​NEW YORK, NY, April 12, 2018 –  Pearson and Credly announced today that Credly will acquire Pearson’s Acclaim badging business in response to global demand for digital credentialing and talent recognition. Pearson will take a minority equity stake in Credly, and Mark Chernis SVP/Strategic Partnerships & Investments at Pearson will join Credly’s board of directors. The partnership between Acclaim and Credly brings two leading organizations together, and provides the most comprehensive solution suite for skill recognition, credential verification, and talent management.
 
The combined organization will serve a global customer base, including millions of individuals; and enterprise leaders, education institutions, certification providers, and associations like IBM, Microsoft, the American Council on Education, the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA), and Southern New Hampshire University.
 
“In the evolving world of work and learning, it has never been more important to have verifiable evidence of skills, capabilities, and achievements. The combination of these two organizations spans every global sector, from trade professions to healthcare to finance and tech, allowing organizations to better identify, cultivate, and recognize skills,” said Credly CEO and founder Jonathan Finkelstein. “The Acclaim team and technologies make us stronger--uniting in Credly’s mission to empower organizations to provide, and individuals to pursue, meaningful education and professional opportunities.”
 
“Our decision to join forces with Credly reflects our belief that the growth opportunities in this marketplace are best addressed by an organization that combines the expertise of the two market leaders.  We believe this gives our Acclaim investments the best opportunity for continued success and to provide value to all participants.” said Bob Whelan, President of Pearson Assessment. ​
 
“Digital credentials are quickly becoming an important signal of employability for the modern workforce. That's creating a need for a trusted platform which makes it easy to share and broadcast skills -- and for employers to find the talent they need,” said David Leaser, Senior Program Executive, Innovation and Growth Initiatives at IBM.
 
"Over the past four years, the Acclaim team has been dedicated to helping individuals tell their professional story online with verification and context. I am confident that by combining with Credly, our talented, passionate, creative teams will generate even more opportunities to positively impact the global workforce,” said Jarin Schmidt, now Chief Experience Officer at Credly.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is well known in the IT industry for helping its customers quickly turn ideas into value by providing the technology and solutions  necessary to succeed. Those solutions are propelled forward by the HPE certified professionals who put in the time and effort to master a range of HPE-based skills. And now those professionals will be recognized with secure, verifiable digital badges issued  through Acclaim. 

HPE's digital badges offer their certified professionals the ability to quickly share achievements with clients, employers, and their entire professional network. Acclaim provides those individuals with access to labor market insights that help them utilize their HPE certifications to the fullest extent, so they can feel really good about the investment made in becoming certified.  And badges make it easy for employers to understand at a glance what a certified professional knows and can do with HPE technology and solutions. 

We're so happy to welcome HPE to Acclaim. Visit their profile page to learn more about all the badges this industry-leading organization is currently offering. 

It was announced today by our partners at SAP that we've begun to issue badges  for the SAP Global Certification program. These badges will recognize SAP software learners and users and empower them to  promote their proficiency in various subject areas specific to SAP software.

“We are thrilled to offer certification holders a digital way to showcase their achievements via social media, and to demonstrate to their employers a commitment to continuous learning,” said Bernd Welz, executive vice president and chief knowledge officer, Products and Innovation, SAP. “The badges will also help individuals to showcase the certifications they hold, and employers to recruit and hire the right talent faster and at a lower cost as education and skill claims can be verified more quickly and more securely.”

In issuing badges through Acclaim, SAP is not only connecting their own certification holders to even more opportunities for professional engagement and advancement but is supporting the transition of the testing industry at large from paper certificates to standardized, digital recognition. Everyone here at Acclaim is proud to contribute to these efforts. 

You can read the full release issued by SAP, and follow them on Twitter @sapnews for the latest updates.  

For the third time this year, the IBM open badge program powered by Acclaim has been recognized with an industry award. We put together a submission for Training Magazine's 2017 eLearning Design Challenge and earned the silver award in our category.  According to Lorri Freifeld, editor-in-chief for Training Magazine, the program was selected because of its ability to "dramatically increase online learning attendance and engagement." Our IBM partners David Leaser and Jim Daniels were on hand at the magazine's Online Learning Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, to accept the award. 

View our submission video below and download our IBM case study to learn more about the measurable gains in learning attendance and engagement driven by the IBM badging program. ​

Traditional continuing education and certification efforts have typically culminated with a printed certificate of completion, but learners at Southeast Missouri State University can now showcase their successes with a digital badge.

Thanks to a partnership with Acclaim, an award-winning digital professional recognition platform backed by Pearson, Southeast Missouri State University is launching an initiative to make educational accomplishments clearly understandable and quickly verifiable via digital badges offered by the Economic and Business Engagement Center’s Continuing Education program.

