Digital Badging: The Future of Workforce Development!
Why all the hype about open digital badges and why does your company need them?! Are they a good investment?
Have you ever hired an employee based on their resume and they did not have the skills listed? In 2011, tired of this recurring phenomenon, the Mozilla Foundation created a way to assess applicants’ skills more accurately with Open Digital Badges.
What makes Open Digital Badges a more reliable indicator of skills and experience? Each badge contains a set of metadata endorsed by the issuer that represents the knowledge of the recipient, what they know and can do, and how the recognition was earned. You can even see a list of courses taken by the applicant, objectives, accomplishments, highlights, and more.
This makes Open Digital Badges more appealing than mere certificates or transcripts. The goal of Open Digital Badging is to provide credentials that are more detailed than what can be provided on a resume.
These badges are unique, personal credentials that symbolize the learning achievements at any level - knowledge, skills, certificates, diplomas, certifications, or license. And as we speak, a new open digital badge is issued every four seconds according to The Chartered Institute for Information Technology.
One of the biggest barriers associated with digital badging today is determining how to make them more authentic to employers and regulators. That is where IACET fills the gap. By providing an independent, third-party accreditation of digital badge issuers, IACET can bring gravitas to the Open Digital Badging ecosystem.
IACET has created an educational program to provide members and other adult learning stakeholders opportunities to learn about Open Digital Badging credentials and how to effectively implement them in adult learning environments. Since, the IACET 1-2018 Standard for Continuing Education and Training requires processes involving record keeping and transcripts, Open Digital Badging is a natural extension of these elements of that important standard.
About the Author
Dee Wells is the Manager of Marketing and Communications for IACET. In this capacity, she oversees IACET engagement opportunities and external collaborations through the maintenance of consistent IACET branding across marketing and public relations channels. Dee directs internal communications, press releases and speeches given by executives, as well as oversees IACET’s Web or Social Media presence.
Prior to joining IACET, Dee worked in a variety of fields within the field of Education for over 15 years. She has had the honor of working with military spouses on the Military One Source project for several years and has been an Educator in the classroom in both Adult and Secondary educational venues. In the field of Marketing, Dee has worked in Real Estate as Director of Marketing and as an Associate Broker for custom home builders in the Southern region.
Dee graduated from Talladega College with a B.A. in English/Journalism is currently earning her Master’s in Strategic Leadership from Jakes Divinity School.