Realizing Employment Goals for Youth through Digital Badges: Lessons and Opportunities from Workforce Development

Digital badges (credentials that can be shared online to document attainment of skills and completion of training or education courses) may be a resource to help both employers who report difficulty identifying qualified entry-level candidates and low-income youth or youth of color who face challenges in the labor market, including discrimination, disconnection from school and work, and difficult-to-navigate credentialing options. Digital badges offer a potential solution for employers and job-seeking youth by better communicating the skills that youth have attained so that employers can more easily see a match with qualities they value. This report from the Urban Institute presents lessons for digital badging from the perspective of workforce development research and identifies opportunities for the use of these badges to support youth workforce outcomes.