Stackable and Moveable Credentials: Could Technical Education Take an Early Lead?
New forms of technical education
For those not working on a daily basis in English technical education it can seem a complex business. We are in the midst of significant reform across all post-16 education and within this, technical education is still very much forming, storming and norming. Significantly, we have moved from a past set of (somewhat nebulous) qualifications grouped under the banner of vocational education, (with implied but variable relationships with the workplace) to a new suite of technical qualifications based on employer-led occupational maps and standards. The primary aim of these new qualifications is to get learners to progress into skilled employment at an appropriate level. As such, they are seen by the Government to be clearly differentiated from ‘academic’ qualifications, where the primary aim is to prepare learners for higher levels of education as well as work.
The most well-known of the new suite of technical qualification is notably the apprenticeship (now covering all levels of study from 2 to 7). The exponential growth of these ‘new’ apprenticeships has been supported and funded by the creation of an apprenticeship levy, collected from larger employers since 2017. Importantly, apprentices are individuals who are employed (i.e. in a remunerated job of work) and are provided with a minimum of 20% of their time in work to study and gain a qualification at the relevant level.
Less widespread is an emerging group of students taking T Levels - a technical alternative to A Levels set at Level 3, with only the second cohort completing their studies in 2023, and ongoing plans to remove funding from over 200 alternative (overlapping?) qualifications such as BTECs by 2025.
Perhaps the least visible and understood of this new suite of courses are Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs), which recruited their first intake of learners in 2022/23. HTQs comprise existing one- or two-year courses (e.g. HNCs, HNDs and Foundation Degrees) that have been approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) as having met a defined occupational standard, and awarded an HTQ quality mark. Unlike apprenticeships, these are full or part-time qualifications that are not automatically built into a job role and require additional time and funds to study - through self-funding, employer-funding, or student loans.
Incentivising incremental skills development
To support the growth in HTQs, two key changes have been introduced to encourage more flexible learning and skills development. First, a new form of funding for all advanced study from Level 4 and above: the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE). Available from the academic year 2025-26, the LLE will offer a maximum loan amount (to cover fees and maintenance) for use over an individual’s learning lifetime, to fund a range of shorter or longer periods of study. The primary aim of this new approach is to ensure upskilling can take place at the point of need, allowing individuals to build their CVs in bursts of employment-relevant activity.
With this change on the horizon, the Department for Education is currently consulting on a proposal to regulate English Higher Technical Qualifications in the same way as other undergraduate degrees, with a focus on the extent to which they deliver positive outcomes for students, employers and taxpayers, including the proportion of students continuing in their studies, completing their qualification and progressing into a highly-skilled career.
Digitally-enabled credentials
As we explore what the future of flexible funding through the LLE might look like, a range of terminology has emerged to help us to make sense of it. We increasingly speak of the importance of new shorter bursts of learning being stackable (i.e. gathered incrementally and joined together meaningfully) and traceable, auditable and verifiable (i.e. able to be identified, quantified and certified), across a range of registered providers and employers.
As with many aspects of life today the move away from pieces of paper is accelerating and traditional paper qualification certificates which can get both damaged and/or lost are primed to become the next beneficiary of digitisation. As institutions accelerate in their adoption of blockchain-verified, digital credentials, significant benefits are becoming more widely known and understood. Some core benefits identified are:
Removing fraud and friction - Institutions publicising a public blockchain wallet from which their digital credentials are issued, means that verifications become free and instant, reducing friction in hiring while at the same time eradicating educational fraud.
Pathways of stackable credentials – Micro-credentials can be amassed over time, both recognising the achievements that made up the whole, whilst allowing flexibility within the learning journey.
Digital means detail – Digital credentials create the ability to surface details about skills and knowledge developed within the learning experiences. This means that digital credentials can embed a granularity of data, leading to a verified skills profile growing over a lifetime of learning unique to each learner.
Links to these verifiable ‘certificates’ of learning have the potential to be shared directly with other learning providers and employers and to be added to digital CVs or Linked In profiles. Importantly, embracing and adopting this new approach, sooner rather than later, has the very real potential to offer technical education a boost (and even a head start compared to other ‘academic’ qualifications) as it develops and embeds across the English education landscape.
Where are you on this digital journey?
With this in mind, we invite you to reflect with us on the following questions:
Could and should technical education take an early digital lead?
How ready is your own organisation for the shift to digitally enabled credentials?
How might you work with your learners (and employers) to understand the benefits of stackable, moveable and digital educational credentials?
We recognise these are not straightforward questions to answer and act upon, given some of the financial and cultural constraints within which we operate in our provider settings. But we believe it is vitally important they are addressed now if technical education is to fully achieve its (digital) potential.
About the authors
Professor Elizabeth Cleaver has worked in education for 30 years. Since 2008, her focus has been on supporting colleagues in the higher education sector to engage in strategic change and the enhancement of their curriculum, pedagogies, policies and practices. Liz’s recent experience includes work with universities on the development of apprenticeships and higher technical qualifications, and 2022 saw the publication of her Office for Students commissioned research report Degree Apprenticeships in England – current practices in design, delivery and quality management. She is currently working with UVAC to build a national Knowledge Network for providers offering Higher Technical Qualifications.
David Rowley manages NCFE’s portfolio of products within the technical education directorate, with a specific focus on 16-19 study programmes and Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs). Over the past few years, he has been leading the development of HTQs in the Health and Science, Education and Childcare, and Digital sectors. This work has engaged him in detailed discussions with regulatory bodies such as IfATE and Ofqual, a range of employers and representative bodies, as well as numerous centres across higher and further education. He is passionate about raising the quality and profile of level 4/5 education and facilitating collaboration between FE and HE. Before joining NCFE, David spent ten years as a secondary school science teacher and head of department, with experience in delivering both academic and vocational qualifications at Levels 2 and 3.
Yaz El Hakim co-founded VerifyEd in 2019 to combine two passions; education and blockchain. VerifyEd is a new platform using blockchain to issue immutable, secure digital degree certificates and micro-credentials. Prior to this, Yaz spent six years working internationally with other educational technology companies including Canvas, Kortext and Aula. He has worked in and with Higher Education for over 20 years, starting as an hourly paid lecturer in Sport Psychology, and later holding the role of Director of Learning and Teaching and Student Engagement at the University of Winchester, UK, where he co-led the National Project - TESTA.
