The Edge: Why a New Kind of ‘Badge’ Stands Out From the Crowd

Most alternative credentials have gained plenty of buzz, but little traction. This one might be different. [The Edge] Was this newsletter forwarded to you? [Please sign up to receive your own copy.]( You’ll support our journalism and ensure that you continue to receive our emails. --------------------------------------------------------------- I’m Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education covering innovation in and around academe. Here’s what I’m thinking about this week. More than just another badge. In certain circles, “alternative credentials” are all the rage. But mostly in theory. That’s why I’m following the progress of the new “generalist digital-technology credential” developed by a partnership of 12 universities and 14 companies. It’s a smart example of how to create an alternative credential that carries tangible value for those who earn it, including preferential treatment in internships and job interviews. To boot, the credential is a product of some unusual cooperation among a diverse set of universities and employers along a corridor that stretches from Baltimore, Md., to Richmond, Va. ADVERTISEMENT As we’ve been reporting, the buzz [around certificates, badges, and other measures of achievement]( has been on the rise as employers have increasingly questioned whether a college degree is a reliable or adequate “signal” of an applicant’s capabilities. That’s a fair question. And the alternatives can in fact convey information, like resiliency, that a degree might not, [which could be especially useful for students coming from colleges where the network effects aren’t that strong.]( Yet very few of these alternative credentials have gained much currency either. The reason: Outside of about 200 industry-recognized credentials that employers routinely ask for in job ads (hat tip to Burning Glass Technologies for that insight), it’s hard to know the value of the thousands of existing credentials, much less the new ones colleges and other organizations are now starting to develop. Efforts like the foundation-backed [Credential Registry]( are intended to bring more clarity to this tower of babel around credentials, as I describe in more depth in my new [Career-Ready Education]( report. But for now, the plethora of alternative credentials is more a maze than a signpost. The credential developed by Capital CoLAB (Collaborative of Leaders in Academia and Business) is different. Here’s why: It’s starting with strong employer buy-in, because employers were instrumental in creating it. When discussion of the credential first began in April 2018 under the auspices of the Greater Washington Partnership, an economic-development group, 11 companies were at the table (three more have since come aboard) along with 12 universities. Within a few meetings, the employers, including MedImmune, a biotech company; Northrop Grumman, the aerospace giant; and big financial players like Capital One and JP Morgan Chase & Co., had agreed on the knowledge, skills, and abilities that should be represented in a generalist technology certificate for a college graduate. Having the employers as hands-on as they were was unusual. “This isn’t business showing up with a big check,” said [Wes Bush]( who, as chairman of Northrop Grumman, took a big interest in the project. He’s now chair of the CoLAB. Not that getting the employers’ input was simple. Jennifer Thornton, director of workforce initiatives at the partnership, told me that employers were initially reluctant to talk about their needs, for fear of revealing proprietary information. But they had incentive to cooperate. Colleges in the corridor now produce about 20,000 digital-technology grads a year, while the region has about 10 times that many open digital-tech jobs. And that’s even before [Amazon lands with its HQ2 needs](. It respected the colleges’ academic autonomy. Once the employers agreed on the criteria, the college reps — many from provosts’ offices — went back to their deans and department chairs to map where those key skills were already being taught in the curricula, and where they might need to tweak or add a course. As long as they could cover the material in a sequence of three to five courses, the colleges were free to develop the credential as they wished. As Thornton put it, the only rule was, “Whatever model works.” George Mason made the credential the equivalent of a minor, while Virginia Commonwealth created a “Fundamentals of Computing” certificate. They were the first to offer the program, and Mason has already had a half-dozen students graduate with it in May. American University, Virginia Tech, and the University of Richmond will start theirs in the fall. At American, the rollout will be in the business school, but Jill Klein, interim dean of the School of Professional and Extended Studies, told me there will ultimately be three or four pathways to the certificate. About 80 percent of what’s required is already being taught in one place or another, and “it will fit into any field of study,” she told me. “We want anybody in the university to feel they can have these skills.” AU also wanted something that could be part of students’ transcripts. It offers real payoffs. Capital CoLAB is now working to create a common logo for the certificate and has hired a vender to develop a digital badge that could eventually be read by automated HR systems and used on sites like LinkedIn. (I’m not one to get excited about the tech side of this digital badging stuff, despite having written about [the brave new world of electronic transcripts back in 1995](. If that’s your thing, check out the new [Digital Credentials Initiative announced last month by MIT]( To me, it’s the tangible commitments that companies are making to those who earn the credential that seem significant. In addition to the internship and interview opportunities I mentioned above, Capital CoLAB is asking the companies to agree to offer job-shadowing, mentoring by current employees, invitations to receptions with senior leaders, and ideas for capstone projects to certificate holders if they need them, among other incentives. Eight companies have already agreed to offer at least some of these to certificate earners, Thornton told me, with Northrop Grumman and Capital One agreeing to nearly every one. Still, the project has hit some bumps. It would have been better if all the employer partners agreed to adopt all of the incentives. And the colleges and employers had a harder time agreeing on what some of the more advanced skills should be; as a result, CoLAB plans to create three additional specialized certificates, in cybersecurity, data analytics, and artificial intelligence and machine learning. It’s hoping to land a multimillion-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation to carry out those next steps. I guess there’s a sub-lesson in that. It’s always easier to keep projects moving when there are resources to cover people’s expenses. It reminds me of the advice I heard when researching my skills-gap report, from Brian Fitzgerald, chief executive of the Business Higher-Education Forum, an organization that, along with the Business Roundtable, is supporting Capital CoLAB. In cooperative projects like this, he said, “money greases the skids.” Correction. In last week’s newsletter I used an outdated title for Shanna Smith Jaggars, one of the researchers who analyzed the rise and fall of the American Honors venture. She is now assistant vice-provost for research and program assessment in the Office of Student Academic Success at Ohio State University. Got a tip you’d like to share, or a question you’d like me to answer? 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