2012 · Field note · 2010–2013
A certificate an employer can carry across a desk
Foundation, Intermediate, and Practitioner were named in the first years, and they were named so that a pass would mean the same thing in a second workplace.
Attendance certificates were already plentiful, and they were not helping anyone get hired. A manager could not tell, from a sheet that said a course had been completed, whether the person could find yesterday’s document or would freeze when the printer asked a question.
We designed the first three Computing Literacy certificates to be portable on purpose. Foundation for the everyday acts. Intermediate for work an office would accept. Practitioner for the person other people already ask. The levels were modular, so a candidate could stop, work, and return without starting again under a new name.
Assessment was practical from the first cohort. The candidate sat at a computer and did the thing. We have never regretted that decision. A performance leaves less room for a rehearsed definition, and it gives a hiring manager something to compare.
Further-education providers were part of the design conversations, not an audience we approached afterwards. If a certificate cannot be read by the next institution, it is a souvenir.