NEW YORK, NY MARCH 08, 2017. Digital credential pioneer Credly and Portfolium, an ePortfolio platform that makes a student’s academic and co-curricular experience searchable by employers, announced today a new partnership that enables learners to demonstrate evidence of their learning and competencies to potential employers. The new integration allows Portfolium users to access and display digital badges earned through Credly in their ePortfolio, and enables employers to search and find candidates based on badges that match specific job opportunities and targeted skillsets.
“There are more students graduating with degrees or certificates than ever before, and yet 60% of employers claim these students aren't graduating with the skills they need to fill their jobs,” said Adam Markowitz, CEO of Portfolium. “Portfolium is solving this problem by allowing employers to match their jobs to the proven skills within students' portfolios via our employer recruiting platform, TalentMatch. This partnership with Credly will allow millions of Portfolium users to showcase verified achievements in the form of digital credentials alongside examples of their best work, helping pave the way for the evidence-based hiring revolution.”
Among the first to take advantage of the new integration are the nine colleges of the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), the nation’s largest community college district. As part of the Los Angeles Healthcare Competency to Career Consortium (LA H3C) project originally funded by a TAACCCT grant, the consortium developed an innovative training model designed to recognize students interested in the health science profession, retrain adults new to the healthcare field, or upskill current professionals on new specializations. Students receive digital badges that recognize achievement in industry-aligned, competency-based programs in eleven health science career pathways.
“The demand for healthcare professionals is rising at an unprecedented rate, and finding candidates with the necessary training to meet this demand is becoming increasingly difficult,” said Linda Delzeit, education technology instructor leading the digital credentialing efforts at Los Angeles Trade-Tech Community College (LATTC). “Digital badging and ePortfolios have made it possible to demonstrate the relevant, industry-specific skills students are developing, and to do so in a timely manner. Going digital has enabled us to more quickly connect well-prepared individuals to jobs in our rapidly changing sector.”
To date, the program has issued over 6,400 badges to students who have demonstrated industry-specific skills, including senior care, BLS CPR, safe practice and infection control, as well as soft skills, including diversity and cultural awareness, customer service, compassion and empathy, and professionalism and ethics. The new integration enables students to showcase evidence of these skills by importing the digital badges, managed through Credly, into their individual ePortfolio, hosted by Portfolium, where employers can find candidates based on their skills for open health care professions.
“Today’s employers are looking for more effective ways to identify candidates with the right skills to meet the rapidly-changing demands of the workforce,” said Jonathan Finkelstein, founder and CEO of Credly. “But traditional transcripts and resumes often fall short in communicating the depth of a learner’s experience and qualifications. Our integration with Portfolium makes it easy for job-seekers to provide hiring managers with a robust portfolio of work, bolstered by verified digital credentials, creating a more agile and transparent way to link education and training to career opportunity.”
To learn more about the Credly and Portfolium integration, join our webinar on Thursday, March 9, 2017 at 2 pm ET. Register here: http://crd.cr/credly-portfolium.
About Portfolium: Portfolium partners with colleges & universities to help students transform learning into opportunity. Our ePortfolio network helps millions of students and alumni from over 2,000 colleges and universities manage their skills and launch their careers. Portfolium’s cloud-based platform empowers students with lifelong opportunities to capture, curate, and convert skills into job offers, while giving learning institutions and employers the tools they need to assess competencies and recruit talent.
About Credly: Credly is a leading digital credential service provider, helping the world recognize lifelong achievement with the most popular platforms for verifying, sharing and managing digital credentials and badges. The enterprise-class system allows organizations to officially verify skills and competencies; distribute portable and secure digital credentials and open badges; and gain actionable data and insights. Thousands of education institutions, industry associations, employers and workforce development programs use Credly to make achievements visible. For more information about Credly, visit https://credly.com.