HLA’s Esther Grieder to present at eLearning Africa

We are excited to share that Esther Grieder, Global Communities and Partnerships Lead at the HLA, has been selected to present at eLearning Africa taking place 24-26 May in Dakar, Senegal. We caught up with Esther ahead of the conference to find out more.

Congratulations on being selected to speak at eLearning Africa! Tell us a little about your session and what people attending can expect to hear more about.

I’m part of a session on ‘How digital credentials are transforming skills recognition in the workplace’, which should be really interesting!

The digital credentials movement – sometimes called the open badges movement – is all about enabling people to have their skills recognised, whether their skills were gained through formal educational channels, or through life and practical work.

This session is chaired by the ICOBC and will be a chance to hear from us and three other organisations – ITCILO, Digital Promise, and Alison, about how they are approaching this in practice.

I’ll be talking about HPass and humanitarian credentials as an example of a sector-approach to skills recognition.

Could you tell us a little about how HPass digital credentials can support humanitarians?

HPass offers the ability for humanitarians to set up a free profile on which they can gather digital credentials as evidence of their skills, learning and experience, issued by over 30 organisations in the sector.

Organisations such as World Vision, War Child and Save the Children all issue HPass credentials, as do many smaller humanitarian learning providers.

HPass digital credentials are fully verifiable, and contain ‘metadata’, which describes exactly what the individual has done to earn the credential, when it was issued, and which organisation issued it.

A myHPass profile is a great way to demonstrate your commitment to your learning and development to your manager or a potential employer (it’s easily shareable via a link or on social media).

Some people find digital credentials a great motivator to pursue more learning too – you can get recognised for each stage of achievement, and the myHPass ‘explore’ feature enables you to discover a whole range of credentials you can earn!

What would you like learn more about at eLearning Africa?

Firstly, I’m really excited to hear from other participants in my session on how they are using digital credentials, so I can get some tips for us!

I’m also really excited about a workshop I’m attending on Leadership Development for Education Leaders, and looking forward to some heated debates around the learning applications of artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the metaverse.

I used to work for a youth-focused organisation in Uganda, and I’m interested to hear about e-learning initiatives focused preparing young people for our fast-changing 21^st Century economies and workplaces. 

What are you looking forward to most about being in Dakar?

I’m really looking forward to meeting representatives of our West and Central Africa Regional Centre in person for the first time. I’m looking forward to trying some Senegalese dishes, and hoping that the sun will be out!

Thank you Esther, we wish you a productive and enjoyable time at eLearning Africa!

About eLearning Africa

eLearning Africa was founded in 2005 and has hosted 19,242 participants from more than 100 countries around the world, with over 75 per cent coming from the African continent. More than 4,000 speakers have addressed the conference about every aspect of digital learning, training and skills development. View the 2023 conference programme.

About HPass

HPass supports the professional development of staff and volunteers in the humanitarian sector through two services: HPass digital badging and the HPass Quality Standards.

With with a fast-growing user base, HPass is becoming the go to platform for organisations looking to develop their learning and development.

HPass is a collaborative initiative founded in 2019 by Bioforce, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Pearson, Humanitarian Leadership Academy, PHAP, Humantarian Logistics Association, and RedRUK.

I’ve earned 116 certifications on Kaya and other learning platforms. Thanks to HPass I have details in a single link/embed code to all my badges, which links to my resume.