Welcome & Introduce

Robert Smart

Robert has been passionate about alternative means of assessment for over 35 years. This started when he was in the British Army, found he struggled on exams (turned out I had Dyslexia), but was the No1 engineer people asked for to fix anything. After completing 9 years, Robert left and again despite initial challenges, through his practical ability became Senior Trainer for First Group looking after the whole of the South of the UK. This mandate was to modernize Engineering Apprenticeships in the Rail Industry to become more focused on Abilities and Safety, than exams. This led to a drastic reduction in Safety related incidents and increased productivity.
This focus on reducing red tape, overcoming barriers, and providing a fairer and more inclusive means to recognize proven and applied skills, lead to Robert being head hunted and secured a role with BMW/Rover Group to become Lead Assessor and Verifier at the Technical Academy. Looking after the skills and competences of 450 dealerships and tens of thousands of staff.
During this time, Robert developed what is recognized as the world’s first skills-based e-portfolio (online) solution with over 2 million qualified and certificated users to date. Robert is on a mission to revolutionize the world of skills based assessment, by eliminating discrimination and promoting complete fairness to accreditation for ANY process or qualification. His solution was credited with saving billions in waste each year in the educational sector and was recognised with an award as second only to Dyson as the most innovative technology to impact an existing sector.
Currently is Robert is working with some of the world’s largest organisations including national governments to support change to a more inclusive model of assessment.