ForgeRock Drives Engagement & Certification Completion with Digital Credentials

ForgeRock offers world-class certifications designed to validate and recognize IT professionals with the technical capabilities and real-world experience needed to effectively design, deploy, and manage ForgeRock technology-based identity solutions. ForgeRock serves more than a thousand brands, including Morningstar, Vodafone, GEICO, TomTom, and Pearson, as well as governments including Norway, New Zealand, and Belgium, among many others.

Challenge

ForgeRock University provides free, self-paced, and classroom training to individuals who want to grow their professional currency by becoming experts in the organization’s comprehensive Identity and Access Management solutions. Individuals can start without any baseline knowledge of ForgeRock technologies and build a skills profile that leads to becoming a ForgeRock Certified Access Management Specialist or a ForgeRock Certified Identity Management Specialist. They can progress even further to become Accredited Mentors and Consultants on ForgeRock solutions.

ForgeRock University faced a dilemma not uncommon among training providers: engagement levels in their courses dropped off before students completed certification. Why? Some students lost motivation to continue through a series of courses without any recognition of achievement along the way. Others simply didn’t know where to start their learning journey and how to track toward certification. ForgeRock was challenged to make pathways toward certification clear and actionable, with meaningful recognition at key milestones.

Solution 

ForgeRock knew it had a solid foundation for learning, so rather than reinventing its training program, the organization implemented one very impactful change. ForgeRock joined its learning programs together with digital credentials that are issued along a connected pathway that anyone can follow. Digital credentials mark the path that starts with essential product and industry knowledge, then continues through core and advanced ForgeRock skills, before resulting in certification.

ForgeRock makes a point of issuing a digital badge as quickly as possible (within an hour, in some cases) of a student’s course or certification completion so they can share their achievement online at the very moment they feel most proud of the accomplishment. The ability for students to get real-time, positive feedback from their professional network has proven very motivating for them to dive into the next course on the way
to certification.

ForgeRock uses Credly’s reporting features to identify where students are in their learning journey. They use this information to deliver targeted communications to their students that guide them toward the next relevant step: register for a course and then prepare for certification in order to achieve their professional goals.

Impact 

Digital credentials have directly impacted ForgeRock’s certification test volume, which skyrocketed by 751% within six months of the launch of its digital credential program. And that increase wasn’t a one-time anomaly; certification test volume climbed 96% year-over-year.

ForgeRock students are invested in and engaged with their badges, as evidenced by the high rate of individuals who accept and share their badges. “Program quality is of the utmost importance in our industry. Are students finding enough value in the learning provided to claim and share their badges?” said Streater. “The badge acceptance rate is one particular data point we regularly pull from Credly to measure overall engagement with our training program.” Thousands of digital credentials have been shared by ForgeRock students, generating positive brand impressions and awareness across popular social media platforms.