Demo Exam and Skills Passport
According to the WorldSkills Russia methodology, the Demo Exam is a procedure for assessing expertise, knowledge and practical skills under simulated operational conditions against WorldSkills standards.
The Demo Exam is a model for the independent assessment of the quality of training offered by secondary vocational education, higher education, supplementary education and vocational training programmes. It is also a tool for assessing a company's employees according to best national and international practices.
To hold a Demo Exam, WorldSkills Russia experts develop test projects and assessment criteria based on the test projects of national and international WorldSkills Competitions. The Exam is based on the current requirements of the job market and not on any relative standards. This is why the examinees are assessed by independent industry experts familiar with the real-life requirements at production sites or the office. The experts also pass specialised training at WorldSkills Russia Academy and have experience in assessing skills using the WorldSkills methodology.
During the Exam, examinees demonstrate their practical skills while performing some specific operations. The assessment system for different skills contains anywhere from 50 to 100 criteria. These criteria are universal, measurable and internationally understandable. The test projects in the Demo Exam also identify gaps in the students' skills, thus enabling educational institutions to adjust the training programme in order to reduce the gap between the employer's requirements and the skills of the graduates. Educational institutions improve their training system and students practice their skills for a real-life sector of the economy, while businesses get access to a database of skilled human resources corresponding to all established standards.
The Demo Exam takes place at sites equipped with state-of-art industrial technologies corresponding to modern workstation requirements. WorldSkills Russia performs the accreditation of such exam sites.
Over 2000 companies took part in the Demo Exam in 2019. Since 2017, the Demo Exam was acknowledged by over 600 Russian and international companies. The Demo Exam results are assessed in an electronic system and displayed in the personal profiles of the participants on a digital platform. Based on the results of the Demo Exam, the participants receive a Skills Passport listing their particular skills. It specifies the modules completed by a student. A participant's results are shown in a graph that also displays the minimum and maximum admissible results according to the standard.
The Skills Passport is a unified system of skills recognition that gathers different disciplines into a matrix to be presented to an employer.
The system was launched by WorldSkills Russia in 2017. The Skills Passport is registered as a record in a database and issued in the form of a certificate based on the results of a Skills Competition, Demo Exam or final examination in colleges or universities.
The purpose of the initiative - is to create a clear reference point for training and a comprehensible tool for the acknowledgement of skills.
About 40 companies, including state corporations, have already acknowledged the Skills Passport as a tool for the independent assessment of student training. They also participate in the development of assignments and in assessment. The Skills Passport enables an employee to select the required specialist with the right set of skills. At the same time, a specialist receiving a skills passport can be sure that he/she will be in demand.
The main objective of WorldSkills Russia is to create a globally accepted skill assessment system.
