Workers gain a new pathway from workplace skills to university qualifications

4 November 2026 | Media Release

Australians who have built valuable skills and capabilities through work can now gain formal recognition towards university qualifications, with Torrens University Australia and Capability.Co expanding their partnership to better connect workplace learning with higher education.

Under the expanded partnership, eligible Human Capability Credentials can be recognised towards Torrens University Australia's Diploma of Applied Management and Graduate Certificate of Applied Management, creating new opportunities for employees to turn demonstrated workplace capability into recognised educational outcomes.

Torrens University is the only Australian university within the Capability.Co partnership network to offer full recognition through two university qualifications.

Professor Aleks Subic, Vice-Chancellor and CEO of Torrens University Australia said,

“The most useful role for a university now may be partnership infrastructure - the connective layer that makes standards bodies, employers and technology providers' training portable, credentialed, and stackable into something that grows over a lifelong career.

This partnership recognises that valuable learning happens far beyond the traditional classroom. By connecting demonstrated workplace capability to formal qualifications, we're helping people build on what they already know and progress more efficiently into further study, expanding access and opportunity for learners at every stage of their career.”

Recognition of on-the-job skills

As career pathways become increasingly diverse, many Australians are developing valuable skills and capabilities through work, professional development programs and lived experience, yet that learning has traditionally been difficult to recognise within formal education pathways.

How does the Capability.Co Human Capability Recognition System work?

Built on more than 30 years of research through the Working Futures tm Human Capability Standards, Capability.Co's Human Capability Recognition System has been used across more than 100 organisations, including Australia’s international hotel group, TFE Hotels, helping make human capability visible, verifiable and portable.

The system:

• Recognises and verifies workplace capability: Assesses the skills, behaviours and capabilities people demonstrate through work and learning, and verifies them against the Working Futures™ Human Capability Standards.
• Creates a portable Human Capability Credential: Converts verified capability into a recognised credential that can be understood across employers, industries and education providers.
• Connects workplace capability to university qualifications: Acts as a translation layer between workplace learning and higher education, helping turn demonstrated capability into recognised educational outcomes that can contribute towards a qualification.

Helping employers turn workforce development into qualifications

The expanded partnership represents an important step in strengthening connections between verified workplace capability and formal higher education outcomes.

It also lays the foundation for future workforce-to-qualification pathways, with further announcements expected as organisations begin using Human Capability Credentials to support employees on pathways towards complete qualifications.

Skills build capability. Qualifications build opportunity.

The partnership comes as Jobs and Skills Australia and other bodies highlight the importance of strengthening connections between skills, qualifications and workforce participation to support national productivity and workforce mobility. Rapid technological change, including the growing adoption of artificial

Media Contact: media.enquiries@torrens.edu.au