Fresno City College Business Management Class First to Provide Digital Badging

Fresno City College Business Management faculty are taking the lead in California by using online digital badges for students making the college one of the first area community colleges to use the digital awards in their online human relations class. 

Digital badging validates core industry-specific employability and technical skills commonly taught in career and technology education. The first series of academic badges focus on employability and soft skills in nine areas including leadership, teamwork, conflict management, decision making, communication, ethics and others. 

Students display their badges on common professional networking sites such as Linkedin and Job Speaker. Current and potential employers can view the earned badge and the criteria required to earn the badge. Each badge is validated by the course instructor. Fresno City College provides badges through a collaboration with Concentric Sky Badge credentialing platform. 

Instructor Lydia Anderson was first to use the badges in the online cohort designed for retail managers. Students from throughout the state were enrolled including Michael Ferguson, Senior Manager of Labor Process Improvement with the Raley's Corporation. He has already seen the advantages the badges can make in his professional life. "I like the digital badges as a form of validation on mastering topics within the course that I can immediately share with others. Adding professional badges to the classroom experience increases my professional opportunities," he said. 

The advantages to employers is also noteworthy. "Fresno City College is delighted to provide employers this electronic tool that assists them in selecting the right candidate for employment and job advancement. We're especially excited because, as we scale digital badging throughout our Career and Technology Education classes, this tool will assist our students in receiving internships," stated Don Lopez, Vice President of Instruction. 

Focusing on soft skills, the Human Relations class will be offered again in the Spring 2019 semester. Learn more about registering for classes at Fresno City College.

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