A new arrangement between Deakin University and its wholly-owned credentialing business, DeakinDigital, will see IT professionals in Australia put their work experience towards a Master Degree qualification.

From 2016, DeakinDigital customers will be able to earn a Master of Professional Practice (IT) degree once they complete a full suite of credentials and a single unit of study at Deakin.

Allyn Radford, DeakinDigital CEO, says that enabling professionals to put credentials towards a Master Degree could halve the time and cost of a Master Degree in IT.

“At DeakinDigital we believe that traditional higher education is only one aspect of career success,” says Radford.

“Our model is based on a simple proposition - you shouldn't have to sit in a classroom to learn what you already know.

“In a profession like IT that's constantly changing, life experience and skills learned on and off the job are often just as relevant,” he says.

“Together, the University and Deakin Digital are setting a world-first precedent by creating a formal pathway between Credentials and a post-graduate qualification. I have no doubt that others will soon follow.”

Deakin University vice chancellor, Professor Jane den Hollander, says technology is imposing disruptive change around the world causing all sectors to reimagine and reshape ways of doing business.

“The career of a lifetime will no longer last a lifetime,” she says. “Workers will in all likelihood need to up skill multiple times throughout their career.

“Deakin University strives to apply the innovation of new technology to everything so that our students are educated and skilled for the jobs of the future – and that is what this credentialing and this new Master Degree will do.”

A wholly owned subsidiary of Deakin University, DeakinDigital gives professionals the opportunity to earn credentials by engaging in best practice assessment of the capabilities they have acquired through workplace experience and other forms of learning.