The topic of micro-credentials is gaining more and more importance in the national and international education discourse. The BadgeTour project uses micro-credentials to raise the awareness of trainers in the tourism industry: it should help with the recognition of competences and the certification of the learning process. Project manager Nadia Catenazzi provides information.
Interview: Helen Buchs
Nadia Catenazzi is a researcher at the Institute of Information Systems and Networks at the Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana SUPSI and led the project «Badgetour– VET Micro-credentialing in the Tourism Sector» in Switzerland. The two-year project was funded by the EU Commission and Movetia and started in December 2021. The first results of the project are now available.
Nadia Catenazzi, what do you mean by micro-credentials?
Micro-credentials are a form of certification of micro-learning units. They are used to demonstrate the learning outcomes of small learning units, such as a short course or training leading to the acquisition of specific skills adapted to a rapidly changing labour market. By using micro-credentials, the learning outcomes of these short experiences are easily recognised and understood by employers, learners and educational institutions. Micro-credentials are mainly used for short non-formal and informal learning experiences and complement traditional qualifications. A common approach to the implementation of micro-credentials is digital badges, i.e. digital representations recognising the acquisition of skills.
What do you see as the potential and challenges of micro-credentials?
Micro-credentials are a means of improving the quality, transparency and flexibility of learning. Their introduction could contribute to the renewal of training systems and to the trustworthy recognition of skills and qualifications. To this end, however, it is necessary to raise the awareness and skills of trainers in the implementation of micro-credentials. To meet this need, SUPSI, together with a number of European partners, has launched the Badgetour project.
How did your project go about this?
The project aims to improve the skills of trainers to recognise competences and certify the learning process. We wanted to develop a common approach to micro-credentails, guaranteeing quality, cross-border comparability, recognition and transferability. The starting point for the implementation of micro-credentials was the standardised description of learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills and competences according to the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). The next steps included the development of training content, the design and implementation of digital badges and the definition of criteria for validating competences and issuing badges.
How can your project contribute to the further development of micro-credentials?
BadgeTour has produced a number of results on the subject of micro-credit points, which are open to the public. These include: guidelines for the creation of micro-credentials in the tourism sector; a course on micro-credentials developed on the basis of a competence card and organised as a collection of interactive learning units; and a methodological manual for trainers in vocational training in the tourism sector to provide the necessary know-how for implementation within training organisations. These results are available on the project website.
Who can use the material produced by the project and how?
The project’s target users are mainly trainers and vocational training providers in the tourism sector. However, the project’s results may also help trainers in other fields to learn how to create and issue digital badges to recognise skills. All interested parties can use the material produced by the project free of charge. In particular, the BadgeTour guide to micro-credentials and the methodology manual offer recommendations and know-how for the introduction of micro-credentials and the implementation of digital badging ecosystems. The BadgeTour Toolkit is a course organised in 5 modules, consisting of interactive OERs for trainers in the field of vocational training in tourism. Tourism trainers have to complete a series of activities, quizzes and final tests to help them develop key competences for integrating micro-credentials into their learning. A digital badge is issued at the end of each learning unit. The badges for the learning units can be combined to obtain a module badge.
In a fundamental report, the SVEB discusses the potential of micro-credentials for education systems and labour markets and describes initial efforts to apply micro-credentials.