In May of this year, the Digital Badging Commission conducted an in-depth piece of research into the current digital badging landscape: how digital badges are used, how they have evolved over time, examples of their successful application, and challenges still to overcome.

Our research draws on existing literature on the subject, alongside case study interviews with leading experts in the field internationally. The work will be used to frame our discussions as we look at ways to transform how individuals, employers and organisations recognise and reward learning and skills development.

We will publish the Commission’s research in full in the coming months but have compiled the following as an early preview.

Summary of our findings

In policymaking

• Our research found that digital badges offer more flexibility and opportunities to recognise and reward learning throughout a person’s life
• There are a few ways that badging aligns with current policy efforts in the UK –such as within the government’s Lifelong Learning Strategy and national skills frameworks. However, they’re not at present on the policy radar to the same extent as they are in other countries.
• Around the world, many governments have made digital credentials a policy priority and a central pillar of their learning, skills and employment agendas.
• This includes within National Credit Banks – centralised national systems to recognise prior learning- which have proven to be hugely successful around the world: from the Republic of Korea to Australia, New Zealand and beyond.

In education

• In Higher Education, there are many successful examples of digital badges being used within longer courses of learning to reward and motivate learners, or to complement academic courses by focusing on durable skills relevant for future employment. Great examples can be found in the wide range of badged courses available on The Open University’s OpenLearn platform.
• In Further Education, the use of digital badges is more limited. One successful example we identified was at Hull College, UK who offer digitally badged personal development and durable skills courses for staff and students – with more than 12,000 badges issued every year.
• In both cases, those learning with digital badges are motivated by achieving completion of the short, modular content badges are often attached to.

In business

• When considering incorporating badged programmes within businesses, our research found that workplace learning programmes must have proven benefits to an enterprise, and have the buy-in of an executive sponsor, if they are to be successful. This was a fact corroborated by numerous interviewees – particularly at IBM and 1EdTech.
• Successful examples of digital badging in business often required significant investment in marketing internal learning initiatives. This ensured clear understanding of the prospective benefits to the business and its staff, and ensured wider take- up and completion.
• Our research also found that at present, HR systems largely lack the ability to read the metadata (information that describes and explains data) behind digital badges in order to match them with jobs. This is compounded by a lack of investment incentive to update these systems. While awareness and understanding of the meaning of badges within businesses remains low, so does demand and investment.
• Without further investment, our research found that on the whole – outside of a few successful examples – badges risk remaining personal markers of achievement, but with no further function.
• The RSA’s Cities of Learning programme has issued over 30,000 badges, and works directly with businesses. This could provide a useful exemplar.

What this means for digital badges?

In the workforce

• There is a mismatch between required skills and actual skills in the current UK labour market, and the UK education system does not currently have the agility or flexibility needed to maintain pace and produce workers with the necessary skills needed for jobs.
• This mismatch highlights that the current system and goals of education and upskilling is in urgent need of innovation.
• Short non-formal learning experiences, such as work-based training or online courses rewarded with digital badges are ideally positioned to fulfil this need, able to evolve quickly to meet the demands of an ever-changing skills landscape.

The potential of digital skills wallets

• Digital badges are uniquely able to support the communication of relevant skills and experience to prospective employers, and this is most effectively done when incorporated into an individual’s online learning profile or a digital skills wallet.
• Building up a bank of badges and collating them in this way also marks individuals out to employers in the rapidly evolving job market.
• Indeed, research by YouGov found that there is a communication gap in the UK between young people seeking jobs, and employers: two thirds of young people said they felt confident about expressing their skills in job interviews, yet two thirds of employers reject young people because they are unable to articulate their skills.
• This is where digital skills wallets are ideally situated to bridge the gap. Digital skills wallets are an ideal platform for communicating a comprehensive picture of an individual’s skills and experiences from a range of learning opportunities.
• Our research found that the computer code to deploy digital skills wallets already exists, is freely available and deployed worldwide. Internationally, digital transcripts of school, university and college achievements compatible with digital badges are well established. As it stands, however, there are limitations on the interoperability of badges from different platforms, an area which requires further research and exploration.

Standards Framework

• Our research showed that, due to the non-accredited nature of many badged opportunities, and the lack of regulation, their quality and value is varied.
• To enhance clarity, rigour and value, and allow learners to take agency over their learning with confidence, a standard to guide badge creation and meaning should be more widely adopted.
• Existing successful international examples of frameworks and standards that could be incorporated into badge issuing include: 1EdTech’s Trusted Micro-credential Framework; the Universal Framework created by Skills Builder; and the RSA’s badge standard.
• Robust quality assurance is a vitally important step as digital badges are increasingly used to serve the skills agenda, and different stakeholder groups must come to a shared understanding of what badges are and represent.
• The challenge lies in resolving the tension between a national or even international standard, while maintaining flexibility- acknowledging that one size does not fit all.

Looking ahead

Our research highlights the potential of digital badges to support lifelong learning, improve workforce skills matching, and enhance communication of competencies through digital skills wallets, while emphasising the need for a cohesive standards framework and better integration with HR systems.

Our job as the Digital Badging Commission is to unlock the potential of this exciting and innovative area – and to provide robust recommendations towards the greater use of digital badges in the UK.

Join the discussion

The RSA is hosting an event discussing the work of the Digital Badging Commission.
Join us in-person or online on Wednesday, 18th September at 1pm.