Digital badges showcase young people’s skills

Digital badging – a digital record of a learner’s skills or accomplishments – is transforming how employability skills, experiences and qualifications are recognised and recorded.

At Region of Learning, we have used digital badging to implement a connected approach to tackling the skills gaps and employability challenges for young people in Cambridgeshire.

The place-based initiative was launched in 2021, in response to the Cities of Learning movement led by the Royal Society of Art (RSA), with the aim to validate, connect and measure all learning across the region with digital badges. This mission supports a regenerative economy and improves social mobility.

Cambridge city is a place of marked inequality where demand for skills development has never been more critical. Despite its world-leading universities and innovation and research parks, in 2019, a report by the children’s commissioner for England found that Cambridge was the fourth worst performing area in the country for young people on free school meals, with half of all eligible 19-year-olds not having a Level 2 qualification.