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.TRANSCRIPT
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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].