Reynaldo Vea, the Chairman and CEO of iPeople Inc., explains the role of qualification frameworks and how they impact microcredentials. Vea, a University Design Institute Global Fellow, Dr. Vea is a well-respected and long-time leader in higher education in the Philippines, previously serving as President and CEO of Mapua University, a highly respected, private, research-oriented university in Manila. Dr. Vea ended his 23-year tenure as the president of Mapúa University in June 2023, after leading significant advancements in its engineering and technological education. He shifted focus to iPeople Inc., concentrating on strategic leadership within the broader educational network part of the Yuchengco Group-Ayala partnership, including seven universities and two primary or secondary schools in the Philippines as its subsidiaries, including Mapúa University.
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Qualification Frameworks and Microcredential Ecosystems
Reynaldo B. Vea, Ph.D., Chairman & CEO, iPeople Inc., Former President, Mapúa University, Philippines
A main concept in the mutual recognition of qualifications across countries is the Regional Qualifications Framework (RQF), such as those of Europe, Africa, the Gulf region in the Middle East, the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Southeast Asia. In a process called “referencing”, the member states compare their National Qualifications Framework (NQF) against a regional qualifications reference framework. Collectively, the member states formulate the desired framework and collaborate so that they can all eventually be successfully “referenced” to it. In this manner, regionally accepted standards in qualifications are established to enhance the mobility of learners and workers.
In order to gauge the possibility of the globalization of qualifications frameworks, the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) is conducting a project to determine the comparability of other RQFs and NQFs to its own. ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) also has a “Third Party Comparability” focus group working towards the same objective. Both efforts are the initial steps towards bringing together the RQFs into a global architecture for credentialing. Meanwhile, in a parallel development, the EU and ASEAN are currently studying how to connect the Tokyo and Global Conventions on the Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education to the ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework (AQRF).
A global scale qualifications system for credentialing will naturally encompass the subset of microcredentials. Just as well, especially in the face of the burgeoning of microcredentials worldwide, because their brevity and flexibility allow better targeting of education and training programs to serve national workforce development programs. Aside from serving the needs of the country, industry, and institutions, microcredentials also accelerate the socio-economic mobility of individuals. They can be the ideal vehicle for lifelong learning as well.
In order to realize the full potential of microcredentials, how might an ecosystem be designed to facilitate their development and deployment? The diagram below illustrates a sample generic national ecosystem that has interfaces with global institutions and firms.
The development of a microcredential starts with the decision about its topic. The main resource for this decision is the skills framework, which contains data about local skills and job roles with associated information on market demand. Skills and job roles data may likewise be sourced from global skills taxonomies. Microcredentials can be awarded after a process of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). They can also be created by stacking up small units of learning through the transfer of academic units.
Once a microcredential has been developed, it can be submitted for inclusion in the NQF’s qualifications registry, which is open to the public. The register itself may take the form of an online learning platform.
The NQF requires that qualifications be quality-assured. It thus also plays the role of a trust provider. In this role, it is accompanied by accreditation and certification bodies and ranking systems.
Undergirding the system is a digital credentialing system. The microcredential provider issues a digital credential, in the form of a Learning Employment Record (LER), to the learner through a firm that supplies such specialized service. The LER is shared with the employer, who may make use of the services of a digital credential verifier. The LER can be used in a digital career guidance system in conjunction with data from job sites and a mentoring system.
The ecosystem uses a number of applications software. The provider uses a Learning Management System (LMS) and a Student Information System (SIS). The learner holds an LER, the output of a digital credentialing application. The employer uses a Human Resources Management System (HRMS). All of these applications can be made interoperable with the use of the standards set by networks and consortia. These standards involve semantics standards for academic achievement and job vacancies, skills description language, data models, and communications protocols.
In the Philippines, the major ecosystem components are existent: the Philippine Qualifications Framework (PQF), Philippine Skills Framework (PSF), Philippine Credit Transfer System (PCTS) (which contains the guidelines for RPL), and a host of accreditation and certification bodies, both local and international. For the government, the enunciation of policies to formally integrate these components into an ecosystem is most urgent. For universities, the meshing of microcredentials, internally developed or externally sourced, into their degree programs is an exciting design challenge. For government, industry, and academe, a long-term partnership in the formulation and upkeep of the PSF is most critical.
If the ecosystem can sustain the development and deployment of a sufficient number of up-to-date microcredential offerings and cause the continual absorption of learners into the workforce, it becomes, in effect, an engine that drives lifelong learning and employment. It should then be able to build and preserve a momentum of accelerated socio-economic mobility in the years to come.
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Author:
Reynaldo B. Vea, Ph.D.
Chairman & CEO, iPeople Inc.
Former President, Mapúa University, Philippines