As workplace needs and hiring trends become more skill-centric, gaining visibility in a busy hiring landscape is critical. Job seekers and professionals as well as employers are constantly exploring ways to upskill and validate the skills acquired. In line with this trend, digital badge credentialing is growing rapidly in the U.S. and globally, with 20% annual increases projected over the next five years according to yahoo!finance.
The Corporate Education unit in UMass Lowell’s Division of Graduate, Online & Professional Studies has embraced the many benefits of digital badges, partnering with Credly to ensure simple and secure badge provisioning for multiple facets of their non-credit training offerings beginning in 2022.
“By providing a secure, digital representation of our training offerings, professionals can more easily manage, share and make use of their credentials within their networks, across social media platforms and on their resumes,” said Nancy Ludwig, Dean of the Graduate, Online & Professional Studies Division.
Digital badges are growing increasingly popular for a number of reasons including:
- Ease of demonstrating professional proficiency on social media platforms and resumes, in email signatures and on blog posts or websites
- Enables employers, clients and peers to quickly understand an individual’s qualifications
- Badge credential details are accessible with one click
- Badges are more secure and simpler to share than paper certificates
- Badges provide increased exposure for the issuing organization and may add to the appeal of their training offerings
Digital badges can be issued for a wide variety of educational accomplishments
As graphical representations of skill- or knowledge-based qualifications, digital badges can be issued for a wide variety of specific educational achievements. Initially, UMass Lowell will enable individuals to earn four different badge credentials:
Participation Badge Reflects participation in an webinar, workshop, symposium or seminar that provides substantive educational content and value, but does not include performance assessments.
Professional Training Badge Reflects completion of a specific learning goal, commonly a non-credit course, but may also include a day-long or multi-day seminar.
Contribution/Recognition Badge Reflects service as a presenter, facilitator, project leader or other significant contribution towards skill- and knowledge-building initiatives
Advanced Level Training Badge Reflects completion of a multi-component learning initiative demonstrating continuous progress toward a higher level academic achievement.
UMass Lowell’s digital badges can be earned for completion of non-credit training and learning opportunities in key business disciplines including:
Additionally, employers can partner with UMass Lowell’s Corporate Education team to offer Customized Training programs to upskill their workforce, with cobranded digital badges awarded to participants.
For more information please contact Corporate_Education@uml.edu
