In less than one year of badging with Acclaim, Harper College’s Continuing Education department issued nearly 1,000 badges from a catalog of over 50 different badge types. Their badges recognize skills and learning outcomes that create professional opportunities for Harper College students in a way that makes it easy for employers to instantly recognize and value their capabilities.

​Read this case study to learn about Harper College's need for badging and its approach to selecting a badge platform, defining and marketing badges.

​Ready to learn how Acclaim badges could create connections between
​career opportunities and your academic programs?

BLOOMINGTON, MN, May 18, 2017 –  Acclaim announced today that it has begun issuing open badges for Scaled Agile, Inc, the world’s leading framework for enterprise agility practiced by over 70 percent of US Fortune 100 companies.
 
The Scaled Agile Professional Certification Program will utilize Acclaim to issue badges incrementally for select SAFe certification levels beginning this month. All remaining badges will be issued by July 2017.
 
“Scaled Agile is a terrific fit for Acclaim,” said Jarin Schmidt, director of Acclaim services.  “Employers increasingly value the skills and knowledge validated by these credentials. In partnering with Scaled Agile, we’re ensuring professionals get the recognition they deserve while giving employers improved transparency and verification offered through open badges.”
 
Scaled Agile is investing in badges to provide easier access to job opportunities for its SAFe-certified professionals, and to strengthen the way in which the organization manages its brand presence online.
 
“Digital badges are quickly becoming the new standard for displaying achievements online,”said Chris James, president and chief operating officer, Scaled Agile. “The Acclaim digital badging platform - used by companies like IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft - provides both employers and peers with evidence of what SAFe-certified professionals have done to earn a credential and the skills associated with it. People work hard to gain SAFe certification and we want to help them capitalize on the career opportunities facilitated by Acclaim’s social sharing and labor market insights capabilities.”
 
About Acclaim
Acclaim is an award-winning digital professional recognition platform backed by Pearson, the world’s learning company. Using digital badging technology, we help individuals move forward in their careers through managing, sharing and verifying professional achievements that directly connect to career opportunities across the world. For more, visit www.youracclaim.com
 
About Scaled Agile, Inc. (SAI)
Based in Boulder, Colorado, Scaled Agile’s mission is to help system- and software-dependent enterprises achieve better outcomes, increase employee engagement, and improve business economics through adoption of Lean-Agile principles and practices based on the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®). SAI supports over 120,000 practitioners of the Framework through training, certification, consulting services, and a global partner network that reaches over 35 countries and 350 cities. As a contributing member of the Pledge 1% corporate philanthropy movement, SAI also seeks to inspire, facilitate, and encourage other companies to make a positive impact in their community. Learn about Scaled Agile, and the Scaled Agile Framework, at scaledagile.com and scaledagileframework.com.

Acclaim was designed to allow you to easily and efficiently manage and share your professional achievements. Watch this video to learn how to create your Acclaim account, accept and share your badge. 

Several of our team members are headed to beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah, to attend the ASU GSV Summit. This annual summit brings together some of the brightest minds and innovations in education technology, and we're thrilled to be part of the program.  

We're really honored to have been selected a finalist for an IMS Global Learning Impact Award. Our entry highlights the work we've done with IBM to build the next generation workforce.

Voting for this award is open to the public, and we'd sure appreciate your support. Here's how you can help:

• Click this link to review all the education-advancing projects up for the awards, across a variety of categories
• Under the second category, Blended Learning Optimization Product, locate our entry. It's called IBM's Open Badging Program
• Go ahead and give us a 5 rating
• Follow the instructions for submitting your vote at the bottom of the page 

Be sure to check out the papers and videos submitted by each of the finalists. You'll learn more about some of the most innovative projects that are going on to make education more accessible and impactful across the world.  

If you're an organization that would like to learn more about IBM's open badge program, get in touch. We'd be happy to share more about IBM's approach to badging and the results they're driving across their company. 

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal honored its 2017 Titans of Technology at an award luncheon today, held at the Radisson Blu hotel in Minneapolis. These awards recognize individuals who are transforming Minnesota's tech industry and positively impacting the local economy. The Acclaim team was there to celebrate our general manager, Clarke Porter, who was named a 2017 Technology Advocate. As a Technology Advocate, Clarke was recognized for his outstanding leadership in assisting, advancing and accelerating the performance of tech communities and the community. 

