Approved Assessment Partner
Trusted Digital Skills Assessments
Digital Skills Agency is one of only a handful of trusted SFIA Partners authorised by the SFIA Foundation to conduct accredited skills assessments and issue SFIA Foundation endorsed digital badges.
More information on SFIA Assessment and Digital Badges can be found on the SFIA Foundation’s website.
The Assessment Process
Note: Currently accredited assessments are only available to our clients and via selected partners. We are not accepting requests from private individuals or through other means at this time.
Determine Your SFIA Skills & Levels
You can select up to 6 SFIA skills at a time to be evaluated by our SFIA Accredited Assessors. You should also select a single level for each skill. If you already have a SFIA profile you may like to select the most important skills to you or your role.
Collate Your Evidence
You are responsible for collating and providing evidence that demonstrates your professional usage of your selected SFIA skills at the levels you have chosen. See our notes below for guidance on evidence.
Submit Your Assessment Request
You will be able to request assessment via our tools, or via your client success contact. Your request will need to indicate the SFIA skills/levels and include your evidence statements.
We Check For Funds/Approval
We will check for available assessment credits against those purchased by your organisation. If insufficient credits are available we will work with your sponsor to determine an appropriate course of action and keep you informed.
We Evaluation Your Application
Your application will receive a preliminary review for quality purposes. If there are any quality issues at this stage (e.g. missing information, or clearly insufficient evidence) we will return your application and you may re-submit the application after updating the necessary details.
Assessment
One of our SFIA Accredited Assessors will review your evidence against the SFIA skills/levels you have selected. Typically, this is via an online video call of up to 1 hour. The assessor will review your evidence with you against the assessment criteria, and where additional information is needed will discuss this with you. The assessor will also be evaluating your SFIA generic attributes as you must generally be working at (or above) the levels of the SFIA skills you have chosen. The assessor may advise you that your evidence doesn’t support the levels you have chosen but it would be sufficient for lower levels of specific SFIA skills.
We Process & Review The Assessment Outcome
Our SFIA Accredited Assessor will update their notes and provide and assessment report which will be reviewed internally for quality purposes including the fair and appropriate application of the assessment criteria. We use internal moderation techniques to support the quality and consistency of our assessments. Any issues will be resolved with the assessor (and if necessary, we may request clarifying information from you), and once approved we proceed to issue your digital badges via Credly. If you have an existing SFIA profile via our tools we will also update your endorsed SFIA profile with any new skills/levels.
Receive Your Digital Badges
You will receive an email from Credly with details of your digital badges. If you have an existing Credly profile you can accept these badges to your Credly profile, otherwise you will be able to create a new Credly profile. We recommend you auto-accept digital badges from Digital Skills Agency to streamline receiving future badges from us.
Share Your Digital Badges
Go ahead and share your digital badges on LinkedIn! Digital badges are a great way to celebrate your skills, and as you update your profile over time you can share new skills or higher skill levels to show your commitment to professional development.
Evidence Requirements
Note: As SFIA skills are described in terms of activities and responsibilities, the only evidence that can be used is actual examples of performing those activities. If you are struggling to find good examples from your experience it is likely you may have selected the wrong level for your chosen SFIA skills, or possibly the wrong SFIA skill.
In many cases, evidence can be presented a few short paragraphs providing real-world examples of your skill usage. Work products can be useful, but are not normally necessary. The evidence you provide in your application and to the assessor must be sufficient, but doesn’t not need to be voluminous.
General Requirements
All of the following requirements must be met.
Authentic & Real-World
Your evidence must truthful and authentic, and your examples must be from your own real-world experience.
Recent
Your evidence must use examples from the last 7 years.
Sufficient
The totallity of the evidence you provide (from the application and with the assessor) must be sufficient to address all the requirements set out by the SFIA Foundation, and to maintain a high-level of confidence in the assessment process.
Independently Performed
Your evidence must show your examples were conducted independently (except where the SFIA skill description clearly states otherwise).
