The Future of Qualifications

We’ve been repeatedly told that formal qualifications have to be how they’ve always been. Apparently, stuffy halls with 1metre spacing for 3hour handwritten paper memory tests are the fairest and easiest way to ensure standards are kept.

This is a challenge, especially considering that many employers are saying that students are leaving formal education unprepared for the workplace whilst the examination bodies make outlandish profits from the existing system.

Unfortunately, this means that we are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Profit or purpose, pounds or practicality?

There is an alternative to the way things have always been, and to explain, we must return to an oft-mentioned issue from our podcast: preparing students for the future.

According to the now famous, Shift Happens video, the amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. For students starting a 4 year technical college degree, this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study. Let’s start with some misconceptions:

#1: Linear exams are not the only method of assessment; indeed, beyond formal schooling, they are rarely used even in professional settings (there are exceptions of course, such as medicine or accountancy).

#2: Memory tests are not a full measure of learning; indeed, many people will attest that they crammed for exams and don’t remember what they learned beyond that exam

#3: During the recent pandemic, we succumbed to the fact that there was an alternative (not that it was perfect by any stretch but it showed there was a different way to formally assess students).

#4: Norm-referencing is flawed in so many ways and we can move towards criterion-referencing (see our Episode 170 with Sir Tim Brighouse and Professor Mick Waters for more on this and check our their About Our Schools book for more great suggestions on reforming the current system).

Here’s how we can overcome these challenges and reform some elements of the qualifications system:

Step 1: Allow all qualifications to be assessed through a portfolio-style method.

Exams, controlled assessments, group tasks, teacher-assessed units and others all have their place — we can QA them through approved moderation and standardisation.

Perhaps, we could even suggest that assessments are devised centrally but assessed internally before being moderated externally (without the bell-curve or mutant algorithm).

Step 2: Introduce a method of transferring qualifications to Non-Transferable Tokens (NTTs)

This means that rather than NFTs which can be traded through a (relatively) simple exchange, the qualifications would only be valid for one person with a unique identifier. This would prevent someone simply copy-pasting and then printing a JPEG 😉

Companies like Simple Assets are already on with this in non-education settings so in theory it is possible.

Step 3: Create a DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation) to validate qualifications.

Much of the benefit of having centralised systems is that it adds credibility and validity to the certifications and accreditations that are offered.

In much the same way that blockchain technology is used to verify financial transactions and any irregularities are rejected by the blockchain, this DAO could help to keep the trust element of traditional systems whilst moving the power away from central bodies to a shared collective.

Step 4: Build a series of Dapps (Decentralised Applications) to allow students to take their accreditations with them throughout life

One of the most baffling elements of our current system is that we keep certificates of completion in a drawer (or your parents’ loft!) only to produce them for a job offer. Their validity or indeed, utility in the current world are unquestioned. Because you have a degree from X university in Y subject, you are ‘qualified’! Just stop and think about that for a second or two…

So, if we create a decentralised system where a portfolio of evidence is stored on the blockchain, validated by a DAO and carried forward with Dapps, we could truly move towards meaningful future-proof qualifications.

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog