Modern technologies and the digitisation of many areas of our lives have necessitated active, constant participation in educational processes known as lifelong learning. More and more people need to update and improve their knowledge, skills and competences in order to bridge the gap between formal education and the needs of a rapidly changing society and labour market.
This is why the University of Opole is joining the pilot project ‘Micro-credentials – piloting a new solution supporting lifelong learning’ conducted by the Educational Research Institute (IBE).
‘The digital reality of the labour market requires digital confirmation of knowledge and competences,’ emphasises Prof. Anna Weissbrot-Koziarska, Vice-Rector for Education at the UO. ‘This is a necessity recognised not only in recruitment processes, but also in documenting various forms of quality education for specialists.’
The aim of the pilot project implemented by the IBE is to build, implement and develop a system for issuing and collecting micro-credentials in digital form for people who are learning or improving their skills, competence and qualifications.
What are micro-credentials?
Micro-credentials are documents confirming skills in a specific area, achieved with little effort and in accordance with established standards. They are usually collected and made available in digital form. Their use is a response to changing learning methods and labour market requirements.
Micro-credentials are issued on the basis of transparent criteria by institutions that apply established standards of quality assurance in education and training, e.g. by: schools, universities, educational institutions, non-governmental organisations, sports associations and clubs, as well as companies.
The advantage of micro-credentials is that their holders can combine them into larger sets of skills acquired in a given area and make them available, for example, in recruitment processes.
The University of Opole is becoming an active participant in the pilot programme for micro-credentials run by the IBE.
As part of this programme, over the coming months, it will create a description of micro-credentials, test the various functions of the proposed micro-credential system, share its comments on them and participate in designing the best solutions.
This will enable the UO to design and issue its own micro-credentials, which will be issued in digital form using the free Odznaka+ (Badge+) application developed by the Educational Research Institute.
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