Joining professional associations has been always a great advantage that individuals seek in any industry. This is due to the variety of benefits and opportunities that are offered to the members among a wide range of services, that include networking, training, jobs and above all, the sense of belonging.
Associations aim to advance its community members. This demands members to be constantly aware of new industry trends, and always be aware of the market competition by getting extra knowledge and accomplishing new achievements. However, those achievements will not be advantageous enough unless they can be well-recognizable and easily shareable, but can they be?
Is open badging the answer?
Open badging is a powerful tool and a verified indicator of skills, interests and achievements that can be gained by any learning environment, as it allows your members to get deeper knowledge and learning in different fields. Besides, it acts as an engaging tool that connects members with other organizations and employers which enables them to get more opportunities and access more resources. A digital badge can be accessed online through a verification link, it can be downloaded and attached to your members’ resume, or it can be viewed from your association website. This allows the employer to get a brief about the skills your members learned after having your training.
How can badges benefit any member of any association ?
Getting a grad degree from a higher institution is so expensive. That’s why members prefer taking courses and training from associations as it is more cost effective. Also for an individual who spend so many years in corporate doing the same job, if needs to refresh his knowledge with some courses, then association might be a better option than going back to his college courses. Enhancing knowledge, improving skills and deepening connections is what individuals looking for in any association. These qualities will help members to develop their career. Hence, to attract new members, professional associations are urged to provide more training, personal services and good connections to their members. This process can be enhanced a lot by using digital badges. Digital badges help in showing off your services and training each time you give a badge to one of your members to be shared with the public. Badges encourage members to visualize their path, where they are standing now ? where they want to be ? and how to reach their goal?
Members who applied for an online course, attended a conference, or achieved a career path will be awarded a verified badge that be attached in their resume to help them in the process of searching for jobs that require the skills or knowledge that were gained; in addition to this, badge recipients can share their awarded badges through other platforms as LinkedIn, Facebook and this process can help recipients to find out new job opportunities, or training that can help them in their career path.
How can badges benefit any professional association ?
Digital badges can benefit professional associations, as mentioned in the previous paragraph issuing more badges will increase the engagement rate within the members of any association that will lead to the increase of the reputation of the organization or the association because when learners earn their badges, they have the ability to share it in any social media platform so it will be easily seen by others. Increasing number of learners and members will benefit these associations because it will ensure that the associations care about the skills that are needed in the working environment; in addition to this, it increases its reputation among its competitors, increases its visibility and it makes associations become more powerful, marketable and shareable.
About Badgewell
Badgewell is a digital badging platform that connects learners, employees and associates to professional associations, educators, employers and opportunities.