Relevant Knowledge
Your evidence must demonstrate your familiarity with the generation and purpose of key work products likely to be produced in context of your examples.
SFIA Generic Attributes / Behavioural Attributes
Your evidence should support assessment of your SFIA generic attributes (Autonomy, Influence, Complexity, etc) in line with (or above) the levels of the SFIA skill levels you are assessed against. For example, if you are be assessed for a SFIA skill at level 4, your generic attributes should be at or above level 4.
Requirements for Skill Proficiency
All of the following requirements must be met, in addition to the general requirements above, in order to award a rating of skill proficiency.
At Least 50% of the Skill Level Description Performed
Your evidence must show you have performed at least 50% of the activities set out in the SFIA skill level description. This must include essential activities (typically the first statement of the skill level description) aligned to the purpose of the skill (as set out in the overall description of the skill, including the guidance notes). For example, an applicant could not claim the Project Management (PRMG) skill merely by addressing the administrative portions of the skill, they must have actually managed projects.
Professional Context or Controlled Learning Environment
Your evidence must show your examples are drawn from either a real-world professional context, or from a simulated/controlled learning environment with a similar level of complexity. Note that this does mean simulated learning environments may only be practical for lower levels of SFIA skills in many cases.
Repeatedly Performed with Consistency To Acceptable Standards
Your evidence must show at least 50% of the activities described by the SFIA skill must have been performed multiple times and that expected outcomes or deliverables were produced to an acceptable standard for the context of the examples.
Requirements for Skill Competency
All of the following requirements must be met, in addition to the general requirements above, in order to award a rating of skill competency.
At Least 85% of the Skill Level Description Performed
Your evidence must show you have performed at least 85% of the activities set out in the SFIA skill level description. This must include essential activities (typically the first statement of the skill level description) aligned to the purpose of the skill (as set out in the overall description of the skill, including the guidance notes).
Professional Context Only
Your evidence must show your examples are drawn solely from real-world professional contexts. Simulated/controlled learning environments are not acceptable evidence of skill competency.
Repeatedly Performed with Consistency To Acceptable Standards
Your evidence must show at least 50% of the activities described by the SFIA skill must have been performed multiple times and that expected outcomes or deliverables were produced to an acceptable standard for the context of the examples.
Assessment FAQs
Your assessment questions answered
We need your name, email, country, details of the SFIA skills/levels you have selected and your evidence statements. We will explore your recent professional experience to validate your evidence statements, assess your SFIA generic attribute levels, and collect/confirm any additional evidence, and the assessor will take notes and update the evidence statements which will be retained.
Your application and evidence supplied (plus details of any appeal) will be kept as records of the assessment. The SFIA Foundation has the right as the scheme owner to audit our assessment activity including reviewing evidence statements.
Credly receive only your email, name, country, and details of the digital badge(s) you have earned. They do not receive any assessment evidence.
To ensure currency of your digital skills, SFIA skills badges are valid for 3 years. They can be renewed any time by another accredited assessment.
You may appeal your assessment decision on the basis of one or more of: factual error; procedural error; clear error of judgement by the assessor; evidence of not following the assessment scheme rules set out by the SFIA Foundation (e.g. not acting impartially). Appeals not based on one of these criteria will not be accepted.
Where assessor judgement or conduct is in question a different assessor will be review the assessment evidence and report, and if necessary conduct a new assessment.
Only one appeal per assessment will be allowed. Decisions following appeal are final.
The Directors of Digital Skills Agency will review all appeals on a periodic basis to identify potential improvements in the scheme.
We reserve the right to revoke any digital badge we issue if after investigation an individual issued digital badge by Digital Skills Agency acts in manner that does not maintain the integrity of the SFIA Assessment Scheme or other schemes we have an obligation to. These cases should be exceptionally rare and carefully considered. Examples of conduct that could result in digital badges being revoked include for example: not being truthful when providing evidence for assessment; deliberately misrepresenting the meaning of digital badges earned under our schemes; using a fake identity.