The effort is beginning with badges for Nano Bio-Engineering under the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics.

“We commend Southeast Missouri State University for being an early adopter of digital recognition for its students,” said Jarin Schmidt, director of Acclaim services. “With its badge program launch, the University shows its commitment to both students and employers through increased transparency of professional competencies.”

Once earned, digital badges can be shared on social networking sites, email signatures, digital resumes and internal corporate profiles or websites. The metadata underlying the digital credential provides much more robust, secure and credible evidence of what has been achieved and when it was achieved.

“Southeast is committed to providing workforce development solutions to the region’s employers,” said Dr. Carlos Vargas, president of Southeast Missouri State University. “This digital credentialing program is one innovative way that we can provide a value-added opportunity not only to those receiving a digital credential through one of our various programs, but also to employers who need to quickly verify the competencies of current and potential employees.”

Acclaim allows certifying agencies, employers, supervisors, managers and educators to immediately see the competencies each badge earner has achieved.

“We are excited to offer an alternative to traditional credentialing,” said Crystal Jones director of Southeast’s Economic and Business Engagement Center. “Acclaim has a strong reputation of partnering with other educational institutions and companies to document the competencies and skills of learners. Implementing a digital badge program is just one way that Southeast can help support people in their career endeavors.”

​For more information about obtaining a digital credential or professional development courses, please contact Christy Mershon, assistant director of Continuing Education at (573) 986-6879.

Originally posted August 28, 2017 by Southeast Missouri State University 

This summer, Pearson began issuing digital badges through Acclaim to recognize those individuals who participate in the company’s apprenticeship program.The Pearson U Employee Apprenticeship program provides a whole host of benefits to Pearson employees based in the U.K.  Employees can:

• Earn professional and industry-recognized qualifications that could expand career paths across the company
• Gain insights into their job role and identify ways to improve relevant skills
• Take credit for the soft skills that are essential to so many jobs across Pearson
• Build stronger connections with line managers, mentors and others in Pearson that can contribute to career-long relationships

Badges are issued for milestones that signify progression through the program. Because apprenticeships span upwards of a year’s time, an individual can earn several milestone badges. These milestones are important steps toward completing an apprenticeship, and the badges help employees recognize their progress and share the skills learned along the way. Once the apprenticeship is complete, a badge is issued to provide full details of the earner’s achievement. The badge can be an important signifier to managers that an individual has reached a new career level.

"When I received my Acclaim digital badges for the work I was doing to support apprenticeships and my own studies, I felt a great sense of accomplishment," said Chris Hughes, an account specialist within Pearson. " It proved that I was not only doing a good job but gave me the opportunity to create a LinkedIn profile and start to promote myself and my skillset to any future employers."

“We believe that digital badges will provide new avenues of opportunity for Pearson U apprentices thanks to easy sharing and verification by managers and our HR team,” said Anne Ashworth, head of Pearson employee apprenticeships. “Digital recognition of achievements and skills learned is the right way for our employees to capitalize on their experience with the Pearson U Employee Apprenticeship program.”

The financial industry is highly regulated, and the College for Financial Planning (CFFP) knows that financial advisors must be very careful of how they represent their skills and certifications to the public. That's why CFFP sought a digital badge platform that would elevate the status of their designations and provide a secure and verified experience for the financial advisors, compliance departments, and potential clients. Read more about CFFP's approach to launching a digital badge program with Acclaim. 

IBM and Acclaim are working together to build and progress the next generation workforce. What exactly does that mean? Learn more about IBM's approach to open badging through Acclaim to train and recognize IBM learners with just-in-time skills that employers need, now. 

Those smiling faces are members of the Acclaim team and one of our wonderful partners from IBM, moments after being awarded a platinum Learning Impact Award for our work on building and recognizing the next generation workforce through IBM's open badge program. 

"This award is a major endorsement that IBM's digital credentials strategy is correct,"said David Leaser, senior program executive, innovation and growth initiatives for IBM. "Together with Acclaim, IBM is transforming the IT credential space and driving real value for our clients and employees. We're developing solutions which have the potential to set new, better standards for the entire IT industry." 

"The application process for the Learning Impact Awards is rigorous, and across the various entry requirements IBM very willingly shared its program performance data as a way to highlight best practices that can be utilized across the digital credentialing industry,"said Pete Janzow, senior director, Acclaim. "That willingness to share is a sign of the IBM commitment to leadership in this emerging digital credentials landscape, and Acclaim is pleased to be part of their strategy."