Certiport, a Business of NCS Pearson, Inc.
Certiport is dedicated to bridging the skills gaps by helping people succeed through certification.
ID: 355363131313-67
Lobbying Activity
Response to Enabling factors for digital education
15 Sept 2022
Certiport welcomes this initiative and believes that the positive potential of digital education merits a high degree of political attention at the EU and Member State levels, continued collaboration and sustained large-scale investment.
We would like to point the following elements for consideration:
Connectivity and equipment must be coupled with digital skills
Measures targeting better connectivity and digital equipment for schools are most effective when coupled with digital skills development efforts. The technology, or the access to the internet alone are not enough; the teachers and students need also the opportunity to gain the skills that enable the use of digital in their classrooms and in the learning journey.
Developing teacher competence – professional development for teachers
The provision of digital skills within all levels of education must start with teachers and teacher training. Teacher training throughout the EU should include a three-fold approach – firstly the all-essential digital skills as outlined by DigComp for all citizens; secondly the skills to embed digital into the curriculum. Thus, enabling all teachers not only to learn to use ICT but additionally to then use ICT to teach (and learn). All teacher training colleges could be required - while respecting Member State subsidiary – to provide these two mandatory components as a minimum. The third element of skills provision can include additional but equally important digital competences to leverage AI, cloud and data analytics in education.
Industry certification on digital skills can add value to teacher training, as well as continuing professional development for teachers in the acquisition and validation of these competences . Certification in digital skills from industry has shown to increase job satisfaction for teachers, positively impacting longevity, while playing an important role in continuing the modernisation of our education systems at all levels.
The speed of revamping teacher training curricula, and implementing change is at odds with the ever-increasing pace of change in a digital world and Member States often seek evidence of return on investment. How do we know that teachers have the right skills and are using them in their practice? How do we know and verify that students are gaining relevant digital competences which equip them for the workplace and for life? Integrating industry-recognised certification into both teacher training and student learning provides a means of ensuring that relevant skills are acquired with a validation that assists student’s employability and mobility. It also provides a measurable result for Ministries and school leaders to gauge progress and investment. Making these skills visible in a manner that facilities mobility is equally valid to ensure that education truly becomes the backbone of growth in the EU.
Validation and Recognition
Much of EU policy has not fully leveraged an important tool available to Europeans, one that is known to facilitate employability, mobility, validate the return on investment in training and education as well as motivate learners to reskill and upskill in education and beyond – this is industry recognised certification. The OECD’s Skills Strategy 2019 advises that certification has multiple benefits: “For individuals, it can lead to higher employability, skills use and job satisfaction. It can also be a bridge to re-engage with formal learning by limiting the amount of time and cost required to complete a credential”. Recent research points to the multiple benefits of integrating certification into both the standard curriculum as well as VET curricula.
The ‘European Digital Skills Certificate’ planned as part of the Digital Education Action Plan may serve a useful measuring stick to enable transparency and quality assurance for those training and certification programmes aligned
Read full responseResponse to Improving the provision of digital skills in education and training
15 Sept 2022
This initiative is critical in a post covid era where the EU headline targets on digital skills appear highly ambitious. As a long-term advocate for digital education and skills development, Certiport welcomes this initiative and believes that the positive potential of digital education merits a high degree of political attention at the EU and Member State levels, continued collaboration and sustained large-scale investment.
We believe the issues have been clearly and correctly identified in the problem outline and point to the following:
Developing teacher competence – professional development for teachers
The provision of digital skills within all levels of education must start with teachers and teacher training. Teacher training throughout the EU should include a three-fold approach – firstly the all-essential digital skills as outlined by DigComp for all citizens; secondly the skills to embed digital into the curriculum. Thus, enabling all teachers not only to learn to use ICT but additionally to then use ICT to teach (and learn). All teacher training colleges could be required - while respecting Member State subsidiary – to provide these two mandatory components as a minimum. The third element of skills provision can include additional but equally important digital competences to leverage AI, cloud and data analytics in education.
Industry certification on digital skills can add value to teacher training, as well as continuing professional development for teachers in the acquisition and validation of these competences . Certification in digital skills from industry has shown to increase job satisfaction for teachers, positively impacting longevity, while playing an important role in continuing the modernisation of our education systems at all levels.
The speed of revamping teacher training curricula, and implementing change is at odds with the ever-increasing pace of change in a digital world and Member States often seek evidence of return on investment. How do we know that teachers have the right skills and are using them in their practice? How do we know and verify that students are gaining relevant digital competences which equip them for the workplace and for life? Integrating industry-recognised certification into both teacher training and student learning provides a means of ensuring that relevant skills are acquired with a validation that assists student’s employability and mobility. It also provides a measurable result for Ministries and school leaders to gauge progress and investment. Making these skills visible in a manner that facilities mobility is equally valid to ensure that education truly becomes the backbone of growth in the EU.
Validation and Recognition
Much of EU policy has not fully leveraged an important tool available to Europeans, one that is known to facilitate employability, mobility, validate the return on investment in training and education as well as motivate learners to reskill and upskill in education and beyond – this is industry recognised certification. The OECD’s Skills Strategy 2019 advises that certification has multiple benefits: “For individuals, it can lead to higher employability, skills use and job satisfaction. It can also be a bridge to re-engage with formal learning by limiting the amount of time and cost required to complete a credential”. Recent research points to the multiple benefits of integrating certification into both the standard curriculum as well as VET curricula.
The ‘European Digital Skills Certificate’ planned as part of the Digital Education Action Plan may serve a useful measuring stick to enable transparency and quality assurance for those training and certification programmes aligned to DigComp and differentiate those that are not. The training and certification market in Europe is crowded with offerings, DigComp and a European Digital Skills seal of alignment linked to DigComp
Read full response