Clarke has spent the past 40+ years of his career identifying opportunities for technology to revolutionize "business as usual." His first major contribution began in 1976 at Control Data, where he developed software to deliver the very first computer-based exam for Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (NASD) at the time. So if you've taken a computer-based test at any point in your life, you've got Clarke to thank for that. 

Clarke followed up by developing the concept of IT certification with Novell, co-founding Virtual University Enterprise (now Pearson VUE), and leading the development of a cloud-based credential solution. In 2010, Clarke became the vice president and general manager of credential management at Pearson VUE, which led him to open badges. In 2013, he took over the strategic development and general oversight of Acclaim. 

Under his leadership, we've issued millions of badges backed by top organizations such as IBM, Microsoft and Facebook. These badges are verified by employers and have resulted in job offers, promotions and professional recognition.  We're pretty proud of the work we do and of the guy who keeps us on track. 

Clarke's one of those really cool people who gets energy from the teammates and ideas around him. He's always moving, tapping a foot, the wheels visibly turning in his head as he challenges all of us at Acclaim to develop innovative badging solutions that will add new value to professionals looking to advance their careers.  ​

The Information Technology Certification Council (ITCC) recently presented its Innovation Award,and we're so pleased to have been the co-recipient for 2017 alongside our partners at IBM.  This is the third year the ITCC has handed out its Innovation Award to a person or organization that has helped advance IT certification. 

"Badging technology holds huge potential for talent development but, as with all early stage technologies, there is a lot of uncertainty," said Clyde Seepersad, general manager of training and certification at The Linux Foundation and board member of the ITCC. "The outstanding feature of the IBM Open Badging submission was the structured, pragmatic way they laid out the continuum of talent development options and converted them into a consistent, easy to understand hierarchy of badges."

Our team member, Pete Janzow, was on hand to collect the award. "The innovative work that IBM is doing in the open badging space is really exciting,"Janzow said. "IBM is a great partner, and we look forward to building on the early success of their program to create even more pathways and professional opportunities across the global IT workforce."

Representing IBM at the awards ceremony was David Leaser, senior program manager for strategic initiatives."We are honored to be recognized by the ITCC for the IBM Open Badge Program," Leaser said. "The program is driving measurable results which are impacting IBM, our clients and the individuals who invest in the training and skills building programs we provide." ​​​

It was announced today that, in conjunction with an extension of its multi-year, computer-based testing agreement with Pearson VUE, AGA will issue digital badges for holders of its CGFM certification through Acclaim. 

Bob Whelan, president of Pearson Assessments, said: “The extension of our agreement with AGA, along with the addition of Acclaim digital badges, gives us further opportunities to improve the assessment and credential-sharing experience for government financial management professionals across the U.S.” 

About AGA
AGA is the member organization for government financial management professionals. We lead and encourage change that benefits our field and all citizens. Our training events, professional certification, publications and ongoing education help members build their skills and advance their careers. Learn more at www.agacgfm.org.
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Our members work in government financial management across sectors and worldwide, working to increase government financial performance and accountability. They educate themselves via training events to ensure they are always up to date on the most relevant news and information, and boost their credentials via certification.

It was announced today that we've entered into a strategic partnership with Alpine Testing Solutions Inc. to integrate with its CertMetrics™ Credential Management Technology.

​CertMetrics manages the rules and requirements to produce credible, accurate information around credential management and with this integration, Acclaim will be able to seamlessly employ that information to create and issue digital badges for our shared clients.  Together, we will make it easier than ever for joint clients to provide the benefits of badging to their candidates. 

You know we make a point of working with trusted organizations, those that actively contribute to the on-going development and recognition of resume-worthy skills. We're really pleased to add Alpine to our list of strategic partners and are eager to jointly push the momentum of badging technology forward. 

It was announced this week that Acclaim will begin issuing badges for Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection (PHAP). The association's mission is to empower capable and informed professionals to transform humanitarian action. To that end, PHAP offers digital badges for several certifications and in recognition of association membership. 

Learn more about PHAP's badging program on Acclaim, or visit the association's website for more details on the roll-out of PHAP's badge program.