Hiring 'badge' project advances at UMaine
A year after helping to launch a pilot project on the use of digital “badges” to connect students and employers, the University of Maine is joining an expanded study of the learning credentials.
The new initiative, Badged to Hire, builds on the earlier project led by the Education Design Lab, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.
In that effort, UMaine worked with Bangor Savings Bank and Northern Light Health to identify essential — but difficult to measure — qualities of entry-level employees, such as intercultural fluency, communication skills and resilience.
The electronic credentials are an attempt to signal that job applicants have those skills.
Over the next two years, the lab will work with UMaine, Central New Mexico Community College and San Jose State University, as well as their employer partners, to study the acceptance of the credentials and improve hiring outcomes among underserved students, according to a news release on Wednesday.
"Today's employers are desperate for applicants with the right combination of technical and mobility skills," said the lab’s founder and president, Kathleen deLaski. "This work is about creating a two-way dialogue that empowers students to display these hard-earned skills in a format that's easily recognizable to employers."
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