A degree or certificate may tell an employer about your education, but it won’t necessarily highlight your specific skills. Online education, however, has facilitated the rise of “microcredentials,” namely digital badges , and nanodegrees , that aim to do just that.
“I would say over the past three years or so, we’ve seen a rise in this arena in a way that we really haven’t seen in the past,” says Lauren Griffin, senior vice president of the recruitment agency Adecco Staffing USA.
In some online classes, whether it’s MOOCs or for-credit courses offered through universities, instructors have begun incorporating digital badges into their curricula. Students earn these badges once they achieve a certain milestone or develop a particular skill and can then post them on social media or an online portfolio. When somebody — such as a potential employer — clicks on the badge, it will link to information on how and when the badge was earned.
Learn about [how online courses are experimenting with digital badges.]
At the same time, Udacity, a company that offers affordable programming and technology online courses, has partnered with companies such as AT&T and Google to create online project-based “nanodegree” programs in information technology. Students select a specific IT program area, such as front-end Web development, and receive their nanodegree certification after paying about $200 a month and completing around five to eight projects to showcase their skills.
“Particularly the nanodegrees, that strikes me as a breakthrough in a way for employers because it’s basically saying to an employer, here’s a core set of courses that you know this person has that makes them very viable for your job,” says Stuart Butler, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy research organization.
Experts say both badges and nanodegrees are still in their early days and the trend is continuously evolving in online education. When it comes to badges in particular, some employers in various industries have accepted them as legitimate or have at least expressed a willingness to learn more about them, while others remain more skeptical.
The concepts of nanodegrees and microcredentials are catching on more so in the tech industry than in other industries, says Alex Halavais, associate professor of social technologies at Arizona State University.
“I suspect that it’s kind of bleeding over from the technology sector, where there’s at least some more acceptance,” he says.
From the employer perspective, nanodegrees provide skills that are tailored to specific types of tech industry jobs, experts say. In fact, just this month, Udacity announced a new Nanodegree Plus program that guarantees learners a job within six months of graduating or their tuition money back.
Choose [the right information technology training to meet your goals.]
In general, Griffin, of Adecco Staffing, says more employers and recruiters she works with are on board with the idea of microcredentials than aren’t. She says a badge might not be valued as much as a degree, “but it’s absolutely valued.”
“From the hiring manager perspective, they want to see skill sets, they want to see endorsements, they want to see the complete profile of that candidate, and that now does include these microcredentials,” says Jason Weingarten, co-founder and CEO of Yello, which provides software to help with recruitment .
At this point, there isn’t much research available on employers’ perceptions of digital badges and nanodegrees from job applicants, especially when it comes to online learning and general opinions within specific industries.
But in one recent survey of 114 human resources managers across various industries, only 5 percent said they weren’t interested in digital badges at all, though this didn’t include badges exclusively from online programs. Sixty-two percent of the respondents said they were interested in badges but also needed to learn more about them.
Victoria Raish, online learning librarian for Pennsylvania State University–World Campus and Penn State University Libraries, who co-authored the study, said via email that respondents indicated that one to five badges was the most popular number they would consider.
“This requires that students think judiciously about what badges they submit to potential employers,” Raish says.
Griffin and other experts agree that, at least for now, it’s essential to make a possible employer aware of what a smaller type of online credential or certification actually represents when applying for a job.
Understand [what employers really think about your online bachelor’s degree.]
“I think with the millennial shift as well, being the largest group in the workplace, that we will most likely continue to see increased interest because it fits in with that demographic in their learning and the access online,” Griffin says. One possible challenge in the future, Weingarten of Yello says, will involve employers being able to actually validate these badges in order to consider them.
For some employers, it’s the skills themselves rather the type of credential or certification that matters most. This was the case for Sheryl Lun, an event-planner-turned-Web-developer who earned a nanodegree from Udacity.
“It didn’t really matter to them that I had a nanodegree, but just the fact that I had these projects that were working was a selling point for them,” Lun says.
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What Employers Think of Badges, Nanodegrees from Online Programs originally appeared on usnews.com
