Professional Development
Academics / Global Campus / Professional Development
Calvin offers professional development for working adults to enhance knowledge and skills in specific subject areas such as health care, human resources, education, technology, and business.
Professional Development Opportunities by Sector
- Health care
- Business
- Education
- Diversity, equity & inclusion
- Implicit bias in hiring (coming soon)
- Cultural intelligence (coming soon)
Microcredentials
In today's fast-paced environment, many professional development opportunities take the form of microcredentials - short, innovative, skills-based learning experiences designed for learners to upskill or cross-skill and add value to their career. Calvin is currently pursuing non-credit-based microcredentials that may contribute to a degree-bearing program when combined through a pre-determined pathway that demonstrates evidence of undergraduate or graduate-level learning.
Examples of micro-credentials include:
- Single courses for continuing or concurrent education
- Professional certificates
- Bootcamps
- Workshops
Calvin's online professional development offering can be found at learn.calvin.edu.
Digital badging
After completion of a microcredential, learners earn a digital badge certified by Credly. The badges are embedded with meta-data that external constituents can use to verify the learning outcomes, skills and competencies acquired, and criteria for earning the badge. Earners of digital badges can share or display their badges on various online platforms such as LinkedIn, social media sites, email signatures, and e-portfolios.
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What are the benefits of a badge?
Badges provide concrete evidence of skills that you have learned to external constituents. Unlike a paper transcript, a badge gives an inside look into what you learned to earn the credential. Credly’s Acclaim Platform also offers labor market insights, based on your skills. You can search for jobs and career opportunities by title, location, employer, and salary range.
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What is Credly?
Credly is a company that creates, issues, and manages digital credentials. Thousands of organizations use Credly to recognize achievement.
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How will I know if I've earned a badge?
If you completed a badged experience, you will receive an email from the Acclaim Platform (admin@credly.com) with instructions for claiming your badge and setting up your account. You can set up your account to automatically accept badges from Calvin in the future.
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What if I don't want my badge to be public?
You can configure your privacy settings in the Acclaim Platform. You’re in control of the information and you can keep your educational achievements private or choose to share them.
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Is there a fee to use Credly's Acclaim program?
No. Calvin University provides the service at no cost to you.
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What's to keep someone from copying my badge and using it?
While the badge appears as a digital image, the meta-data behind that image is uniquely linked to Credly’s Acclaim Platform and to you specifically. The link to verified data makes a digital badge more secure than a paper certificate.
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Where and how can I share my badge?
You can share your badge directly from Credly’s Acclaim Platform to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and ZipRecruiter; over email; embedded in a website or in your email signature.