there were more.

Dan: So it sounds like we're making the call out to innovators around the world. Yes, please. We love to love to explore the opportunity to work together. Well that's great. And we've covered so much ground we could go into a lot more detail. And again it is amazing that it's been a year since the last time we did... The Journey So Far discussion with the three of us. Now, and clearly a year, so much, too much changes in a year.

Dan: So you've talked about the webinar series, Mark. Yeah. and both of you have been very active in those. So where do people find those? How often do we do?

Mark: Sure, I'd always just recommend if you want to follow up on any of these ideas. We start with the website's comprehensive, has plenty of workflow information, follow our blog there. And also the webinar series is available there. Really openly. The standards ones are available. and the upcoming industry-based focus webinars A very good recent international webinar we participate in, and we're a co-presenter of the Learner Voice. That's just a great gives an international perspective. So any of those things available on skillsaware.com website. And subscribe. Subscribe.

Yasmin: Yeah. Because we won't spam you. I mean everything we send out is very targeted to, you know, to make sure that you're actually going to learn something by looking at it, it's not white noise. So I would encourage you if you're interested in this space, subscribe to our newsletters.

Dan: Fantastic. Join the community. Wonderful. Well thank you Yasmin. Thank you Mark. Another great discussion and much more.

Yasmin: Thank you, Dan

Dan: Pleasure.

Mark: And yeah, looking forward to the next one of these and continuing the dialogue with the global skills community.

Dan: Yeah. Thank you. Thanks.