From degrees to digital badges: The future of university accreditations

Which would you rather: a couple of degree credentials or a range of digital badges that boost your employability? Visually validating your skills and abilities across the web, the digital badging system is a futuristic, professional version of the Scout’s patch placement. Recently highlighted by U2B, “a market research firm named MarketsandMarkets claimed that the value of the market would likely hit US$205.6 million by 2023, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.8 per cent from US$83.3 million in 2018.” And it has already made its mark in universities such as Griffith University in Australia. “The university recently launched ‘Griffith Credentials’, an employability initiative created in partnership with badging firm Credly. Established in 2012, the New York-based Credly has been described as the ‘king of digital badging’, having administered badges for technology juggernauts like IBM, Oracle and ISACA,” U2B notes. Growing in interest, digital badges may have strategic and positive effects on the global education sphere. They refresh student accreditations and encourage them to collect as many badges as they can. They make it clearer for companies to spot potential candidates by matching badges to the advertised job role, also diversifying a students’ skill sets by listing all that they’ve worked to attain.