Dive Brief:
- Illinois State University's badging program allows students to more creatively showcase volunteerism, technical training and skill development to potential employers and graduate schools.
- Officials use a third-party vendor, Credly, to administer the badges from criteria established by academic executives.
- The Lumina Foundation provided $2.5 million in seed funding to the badging company, a sign of support for the growing credentialing industry and its value to employers.
Dive Insight:
The federal government has indicated that postgraduate outcomes will be an essential element of how colleges are viewed for continuing participation in student aid programs. Badging would appear to be a great equalizer for students from all types of schools, allowing the merit of their academic, volunteer and professional work speak to their capacity to thrive in a work environment.
Schools seeking to promote student success as an element of industrial value created by higher education, or looking boost their value proposition as a community resource working to enhance the common good, should consider these badging programs as an additional layer of public relations content, and data keeping on institutional impact.