Man Using a Tablet

Global Skill Share

Ghana April 2021

In April 2021, I went to Ghana for an internship. The purpose of that internship was to assess different educational technologies to assist with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gathering places initiative. In the three weeks I was there, I traveled across southern Ghana and interviewed different groups of Ghanaians. These interviews inspired me to create Global Skill Share.

Interview Takeaways

1. False Credentials: Because of Ghana's competitive labor force, many job applicants forged fake credentials to become more competitive. This takes away jobs from qualified Ghanaians.

2. Trades workers get left behind: The internship I conducted along with many programs is looking at how to improve employability of Ghanaians. They often are doing this with data entry, instructional technology, and other white collar fields. But there are very few programs aimed at helping trade professionals gain or improve employment.

3. Validation: Many of the individuals I spoke to who were in the trades sector were looking for a way to distinguish themselves, especially when they are competing with others with fake credentials.

These takeaways led to the idea of developing a platform where skilled Ghanaians could receive micro-credentials to better improve employment and distinguish themselves from false credentialing.

Project Purpose

The purpose of Global Skill Share is to create a platform where vocationally skilled Ghanaians can have their work evaluated by experts and receive a badge demonstrating their skill to potential employers.

Design Challenges

There were three primary challenges that influenced the trajectory and outcome of this project:

Building a platform
Design for Ghanaians
Building the badges

Building a Platform

The first challenge when building a platform was creating a product without technology gaps. I needed to build a platform that was accessible to Ghanaians. That involved navigating around technology infrastructure gaps.

Technology Infrastructure Gaps

1) Many Ghanaians have poor internet or only have access to internet through public wifi.

2) Over 50% of the population only have access to internet through their phones.

3) The majority of the phones used in Ghana are older android phones.

These three gaps narrowed our platform down choice to two options: a website or a LMS app.

Website or LMS

Key:

Pros

Con

LMS App Considerations

Low bandwidth
Easily accessible platform
Built-in submission tools
Integration of badging platforms like badgr
Only works on newer operating system
Not accessible on older computers

Website Considerations

Low bandwidth
Only requires internet to access
Can work with both phone and computer
Not limited by user device or operating system
Not integrated with badging system
Not accessible on older computers
Needs to be built

After evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of both options, I decided to build a website. This meant that there would be more manual time developing it but it would eliminate accessibility gaps created by using an LMS app.

Build Considerations

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The website needed to be low bandwidth, so a minimalist design was used.

To improve usability, two types of navigation were used: active course links and a navigation bar.

While developing the site, it was essential that it was accessible on both mobile and desktop devices. Features were tested for usability and accessibility on both.

Design for Ghanaians

While developing the website, it was important to make the process as simplistic as possible. The hope is that this would eliminate user mistakes due to technology illiteracy. The process skilled Ghanaian needs to follow to receive a badge is listed below.

In addition to providing instructions, I made a page with videos explaining how to use different aspects of the website.

While conducting evaluations about the website, I found out that the badges were poorly understood. To adjust for this, I added a page explaining what badges are and additional resources with further explanations.

One aspect I was worried about when building the website was the appearance. I wanted it to look like it was a product designed for Ghana. All photos are of individuals of African descent.

Designing the Badge

There were three main groups of badges developed. Badges for welding, plumbing and electrical work. Within those specific categories, there are three badges representing the basic skills of that trade. Those trades were selected because they represent major components of the Ghanaian construction and commercial trades sectors.

Welding Badges

Tack Weld badge
Fillet Weld badge
Groove Weld badge

These three welds make up the majority of structural and pressure vessel welding.

Plumbing Badges

Repairing a leak badge
Replacing a valve badge
Unclogging a drainage system badge

These skills were chosen because they are essential knowledge for an apprentice plumber.

Electrician Badges

Wire pulling badge
Outlet and switches badge
Safety systems badge

These three skills were chosen because they are the minimum expectations that any electrician would be able to perform.

To receive user work, an upload button was added to every badge page. This button allows submission from all file types.

Development of the badges took time and effort. To understand the trade better, I conducted interviews with expert tradesmen in each of the content areas.

The biggest barrier was language. Experts expected the language to be specific and detailed. This caused accessibility concerns for Ghanaians who have varying literacy levels. After multiple iterations and meetings, the language became more simplified but still represented the trade.