From WhatsApp Catalogues to Spreadsheets: Proving Your Digital Literacy Through RPL
By Delight Technical College | School of Tailoring, Fashion & Design- RPL | 2026
Every day, fashion businesses in Kenya run on small digital routines. A photo goes onto a WhatsApp status, a client confirms a design by message, a deposit arrives by M-Pesa, and a spreadsheet records who owes what. Each routine is evidence of digital skill. The challenge in Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is not usually having the skill, it is knowing how to present it. This guide shows how ordinary work can become convincing evidence for the unit Digital Literacy.
🔗 Matching Your Daily Work to the Unit
| What You Already Do | Digital Skill It Shows |
| Post products with prices on WhatsApp Business or social media | Content creation, online communication and digital marketing |
| Record orders in a spreadsheet | Data entry, formulas and file management |
| Send quotations or invoices as documents or PDFs | Word processing, formatting and saving files in different formats |
| Email suppliers or clients | Professional written communication and attachment handling |
| Search for fabric suppliers or trends online | Research and judging the reliability of sources |
| Back up photos and files | Data protection and file organisation |
📊 A Simple Order Spreadsheet That Impresses
If you do not yet keep a digital record, you can start with a simple spreadsheet. A good layout has columns for:
- Date of order
- Client name
- Garment and description
- Total price
- Deposit paid
- Balance due
- Delivery date and status
Add a formula to calculate the balance automatically, and you have shown a practical use of spreadsheets that any assessor will recognise.
🛡️ Staying Safe Online
Digital literacy includes responsibility. Assessors may ask how you protect yourself and your clients. Be ready to explain:
- How you create and store strong passwords
- How you recognise suspicious messages, fake payment confirmations and scam links
- Why you should check an M-Pesa confirmation message carefully before releasing goods
- How you back up important files and photographs
- Why you should ask permission before posting a client’s photograph
🎓 Where This Fits in the Delight Learning Guide
Unit 8: Digital Literacy
- Module III | Level 5 (Craft) | Term Three
📁 Organising Your Evidence
- Keep screenshots in a clearly named folder
- Hide or blur names, phone numbers and payment details that are not necessary
- Print a few key examples and keep digital copies as backup
- Add a one-page summary listing the digital tools you use and what you use them for
🗣️ Be Ready to Show, Not Only Tell
Bring a phone or laptop if the assessment arrangements allow it. Being able to open a file, find a document or send a message quickly is more convincing than a description.
🧰 Quick Skills to Practise Beforehand
- Creating a folder and renaming files sensibly
- Saving a document as a PDF
- Attaching a file to an email and sending it
- Sorting or filtering a column in a spreadsheet
- Taking a screenshot and cropping it
- Creating a strong password and explaining how you remember it
- Backing up photographs to a second location
Ten minutes a day for a week is usually enough to make these feel natural.
“Digital skills are practical skills. Every invoice you send and every order you record is proof (you only need to organise it.)”
💡 Want to know how your digital routines could count? Call Delight Technical College on +254 722 533 771 or visit Muindi Mbingu Street, Nairobi.
📍 Delight Technical College | Muindi Mbingu Street, Opposite Jevanjee Gardens, Nairobi | +254 722 533 771 | www.delight.ac.ke
