Scale and sustainability through automation with TAFE Queensland
TAFE Queensland is a vocational education and training (VET) provider with over 125,000 learners enroled per year in approximately 400 qualifications, courses and micro-credentials offered across 60 locations in Queensland and internationally. Continuing changes in the workplace, adoption of new occupational technologies and the COVID-19 global pandemic highlighted the vital role TAFE Queensland plays in building the skills of the existing and future workforce. From humble beginnings in 2021, TAFE Queensland’s digital credential program has quickly grown to issue over 36,000 badges across more than 24,500 learners in 2024 alone.
For learners, micro-credentials offer the flexibility to upskill or re-skill as a top-up of an existing qualification, foster a lifelong learning mindset and act as a clear pathway to a formal qualification. From 2020 TAFE Queensland has innovated new industry-specific products for their industry partners, including recognition of micro-credentials and skill sets, giving learners avenues by which to quickly build on their existing skills or train in new and emerging areas.
In their own words
“TAFE Queensland’s learners often require rapid access to recognition with a need to quickly demonstrate new workplace skills to help them find a job. Credentialate uses automation to deliver rapid recognition of learners’ achievements without the need for direct human intervention, saving significant resource costs. This has resulted in a sustainable credentialing system, regardless of how many learners are recognised in a given period of time.”
– Tracey Singh, Director Product at TAFE Queensland
WEBINAR RECORDING - The Path to Impact at Scale: How TAFE Queensland Achieved a 62% Completion Rate with Microcredentials
Watch the webinar recording below, where Tracey Singh (TAFE Queensland), Wendy Palmer, and Margo Griffith and Dan McFadyen (Edalex) explore how purpose-driven design, industry collaboration, and technology combined to deliver impact at scale through one of the most successful microcredential programs in recent history.
With over 83,000 enrollments, TAFE Queensland has achieved an astounding 62% completion rate for its industry-sponsored microcredentials, a figure that far surpasses the industry average.
Objectives
Across 2020 and 2021, TAFE Queensland launched a series of micro-credentials, seeking to capitalise on the evolution to online education, react rapidly to industry demand for skills, leverage Queensland funding and ultimately deliver on the needs of their learners.
A micro-credential framework that supported their vision to recognise personalised learner achievement of in-demand workplace skills was developed.
Solution
As a long-term client of Edalex, TAFE Queensland identified Credentialate as the ideal partner platform and collaborated with Edalex to scope the requirements for their skills recognition and micro-credentialing strategy.
Edalex conducted a series of workshops to help TAFE Queensland define their objectives, desired learner experience, micro-credential lifecycle and learning management system (LMS), student management system (SMS), enrolment, authentication and associated systems integration plan.
TAFE Queensland uses the Brightspace LMS, and Canvas Credentials as their badging agent. Credentialate is the ‘credential engine’ that provides the bridge between the LMS and the badge agent so that credentialing can be automated.
A phased rollout model was adopted to support scope control, incorporation of learnings, feedback cycles and the evolution of TAFE Queensland’s micro-credential offerings over time.
Outcome
In April 2021, TAFE Queensland’s instance of Credentialate went live, issuing micro-credential badges for skills-based competencies. 97 digital credentials were initially available to be awarded and the first 7,838 learners were automatically awarded credentials. By the end of 2024, that number had jumped to over 36,000 credentials issued, to more than 24,500 learners – a 46.21% growth rate in the number of learners served. In 2025, enrollments have jumped to over 85,000, with a 74% completion rate.
Individuals are incentivised to work towards digital credentials and many learners have multiple digital credentials awarded along complementary subject lines. Credentialate has contributed to additional revenue streams for TAFE Queensland, with many learners returning more frequently into further education and engaging in multiple modules at the same time.
As the program has continued to scale, TAFE Queensland has had a near seamless adoption experience. Credentialate performs all the functional aspects of the system with little human interaction, despite the significant background processes that are required with higher volumes. The credentialing team has full confidence in the system, and checks and balances can be conducted in an automated way at scale, effortlessly providing surety and peace of mind. Staff say that its integrations seem almost ‘magical’ and that it quite simply ‘works beautifully.’
TAFE Queensland have access to detailed reports on the awarded badges that can be used to show proof of the actual skills their courses teach. They also have visibility over credential achievement rates, so that microcredentials that are not completed by learners are more quickly and easily identified. If required, course improvements can be made to improve retention and course completion rates, resulting in an effective continuous improvement process.
It’s a system that has exceeded expectations and will continue to deliver well into the future.
