Professional Practice credentials

One way of future proofing your professional experience is via something known as a Professional Practice credential.

This model offers professionals an alternative to traditional higher education that is credible, validated and largely based on recognition of professional practice and experience.

Few people realise the massive changes that a focus on professional capabilities and resulting credentials have made both to education worldwide but also to the recognition of individual expertise.

Let’s take a look at an example of a university’s credentials and explore why they are important.

Deakin University has a list of core Professional Practice credentials that are linked to our Graduate Learning Outcomes:

Communication:

is a critical component in successfully responding to change, enhancing innovation and promoting continuous improvement when deployed with other capabilities such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and emotional judgement.

Digital literacy:

is necessary to identify, access, manage, integrate and evaluate digital resources and construct new knowledge to improve strategic operations.

Critical thinking:

empowers employees to learn from their mistakes, recognise opportunities, and observe facts objectively, systematically identify causes of problems, research and anticipate future events and overcome challenges to improve workplace success.

Problem solving:

involves the ability to define and analyse problems, identify problem severity and implement optimal solutions.

Self-management:

is essential to demonstrate your capability to continually learn, respond to changes and enhance work practices.

Teamwork:

is critical to work productively within a collaborative project or team and is vital for increasing creativity, improving the quality of work and fostering healthy and productive relationships with colleagues and stakeholders in business.

Global citizenship:

is essential in understanding your professional responsibilities in an increasingly diverse global economy.

Emotional judgement:

is essential in navigating social networks, and influencing and inspiring others.

Innovation:

is essential for organisations to respond to future opportunities, embrace new uses of technologies and improve industry methods.

Professional ethics:

encompasses the personal, organisational and corporate standard of behaviour expected of professionals.

These credentials are a formal recognition that skills and knowledge acquired through learning and experience have been successfully delivered to the agreed outcomes.

The credentials are underpinned by the professional capability standards. In the case of information technology the focus is on the Skills Framework for the Information Age, which describes skills required by professionals in roles involving information and communications technology.

Your task

Take a look at this video from Professor Marcus Bowles outlining Deakin University Professional Practice credentials. How might you benefit from these credentials? How would they make you a more valuable employee? Share your thoughts in the comments.

(Note: some links to YouTube may not be available in some countries.)