NSW to trial digital ‘education passport’ next year

The NSW government will early next year commence a trial of a digital “education passport” that will act as a verifiable record of a student’s qualifications.

First flagged in October last year, the government has since been consulting with students on what it might look like, as well as with school leavers, employers, businesses and further education and training providers.

The digital passport will contain two elements – the digital passport itself, which would contain a student’s academic record, and a “Student Learner Profile”.

“We’re hoping to have this product starting to trial out in early next year,” Mr Dominello said on Monday as part of a Committee for Economic Development of Australia panel discussing building trust in technology. “This would be world-leading if we land it.”

In addition to providing students with their academic history, the passport could also potentially assist recruiters and employers in spotting fraudulent CVs that list qualifications that weren’t obtained.

Capabilities and achievements the state government is looking to store in the learner profile include:

• formal qualifications like HSC results and the ATAR;
• vocational education and training (VET) competencies;
• extra-curricular and sporting achievements;
• work experience;
• volunteering;
• caring responsibilities; and
• hobbies.

“One of the biggest challenges we’ve got is labour market mobility,” Mr Dominello said, referring to the ability of workers to move between jobs.

“That’s formed the idea of creating an education passport in NSW that we’re building out.

“From primary school to high school to TAFE to university to AICD – whatever it is, you [can] carry it with you, ideally in your Service [NSW] app, all your qualifications in life.

“Then we [can] start talking to employment providers, such as Seek and the like. And what they can do with that is then start matching supply and demand.

“And once we’ve got that visibility along that supply line, it’s much easier to say to a primary school kid or high school kid, ‘Hey, if you go into these industries, this is what opens up for you downstream’.

“It’s just connecting those dots.”

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has previously said that the digital learner profile would create continuity and ease for students to record their learning experiences while at school.

“We know our students are more than the sum of their exam results and they want a reliable way to display all their experiences and achievements,” Ms Mitchell said in April.

NSW Tertiary Education Minister Geoff Lee has previously said that the digital passport would be first trialled with TAFE trades courses.

Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.