For many people, finding meaningful work experience is a huge challenge. Often it is about who you know rather than what you know. Employers, particularly in vocational settings, may consider relevant work experience to be more important than formal qualifications. For learning providers, managing the whole process is complex and labour intensive; and mistakes can be costly. The forthcoming T-Levels, with mandatory 45-day industry placements, increases the need for an efficient solution to work experience. The Digital Guild is a new platform to help solve these challenges.
It enables learners to access over 1,000 hours of eLearning, develop new skills (including sector specific and transferable skills) and evidence these using digital badges. Employers and learning providers can list experience opportunities, including application criteria, using the same digital badges. The Digital Guild can manage the whole process from search and discovery, placement matching, on placement assessment through to final evaluation and the recording of references.