digital badges, job retention, lifelong learning - missouri customer service blog

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Broad overview of digital badges in the labor market, with plans for badge system development to promote continuous learning and career development among youth enrolled in the Missouri Customer Service Partnership.

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Page 1: Digital badges, job retention, lifelong learning  - missouri customer service blog

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Digital Badges Encourage Job Retention and Lifelong Learning Missouri Customer Service Partnership Blog #2: November 12, 2014

What do Zappos, Carnegie Mellon, Los Angeles, Microsoft, the Smithsonian, Walgreen’s, and the

Missouri Customer Service Partnership have in common? They’re all riding the waves of a

transformative new trend: digital badges.

If you’re thinking of those little sew-on patches you earned in Scouts years ago, think again. Today’s

digital badges also acknowledge and reward mastery of a specific skill – that’s true. But they’re not

confined to the Troop by any means. Badges have been recreated by web-enabled technologies and

they now have far greater utility and a much broader audience than before. Expect to see them soon all

around your digital world, on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, ePortfolios, websites, and company

apps.

Why and how is this happening? First, there’s a growing

awareness of the importance of lifelong learning. Staying

relevant and competitive in today’s dynamic job market

requires continuous personal and vocational

development – in school, on the job, in community, on

the Internet. Badges are microcredentials that

complement more traditional diplomas, degrees, and

certificates, fine-tuning our system of educational

awards for new realities.

Second, in this highly participatory, open source world, developing badges is relatively easy. Thanks to

tools such as Mozilla’s Open Badge infrastructure and other connected learning resources, digital

badges can be (and are being) developed by companies, schools, universities, cities, non-profits, and

governments.

Here are just a few examples. Zappos has announced plans to develop a digital badge system to reward

growth and development among employees. Carnegie Mellon uses badges to certify learning

milestones in an online course on robotics and computer science. The City of Los Angeles engaged more

than 50,000 youth this summer in a coordinated city-wide learning program, incentivized and rewarded

with badges. Microsoft uses badges to certify teachers who are updating and expanding their

technology skills. The Smithsonian awards badges to individuals who participate in educational

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programs offered by their museums. Walgreen’s uses badges to recognize customer progress toward

healthy-living goals.

Badges are cropping up everywhere. But we’ll see the truly transformative effect of these

microcredentials when (and only when) a critical mass of badges is recognized broadly by employers and

educators who seek reliable and consistent evidence of skills and competencies having been mastered.

An international, virtually-connected Badge Alliance has convened practitioners and researchers across

the movement to address this challenge. They are working together on standards, protocols, and other

emerging issues.

Badges and the Missouri Customer Service Partnership

The Missouri Customer Service Partnership (MCSP) is an eager participant in the digital badge

movement. We have constructed a system of 12 badges to encourage and reward job retention and

continuous learning. In addition, we aim to instill good habits of lifelong learning among our program

graduates as they work their way toward self-sufficiency.

Graduates of the MCSP’s 10-week customer service training program will participate in a pilot “Career

Launch Community” for 12 months after they have started work. In monthly gatherings, supported by

mentors and advocates, these aspiring young customer service professionals will have an opportunity to

earn as many as 12 digital badges.

Six of the badges require applying and honing customer service skills, such as

communication, teamwork, problem-solving. Other badges reward life and

career development skills such as financial literacy, smart use of social media,

and giving back to the community. Each badge is backed up by specific

requirements.

Stay tuned for more information as we launch the Career Launch Community in January 2015. And by

all means, weigh in with comments and suggestions if you would like to be involved.

This is one in a series of occasional blogs from the Missouri Customer Service Partnership, a coordinated initiative to

strengthen the pool of qualified customer service talent in the state and to grow Missouri’s middle class. We

welcome suggestions and input from business, government, higher education, professional organizations, and

others who share these goals.

This blog is written by Blair Forlaw, a consultant to the Partnership. The opinions expressed are those of the

author, and do not necessarily reflect those held by the State of Missouri or other members of the Missouri

Customer Service Partnership. Please address comments and questions to [email protected].