Students at Indiana's Yorktown High School can show they're employable by earning "soft skills" badges, reports Patrick O'Donnell on The 74. The badges are "the core of a pilot graduation track for students who want to work right out of high school, one of several new, innovative graduation pathways in the state.
There are six Job Ready Indy badges: Mindsets, Self-Management, Learning Strategies, Social Skills, Workplace Skills and Launch a Career. EmployIndy created the badges and a curriculum based on the state's “employability skills benchmarks.”
Students in the Indianapolis area have been earning badges through schools and community programs since 2018, but there's no data on hiring.
Employers need assurance that job applicants really have mastered the skills on the badges, says MDRC, a national non-profit. They "value credentials from reputable, familiar organizations" and consider credentials tied to work experience to be more reliable.
Soft-skill credentials are increasing in "visibility and importance," MDRC reported.
Some high schools no longer let teachers reward students with higher grades if they show up for class and complete assignments on time. I think employers will be very wary of hiring students who haven't learned the importance of showing up, being on time and doing the work.
I'm still waiting for Joanne to post about DeSantis wanting to end AP classes in public schools in Florida. One would think that a blogger who cared about academic education would point out what a dumb idea it is.
How about a badge showing you can write a short essay in standard English, have a basic understanding of US constitution and its history, and can perform the four arithmetic operations without a calculator first?
Than, maybe, I will look at those rather meaningless social badges.
How many minutes will it take before the badges are given to everyone to "show the schools are working!" and they lose all value, just like a diploma?